The Nature of Ambition

15 Years of Drawing Comics

I looked at the calendar this week and realized something wild: I’ve been creating a weekly comic strip for 15 years.

My journey in comics had humble beginnings: in my junior year of college I drew a daily one-panel cartoon for the student newspaper at the University of Kansas. I left college to attend dental school, but I kept making comics. A few years later I was drawing a weekly strip called Delayed Karma for The Kansas City Star.

I began posting my weekly pages online, renaming the strip Incidental Comics. The viral nature of the internet took over, and soon my work was being read far and wide, shared on Facebook and Tumblr by more people in more countries than I could dream of.

It still amazes me that I can post a drawing and have thousands of people in every corner of the globe read it instantly. For all the grumbling artists do about algorithms, AI, and the state of the internet for creators—I grumble quite a bit myself—it’s still an incredible privilege to have the entire online world as a potential audience.

I’m grateful for everyone who has shared my comics, purchased my books, or sent a thoughtful email or comment about what a piece meant to them.

“If you are lucky, you will find something you love doing.”

Somehow, I found it. I still love combining words and pictures in panels to tell stories and explore what I’m thinking and feeling. Sometimes I lose sight of why I started drawing in the first place. Eventually, I find it again. It’s the simple joy of putting pen to paper to express myself and connect with you, the reader.

Thank you.

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“The Nature of Ambition” appears in my book THE SHAPE OF IDEAS: AN ILLUSTRATED EXPLORATION OF CREATIVITY, published by Abrams ComicArts and available in many languages.

I’m putting the finishing touches on my fourth book of Incidental Comics with Abrams Books and my brilliant editor Charlie Kochman. I can’t wait to share it with you next year. I’ll be posting more highlights from my 15 years of making comics throughout the summer.