What’s that up there? A cartoon strip? Yep, that’s right, today’s launch day for a new project of mine, a (not quite) daily cartoon strip called Run of the House. It’s basically about what a quirky group of pets do when their people aren’t around. And if they could talk, of course!
That’s the first strip up there, but from here on out I’ll be posting it at Runofthehouse.net, where I’ll be releasing the comic three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I’ve got over a month of comics built up as a buffer to ensure I stick to my publishing schedule. Click the comic itself and it will take you there.
I teased a little about this last month here on my main site, as well as in a note to my email subscribers, but this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. My first dream, as a kid, was to be a cartoonist, and I grew up loving Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, Boom County, The Far Side, and to this day still love great strips like Get Fuzzy, Stone Soup, and Luann. Up until high school, when I started to get a lot more serious about writing, I was still focused on art and drawing. It wasn’t until the 2016 election came along, and all its assorted craziness (trying not to get too political on y’all), when I decided I needed to focus some of that energy on something more productive, that I got back into drawing again as a pleasant diversion (while still maintaining my primary focus on my writing). That’s when the old dream of doing a comic strip came roaring back. And I thought, why not now?
So in a way, this comic strip has been thirty years in the making . . .
Rather than trying to go the syndication route in an industry that’s really struggling, I decided to take the indie approach to publishing it. That’s where you come in. If you enjoy the comic, consider supporting me via Patreon for as little as $1-$3/month, where in return I offer lots of extras: early access to the strip, commenting and interacting with me and other readers, a backstage blog, “silent extra” bonus strips, etc. I’ll be doing a bit more of a “pledge drive” down the road, when I’ve got at least a modest backlog of comics up, but early backers really are appreciated and will always have a special place in my heart.
There’s a bit more on the runofthehouse.site about the strip, but I’ve already got the first Backstage Blog up on Patreon, including more Q&A about the strip, so if you want a bit more of a behind-the-scenes look into my creative life, that’s where I’ll be posting in more detail. For people who want the hanging backstage with the band feel (behind the easel with the cartoonist?), I hope to make it worth your while to subscribe with a couple bucks a month. I’ll be talking about all kinds of things, from maintaining a balance with the day job and family, marketing and promotion, motivation and discipline, and a whole bunch more. I’ll have pictures, even the occasional video.
Man, I’ve got a lot to learn. It’s a completely different kind of creative pursuit. But I’m really looking forward to the challenge.
For those of you here just for the words, don’t worry, I’m still plugging away on the latest Garrison Gage book. Shouldn’t be too long. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the funny pictures.