In his suddenly popular comic book, Orlando Harding’s African-American protagonist, Pariah is kicked out of heaven and lands bare-ass naked in Oakland, Calif. Harding has just published the fourth issue in the series, a tale of goodand evil waged by demons and angels amid Bay Area characters of every stripe, and with fallen-angel Pariah stuck right in the middle .

Together with an artist and a colorist, Harding creates and publishes the comics on his social worker’s salary from his home in Arizona. Each issue costs about $7,000 to produce. A lot of the books were gathering dust in Bay Area comics stores until a recent San Francisco Chronicle article on Harding filled the stores overnight and vanished almost every copy of the first three issues.

When Pop and Politics spoke with Harding earlier this month, he was sealing up a package with copies of Pariah and a cover letter that explained why the book would make an excellent movie. The recipient? Stephen Spielberg. He’s gotten this far on his own, why not shoot for the moon?

What are you doing with Pariah exactly? What motivates you?

Pariah’s been kicked out of heaven and sent back to Oakland. Immediately he’s in trouble because he’s naked and people think he’s a deranged pervert. Police are chasing him. That’s what hell wants for Pariah. Life isn’t just black and white. With Pariah, we pick out the gray areas, life’s tough dilemmas. Circumstances, ideals, beliefs, exceptions to a set of beliefs– that’s what hell uses to cloud and seduce him.

That’s a tall order for a comic book.

It is, but these things define life. Right now our country’s at war. Some think it’s a good idea and some don’t. Some thought the war was right in beginning, but now they see it’s costly and American soldiers are dying, so now what do people think? On 60 Minutes, they asked Condoleeza Rice how she felt now about weapons of mass destruction, and she said “Hey, we went in based on the intelligence we had on Iraq at that time.” But what if we had decided not to invade? Life turns on choices, and that’s everything with Pariah.

What happens to Pariah? Where’s it going?

I know where he ends up. Ultimately he will fail. He will turn. But through his failure, he will become victorious. That’s his destiny, like Judas. Somebody had to betray Christ. That was his destiny, his job. This is Pariah’s job: to fail. But through his failure, he will save mankind. We got some pretty deep things going on here.

So the comic is a biblical allegory, a sort of illustrated Pilgrim’s Progress?

No, it’s not a metaphor to the Christ story. I wanted to do something different. How do you come up with a story that’s unique. Marvel and DC Comics have done everything. But an angel expelled to Oakland? Absolutely. The place is what makes it different, life there, it shapes the story. My guy’s not just fighting other superheroes. He’s figuring out what’s good and what’s evil.

Why the focus on heaven and hell?

I’m a religious guy. I’ve always been interested in religion. But I’m not taking a religious stance, you know… If you want to hear Bible stories, heaven itself has done some wicked as well as some wonderful things— angels destroying cities because of people’s sins— heaven has done some wicked things to mankind. There’s that side to it, the jealous god, punishing mankind for transgressing. That’s Pariah. He has sinned. They kick him out… and sent him to Oakland!

Tell us the truth: Are you Pariah?

We’re totally separate. This comic doesn’t reflect my life. He’ll be tortured, abused… In the end, he’ll lose the battle to get to heaven but he’ll win the battle of life. I had a good life in the Bay Area. That influenced the book, no question.

Why Oakland, exactly?

I thought, where can I put him? Most heroes live in fake cities or in New York. How come the Bay Area doesn’t have a hero? Why not Oakland? Oakland gets a bad rap, with crime and everything. I thought Oakland could use a cool superhero, and I knew nobody else would do it.

Who is the audience for Pariah?

My operation is small. Most people don’t have any idea what it takes to publish a comic. My market is anybody who’s interested. We have more than 1500 fans… I’m not totally sure how to measure it. Our site gets about 10,000 hits a month. But I don’t know who our fans are. I do know that after the Chronicle article, every copy of Pariah in California sold out. I got 120 emails from folks saying they loved the book, saying that it’s about damn time.

Why did you choose to make your hero a black guy?

Well first off, I thought it would be difficult to have a white superhero in Oakland [laughs]. There’s lots of minorities in Oakland. Typically, the harsher stuff about Oakland, the bad news, typically has to do with African Americans— selling dope, all this stuff. I wanted to give readers in Oakland some hope, our black children, Latinos and whites. Pariah is a good guy— he’s black and he’s a good guy! I couldn’t pull off a white superhero in Oakland. He had to fit the demographic.

I grew up in San Francisco. The Bay Area made me who I am now. I have such love. I can’t afford to live there right now, but the culture, the weather, the people… it’s a good place. I wanted to use all aspects of the Bay, to put Mexicans, Latin Americans, gay people also into the book. Why not? That’s the real balance of life. Why not reflect that? The comic’s geared for youth and adults— but I’m keeping it pretty clean. There’s violence but no sex or blatant nudity. I’m trying to get the story told, trying to make it like everyday reality. I’m not taking any political or religious stance, just trying to tell a cool story. Do people get high? Yes. Is there racism? Yes. That will all be in there, as well as the choices we make about those things. These things define us. Let’s keep it real.

Did you set out to make a role model for African-American youth with this comic?

For all youth. Not just black youth. Typically heroes are white. All youth need to see that heroes can be of any race. Not just white or black. Any race. Why can’t we have an Asian hero? Hispanic hero?

You’re about to mail off your comics to Stephen Spielberg. That’s ambitious, man.

If I’m gonna get turned down, I may as well get turned down by the best. I’m sending letters to Spielberg and others. I went to LA two weeks ago and got a star map and now I’m going to see if he’s willing to help out a comic book hero. One thing he hasn’t done is a comic book movie. I know people out there want to see stuff like this. I got this far all by myself and I’m gonna keep going. A lot of people have said to me “You ain’t gonna get that far.” I’m just trying to stay persistent, keep my hustle on.

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Gary Moskowitz, former assistant editor and podcast host for Pop and Politics, is now a frequent contributor. He plays trumpet for the hip-hop/reggae band Bay Root.