October 29th, 2009 I posted my first comic for Metal Jaw Comics with my strip “Z & G”. I hadn’t looked at many webcomics at that point, my reading list consisted of Looking for Group, Penny Arcade, and Ctrl-Alt-Del. It wasn’t until I started my own webcomic and joined the social network Twitter, that I found there was a plethora of awesome webcomics out there done by “average joes” just like me. I had drawn my own comics since I could remember, from reading Peanuts, Garfield, Mother Goose and Grim, Rose is Rose, Calvin & Hobbes, and The Far Side, I wanted to do something that made people laugh and feel good after looking at or reading something I did. In high school, I got my first chance with a comic with a character name The Schniz, which I had started doing in my algebra class for my classmates when I should have been paying attention to the class. My senior year, I got the privilege to do my comic for the whole year ending with a comic that took up a page and a half of my last newspaper there. I loved it. During my school life I had created comic book scripts with my two brothers and best friend. We created a whole universe where these characters thrived. Then after high school, I joined the Navy and my focus went on something else. I didn’t stop drawing, though I never had any formal training in art, I had taken an art class in high school and didn’t like. BIG MISTAKE. So I have mostly been self taught, looking through numerous art books I had acquired since I could remember.
Fast Forward from 1997 to 2008. By now I had been in the Navy for 11 years and was now married with five children and in the back of my head was still wanting to do comics. My awesome wife had nothing but encouragement for me to do something that I had wanted to do for so long. So I said “You’re right.” (Which I often do when my wife says something to me.) I decided not to use the characters I had created so long ago, but to create new ones. After trying to come with something I had often loved and poked fun at things about the supernatural, and from there I thought it would be funny seeing a Ghost and Zombie interact with each other. A year later I presented my comic.
Since 2008, my wife and I have had another child and one due in December and I am still in the Navy. But another thing that happened after posting my first comic has been seeing first hand the wonderful unity amongst the webcomic community and wanting to see each other thrive as they are. My reading list blew up after discovering the wonderful world of webcomics. Almost from the very start, I have gained friends who have done nothing but give encouragement and tips on making my comic. The first one being Shane McCarthy of The Space Between, he was there to encourage me to keep it going and also to let me know there are stable people who like Pokemon. Another is Marc Lapierre of Spooky Doofus who is a gifted artist and has given me tips and encouragement on my artwork. John Wigger of Zombie Roomie has given me the tools to make my comic look more professional with not only his own knowledge but the knowledge of where to go for great tutorials. I’d have to say that these three have been instrumental in helping get to my year mark. I just wanted to say thanks.
To finish up my long rambling, looking through my archive I can say that there has been a great improvement in every facet of my comic, and I want nothing more than to continue working on getting better. I just want to thank everybody who has supported me by your comments, support and encouragement. Here’s looking at year two with high hopes.
