In 2017, I decided to give comics another shot. I started looking online to see what kinds of webcomics were out there today. That’s when I discovered Webtoons and Tapas, two platforms dedicated to people sharing their own webcomics.
I’ve always loved comic strips and old dime-store comics. Growing up, I wanted to create something like Garfield—simple stories about everyday life and the funny things that happen.
My biggest challenge was always writing. I found out about the comic series American Elf by James Kochalka, an indie comic artist who created daily diary comics. Each day, he drew a comic strip about his life.
This approach seemed perfect for me! Every day, I’d come home and tell my wife about some silly, funny, or weird thing that happened at work. I thought, “Why not turn these stories into comics?” I could use myself as the main character and just write and draw one strip a day. It seemed like a solid plan!
I planned to use my sketchbook as a diary, creating one four-panel strip per day. This would allow me to focus on storytelling and develop a consistent style. I also wanted to keep the graphics simple and easy to understand so I could continue to draw them easily every day.
I decided to start on May 1st, 2017. There is a reason I remember the date clearly.
I came up with the idea at work and was excited to tell my wife about it. We planned to meet for lunch, but when I saw her in the parking lot, she told me the doctor had said she had breast cancer. Over lunch, we talked about what the doctor said would happen next and tried to process the news. Afterward, I had to go back to work.
I was in shock and didn’t know what to do. To cope, I did what I had planned—I drew. But everything had changed. I had to just sit at work at my stupid desk.
.png "Then This Happened Webcomic May 1, 2017") |
| My first webcomic from May 1, 2017 |
I started drawing about my daily life, but now it was more raw, more truthful. I learned the value of this honesty as time went on. Even amid the seriousness, humor found a way in. It was a more gentle, relatable kind of humor, one that came from being genuine in my comics.
After a year of making these diary comics, we got the best news—my wife was free and clear of breast cancer! I kept creating my comics. I never made the gag strips I initially thought I would, but I still want to. Now, I feel more confident about the kind of stories I want to tell.
Then This Happened... Webcomic on Amazon
The collected version of my webcomics from 2017 is available to read as an ebook on Amazon.
Then This Happened... A diary about breast cancer.