my early drawings
Ace of Hearts release week post #2
Good morning, and…
HAPPY ACE OF HEARTS RELEASE WEEK!
In honor of the release of my debut graphic memoir, which details how my asexuality has shaped my love life, I am making a series of posts this week that give insight into this work that can’t be seen anywhere else.
In this post, I will show you some comics and drawings from my early childhood all the way up until the age of 22, complete with commentary.
Please enjoy, and make sure to come back every day for the rest of this week for more goodies!
When You Give a Duck a Donut
In fourth grade, we had to make our own version of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” Below is one of the pages from my version, as well as a picture of me reading it to my class.
Paper Pets™
In fifth grade, my friends and I used to take index cards, draw little animals on them, and trade them like like baseball cards. We called them Paper Pets™ (and we made sure to include the trademark symbol). To my knowledge, this Paper Pet™ named “BunFun” that I found in a pile of stuff at my parents’ house is the only surviving Paper Pet™!
Huggle
One of my first comic book characters was named “Huggle.” He was an insect with four legs and hot pink fuzzy hair. His lore was that he was bullied as a child for his hair, so when he grew up, he ran off to Hollywood to become a movie star.
He succeeded, and Huggle is extremely famous in the Huggle universe. He is characterized by insecurity (borne of his miserable childhood) cloaked in the kind of conceit and egotism only a celebrity can exhibit. The universe has a Paddington quality in which no one seems to find it weird that one of the biggest A-listers in Hollywood is a literal bug.
In this strip, Huggle shops for a pair of sunglasses. Since it was drawn poorly in pencil on notebook paper around 15 years ago, it’s a little hard to read, but essentially Huggle ends up buying a pair of sunglasses that are modeled after himself.
Rodney the Business Squirrel
At this age, I also loved drawing “Rodney the Business Squirrel.” He was just a squirrel in a business suit who was presumably very business savvy and wealthy.
I especially love reading my old Rodney strips, because they show my hilarious lack of knowledge of wealth as a kid growing up in Appalachian Ohio, where wealth of this type isn’t really a thing.
The below strip is an excellent example of this. As it was also drawn poorly on notebook paper more than 15 years ago, I will summarize once again: Rodney tries to make his “millionth buck,” so he opens up a lemonade stand. It is unsuccessful; the day goes by without a single customer. But have no fear: Rodney later reaches into his coat pocket and finds a dollar.
Not gonna lie, this is probably the funniest comic I will ever draw.
School Spirit T-shirt Design Contest
In order to understand why I am including this, you need to understand this: I was a bit of an outcast growing up. My family had moved to a notoriously insular region of the country from Nebraska, a state nobody finds interesting. I was interested in art; my town was interested in football and 4-H. In my community’s defense, I was also quite a strange child. As a result, I spent much of my childhood feeling invisible and undervalued.
So, in eighth grade, when my middle school booster club announced a school spirit t-shirt design contest, despite my complete lack of any school spirit, I felt determined to win. I wanted people to know that I was good at something, that something being drawing. I went home and mocked up the best, most creative design my teenage mind could come up with.
And what do you know — I did win! And it meant the whole world to me! My design was printed onto a bunch of t-shirts and sold to raise money for the school. Below is the sheet that was handed out for people to place their orders.
Abraham Lincoln
In high school, as I took art classes that focused on still lifes, my art became more based in realism. I also took a great interest in my American history classes, taking APUSH and being way too serious about my senior year civics class. In my own free time, without it being assigned to me, I made this pointillism portrait of one of my country’s most iconic presidents.
I was very proud of it at the time, but now all I can see is the total neglect of poor Honest Abe’s shoulders…
Aperaham Lincoln (and company)
In college, I went to my fair share of parties, but I also often declined to go to parties so I could sit in my room alone and do dumb nerdy shit. On one of those nights, senior year, I channeled my surviving interests in pointillism and U.S. presidents, but this time with a silly twist…
Below are Aperaham Lincoln, George Squashington, and Ulysses S. Plant. Not pictured are Prawnald Trump and Barack O’Llama…
The Lifeless Blob
And for my last exhibit…
Shortly after undergrad, I was very depressed. I channeled my feelings into a short comic called “The Lifeless Blob.” Essentially, I explained how depression feels like existing in the world as a lifeless blob. The comic was very mediocre and will never see the light of day, but it was absolutely the starting point for Anhecomics, my graphic medicine project that fully launched me into the comics medium.
Below is one of the panels from the comic.
