What I learned drawing comic strips.

Illustration courtesy of me.

I wrote a comic strip for the University of Arizona Daily Wildcat for a few years. After that I did a web comic for 8 years. Here’s some things I learned making over 2,000 comic strips:

It’s amazing what you can get done if you schedule time for it.

Writing a comic flexed muscles I love - writing, drawing and humor.

Writing is rewriting. It takes more work to be concise than it does to be verbose.

Constraints inspire creativity. How can you make something good in a small space on a tight timeline?

It made my outlook on life better. Since I frequently needed a funny idea, I spent a lot of time recognizing amusing things around me.

Be weird. If that turns people away - great! Those aren’t the peeps you want to engage with anyway.

Make time for the things you enjoy. It energizes you and it makes it easier when you have to jump back to work that isn’t as exciting.

Also see this beautiful piece by Bud Smith about his Truck Desk.

Most artists I know are like this. Finding time to make art while working another job, or taking care of loved ones. They improvise. They get better. They get worse. They get better again. Really it mostly comes down to that first thing: finding time. When I talk to people who want to find more time, I repeat something an old-timer said to me early on: “You’ve gotta make your own conditions.”

And for your viewing pleasure, some random Able and Baker strips.