Young Learners Guide to American Wildlife

Oh my! A new comic!! This is pretty exciting, hey? I feel like I should have some momentous words on the occasion of an update after a fairly generous “sabbatical”. But I’m pretty hungry and don’t feel like being on campus right now. Also I just remembered that my bike got a flat, which means I have to walk it down the hill, so I’m not too stoked about that adding to how long I have to wait before enjoying delicious food. Also I my fatigued/hungered state seems to be affecting my writing abilities, as the first draft of that previous sentence was anticipating “enjoying delicious foot.” Pretty sure that’s not a thing.

Anyway, here’s what I did this weekend. I’m pretty happy with it. I haven’t painted in a very long time. I really would like to cartoon more, but I still haven’t figured out a way to do it time efficiently – especially with projects like this. The last several weeks/couple months have been mostly devoted to writing projects. Maybe I ought to combine the two – anybody up for Duckbox: The Animated Series? I’d also be up for a live action version, maybe an HBO series: The BOX. Shift it to the post-midnight scheduling block and we could have DuckBoxxx. I’ll write ’em all, no adaptation too ridiculous!

I’m gonna go make a sandwich.

I’m back, and I’ve brought Duckbox with me! I’m not sure whether to officially designate this “Chapter 2” of the Duckbox Saga, but if you want to think of it that way I’m sure it’s none of my business.

I sat down on Monday night to draw several Duckbox strips in anticipation of my absence for the AWP conference in Chicago. Instead I decided I should devote all my time to drawing this strip featuring painstaking “computer” lettering and massive amounts of black space. Maybe I’m understanding now why other cartoonists let software do some of that work for them.  The point is there’s no backlog for me to draw on at this point, but I shall be back as soon as I am able.

And again: feel free to draw your own Duckbox or YLG strip for me to post and lavish you with credit for. Now’s your time to shine, loyal reader cum aspiring cartoonist!

Before I started Duckbox, I drew several strips to serve as a sort of “strategic reserve” and guarantee I’d have a decent amount of material to put up once I got started. This strip marks the last of my initial Duckbox venture. It’s also the first to have a title that isn’t a pun about ducks (or boxes). What does this mean? It means now I have to start drawing strips in real time, and producing new content as I go along. I’m definitely planning to keep drawing Duckbox strips for the time being – I’m hoping to hammer out some kind of thrice-weekly posting routine, so that we can keep the story going and give me a chance to catch my breath and get strips drawn. I’m not sure how long this storyline will continue, but I’m having fun with it so right now it’s all Duckbox all the time. So quack on that!