An afternoon panel called “Sunday Morning Funny: The Lighter Side of Faith-Based Comics,” turned out to be a podcast focused mostly on the claimed failings of inspirational comics from the 91-year-old comic book artist Jack Chick. “The quality is not on par” with contemporary graphic novels, complained one of the speakers.

Last month, a gathering of mainstream Hollywood executives and faith-oriented marketers in Los Angeles noted a new hunger for films and television programs that connect with religious themes.

Paramount Pictures waded into the faith market last year with an action-oriented film, “Noah,” but took some lumps for including Transformer-like rock monsters that seemed Comic-Con friendly. The studio will try again next year with its new version of “Ben-Hur.” Timur Bekmambetov (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) is directing, and Jack Huston (“The Longest Ride”) has the starring role.

“Everywhere I go, people are unhappy with the path we are on,” said Nolan Lebovitz, who attended the Los Angeles event and sees opportunity in the pop culture.

A filmmaker turned rabbi, Mr. Lebovitz once made the sort of films that populate Comic-Con — he wrote and directed “Tortured,” about an F.B.I. agent’s foray into torture, for instance. But he is now touring the country with his new documentary, “Roadmap Genesis,” in which he, like Mr. Russell and Mr. Wheeler, seeks to make the Bible accessible.

By and large, the denizens of Comic-Con have been comfortable with some grand films in which Christian themes were a subliminal presence. At last month’s Los Angeles conference, Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies were offered as a prime example by a speaker, Mark Ordesky, who had a producing credit on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

But Comic-Con attendees have largely looked away from overtly faith-based fare. And they openly disdain what many call the “yellow sign people” — those who annually picket the convention center with signs that promise a bad end to those who consume too much comic fare. (On Thursday, A&E tried to pick up publicity by dispatching counterdemonstrators, who promoted the network’s new series “Damien” with signs warning: “The Beast Rises.”)