Graphic novel tells story of a young man who grew up in cruel poverty
By Trace Christenson
Battle Creek Enquirer
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (AP) — Jerry Steiner was in trouble because he didn’t listen to his grandmother.
“She used to say, “It is easier to do right than to do wrong,” the 63-year-old Battle Creek author told the Battle Creek Enquirer. “I should have listened.”
It’s that message he tries to live and convey in his writings.
Steiner served 27 years in prison for an armed robbery. He has been free 5 1/2 years and just recently published his first book, a novel called “Street Poisoning.”
The book is released by Blue Sail Press, a division of True Wind Media in Battle Creek.
Steiner said he grew up on the streets and his 1981 armed robbery conviction came at a time when “I was out of control. I got caught up with the wrong people.”
He later wrote a letter published in the Battle Creek Enquirer apologizing to the community and said he realized soon after his sentence that he had to make the best of his prison time.
“I said this could be dead time or it could be positive time,” he said.
He accepted his sentence and said he learned from it.
“I believe that a good dose of punishment when you have it coming is the best cure in the world for the conscious man,” Steiner said. “It is for the man who understands that he did wrong, but not for the man who is in denial.”
He took classes, including writing, and began working on his book, based on experiences he had and saw in Battle Creek.
“Everything I write, I write around Battle Creek,” he said. “Everything I experienced, I experienced in Battle Creek. The book has been centered around my hometown because this has been the place of my biggest triumphs and my biggest disgrace.”
Steiner said the book was written and illustrated while he was in prison. Another prisoner, Christian Armstead, drew many of the illustrations in black and white and Steiner then colored them and said the book, a graphic novel heavy with illustrations, should appeal to people today.
“A lot of people are not going to pick up a book, but will pick up a graphic novel because they are visual people,” he said.
The story is about a young man who grew up in poverty and then led a drug gang in Battle Creek. It includes homicides, drug use and prostitution.
Steiner said his writing is about life in the neighborhood.
“It’s about everything I saw on the street from the vendor selling hot dogs to the dope dealer selling nickel bags to the girls selling tricks,” he said. “I don’t tell, I show. I try to do both of them. I see it through my eyes and put the people right in the story. I have to reach them at their core level.”
He said his message for the community is to understand what is happening and begin to solve the problem.
“I use Battle Creek because it is all here,” he said. “It happens right here in Battle Creek while we speak. The message is let’s examine and deal with it and stop pushing it under the rug. It is real. People kill each other for a pack of cigarettes.”
Steiner said he watched the growth of crack cocaine and how problems from the drug exploded.
“I have seen poverty and misery and destruction with drugs, but never as bad as when crack cocaine came on the scene,” he said. “Crack cocaine brought that out more than any drug I have ever seen. The highest people were brought low and the lowest were brought high.”
Steiner is working with homeless veterans and at-risk teens and studying for a social work degree at Kellogg Community College.
But he has many other writing ideas and calls that therapy for him.
“We are alone with our thoughts most of the time and for those of us who do it and love it, it is a place where you can find tranquility,” he said.
He carries a voice recorder or notebook with him so anytime he has an idea, he can save it.
“Even when I am driving I can pull over because, at my age, I might forget,” he said.
