Late in 2011, after years and years of doodling all over my “real job” work, random notebooks, and scraps of paper that were laying around, I decided to get back to my childhood and start to draw again. This blog chronicles much of that journey.
I began drawing simple one panel comics and drawings on my computer using rudimentary tools (mouse and keyboard) which felt a lot like banging out stick men on a damp cave wall with a pointy rock, but nevertheless I had fun doing it, and I kept on drawing whenever I had some spare time.
As I mentioned, the early drawings are mostly single panel comics, not because I felt like I had anything particularly funny that I had to “get out there” but because a lot of my inspiration to draw came from webcomics I read on the internet. I’m not much of a comedian, but thinking in webcomic terms allowed me to think of an idea, and practice getting that idea from my head and onto the page (or rather, the computer screen). As I continued drawing, and investing in more guides, books, and drawing tools, much of my art turned to practicing and away from drawing comics.
I also have a forum dedicated to many of my numerous geeky interests at The Goat Pen Forums called aTm’s Nerdy Menagerie that you can check out. Since the forum’s creation, most of the artwork on this blog has also been crossposted to the Art Thread (formerly “The Shitty Picture” thread) and I welcome anyone who wishes to discuss my hobby, to Register at the goatpen.net forums and post on the Art Thread.
Special thanks to Randall Munroe of xkcd, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, Scott Kurtz of PVP, and Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content. Reading your comics inspired me to draw.