For years, I've drawn cartoons with pen and ink. If you grabbed me in Ms. Rizzo's 3rd grade class, you would've seen a prolific kid, drawing incessantly. During 6th grade, my friend Jon and I filled up whole three-ring binders with our comic series during study hall. I tried drawing editorial cartoons for my middle school newspaper, for my high school newspaper (even won a state award doing so), and for the Baylor Lariat, though with little frequency. It's certainly a contributing factor to my becoming a journalism major, and to my eventual career as a graphic designer. But beyond my early twenties most of my cartooning was relegated to sketchbook doodles.

So. Over the past few weeks I've been really inspired by the web comic Easel Ain't Easy. Breena Wiederhoeft can coax a lotta expression out of those characters, and what's more, the strip is somewhat autobiographical, which I think is really cool. All that's to say, I've been inspired. I think I'm gonna start a comic, just because I want to see what it's like to publish one. I'm using india ink and a 'No. 1 round' brush and allowing myself a 3 x 3 inch square in a tiny little moleskine journal. No pencil lines, no color, just ink-on-paper.

Despite the comic panel's name, I don't see this being a daily discipline. I know my own propensity to burn out. But I'll have fun with it for as long as it's fun for you and me.

cheers —

paul