The Day I Became an Artist.

It feels like it was yesterday...It WAS yesterday.

An excerpt from my daily diary comic in my super-secret private journal. Yes, I’m giving you a peek at the inner workings of my emotional roller-coaster! This is me (yes, as a Cyclops; more will be revealed) telling Jerry, one of my comic book characters, something that doesn’t need to be explained to him. He gets it. He so totally gets it.

I may have mentioned, in my occasional written and drawn blurts here, that I’m back in school. I’m learning how to make comics, something I’ve wanted to do for, oh, FORTY-FIVE-PLUS years now.

I could say I smell eau de procrastination in the air, but I honestly don’t think I could have made the kind of comics I want to do before now. We live in an amazing time—sure, AI is going to take over a la Colossus: The Forbin Project¹, various governments are becoming a wee bit intolerant, and every day brings news of natural disasters and someone you admire being cancelled due to poor/really dumb choices, but comics? These days, you can make comics in any style, on any subject, you can be anyone, at any age and any skill level, and someone will read, and truly love, your comic. What a time to be 61 years of age, have no marketable skills applicable in today’s workplace, and go back to school to learn how to make comics! (←joy)

For those of you who also harbor a secret desire to make comics that you suspect will strangle you if it continues to go unaddressed (or is that just me), I’m currently in the Year-Long Program of the Sequential Artists Workshop, or SAW². (Subscribe to their newsletter here.) As in, they will saw through any obstacle you have that dares come between you and making comics, including the most challenging obstacle of all: your own self doubt (shudder).

The year-long program focuses on building drawing skills, but a big chunk is also about writing, creating those crazy stories your future fans will loooooveee. And then there are the exercises in thinking, as in, getting with the fact that you’re a comics artist. Possibly even a graphic novelist.

Prepare for an inner revolt.

I did an exercise yesterday on making your artist bio. You describe what you’ve done, your process, your work. I felt more solid about what I was doing! Strong! I posted it, and SAW founder/teacher/guru Tom Hart said, “Great! This is how it’s done. Post this on your website, newsletter, wherever.” I went to bed dreaming of future comics fests where my comic would be sold and loved.

Then I woke up and had a petite panique attaque about what I was doing. What was I doing?? Comics school? Was I crazy? How self-indulgent could I be?! I should quickly withdraw, find a grindstone to apply my nose to, and, you know…put this off for another forty-five-plus years. (While there is longevity in my family, that math is rather fuzzy.)

Dear reader friend, I am about to tell you something I have dared not speak aloud, even though I’m writing it aloud—same thing, in my book: I am a comics artist. I may even be a graphic novelist some day, but for now, I am a comics artist. I’m owning it.

You know what else? You’re an artist. YES YOU ARE YES YOU ARE YES YOU INFINITY INFINITY. You’re an artist—you can be a comics artist, a sketchbook artist, a knitting fiberific artist, a cooking artist, an interior design artist, a sushi artist creating ultra-artistic bento boxes, a ceramics artist, even a maestro of complex contracts or a virtuoso with plumbing. You are an artist.

When can you become an artist? Maybe not forty-five years ago, because the timing and conditions and headspace weren’t right. But you become an artist when you say you are, and a good time to say that is today.

And if you have a petite panique attaque about it, fine; make a comic about it.

I’ll post that kudos-winning artist bio in my next newsletter, because this one is already too long. You have art to make.

1. We’ve talked about this groundbreaking, frighteningly prescient ‘70s movie before, haven’t we? Unfortunately unavailable to stream, but you’ll get my point here:

2. You will find SAW and all their glorious classes and programs here. This is not an affiliate link, it’s a link of love and undying gratitude for SAW teaching me how to make comics and live my dream.