A Walk Down Memory Lane

When I was looking for something for my mom, I went through some of my various plastic totes. Apart from the totes that contain my manga and other books, it seemed like each time I opened one up, it was like looking into a time capsule. I opened one tote up and found many remnants of my freshman year at Northwestern, including tons upon tons of papers that students get when they first arrive in the dorms. In another, I found a bunch of things I hadn’t looked at in years, the folded-up flag that Grandmother Ella gave me after my Grandpa Melvin died, my collection of sports cards, and a whole lot of old Weird Zone comics.

I have been drawing comics, off and on, since I was about 6 or 7 years old. The fact that I couldn’t (and still) draw very well didn’t deter me from creating several strips. The comics I created included:

The Michaelson’s Trap: A comic about a crazy family that was a very exaggerated version of my family. The kids, John and Anna, fought all the time and did some really crazy stuff. The father was the main parent who yelled and screamed at their antics.

Money Talk: A comic about talking money. What’s funny is that the money looked more like tall washing machines than real money.

Weird Zone: The most prolific comic I did. I started it while I was in high school (way back in 1996). It’s basically a Far Side-inspired one panel strip. It seems to waver between the vicious (various gags involving cannons), the cartoony, and the just plain strange.

I also did a lot of minor comics that I didn’t really keep doing for that long. When I looked through my old Weird Zone comics, I found several like that incuding Twisted View, Phobias, Coming Attractions, and What If. Of all the comics, Weird Zone is the only one I seem to go back and draw. I drew some Weird Zone comics as recently as a couple of years ago, on a whim.

Looking back on those comics makes me want to go buy a nice notebook and start drawing them again. Hell, why don’t I just do that?