My 1st time Full-Time comixing: a flashback

Much of the story is encapsulated in a single panel from my autobio comic Failing (to Quit)…

In the hit manga, BAKUMAN, they say it takes three things to become a pro cartoonists…

This was the most important (mis)step of my career—hitting a pothole the size of my bike’s front wheel and running into the literal ground.

I had been working on the monster-fighting comic as part of a year-long action plan that was supposed to culminate with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign.

Everything was going according to plan until the accident.

After a night in the hospital, a whole lot of stitches, one of the four missing teeth (this one hadn’t shattered like the others) was shoved back into my head. They let me walk home supervised by some friends. It had been a wild 24 hours. I was too old to be on my parents’ insurance, Obamacare hadn’t been passed yet, and this is America, so I knew there was a bill coming that I knew I could not pay.

The next day I switched from the prescription painkillers to Ibuprofen to clear my head. I decided to go ahead with the launch, but I lowered the amount of money I was aiming for because I really didn’t want to fail. Now I needed that money if I wanted to finish the project I had been working toward all this time.

And of course, when people heard about what happened… they wanted to help.

It’s hard for me to express just how moved I was by all the support I was given. Even before the Kickstarter, I was getting cards, calls, gifts, and soup from friends and acquaintances all over the country. It made me into a sobbing slobbering bloody mess. It was one of the most intense and humbling experiences of my life.

After the Kickstarter, I had raised enough to be a full-time cartoonist for a few months. It was a feeling I’ve been chasing all this time… but that IS NOT WHY THIS HAPPENED I SWEAR! 🫣

I guess it’s kind of wild, that after that wreck got me started as a full-time cartoonist, full-time cartooning got me started as a pro cyclist (of sorts).

A series of unlikely adventures led me to finishing my graphic novel, Cloud Town, in Oakland, California. And while anyplace in America is bound to leave a young(ish) aspiring creator broke after completing a 220-page comic for a big publisher, but Califonia is makes it particularly hard. I was living with an absurd number of people and dogs in a tiny space when covid restrictions let up. One roommate, who wanted me to be able to pay my part of the rent, invited me to a job that required experience with grueling physical labor, a vast capacity for sustaining consistent rejection, and the kind of addictive personality that might keep you in the rain for hours hoping for one big ride that might never come. RICKSAW DRIVING!

Now I’ve been riding a rickshaw for years to support my comics habit. It’s a job most people wouldn’t do even if they could, but for some reason, I quite like it.

And at this point, I’d like to spoil the story by saying I’M FINE.

I am in no way in need of pity Kickstarter support.

But this injury did have me SHOOK for a minute. You see, I slipped from my pedals, and when I still couldn’t walk two days later, I hopped to urgent care.

At first, they thought it might be fractured, which would mean 12 weeks off my bike during the busy season, and a loss of maybe half my annual income!

But, THANK GOODNESS it was a sprain!

Now looking more like 1 week. My household is physically and financially safe, and ironically, there’s some good to this as well.

I can’t ride, so I’ll be forced to focus on the upcoming Kickstarter and hopefully hit my goals without almost dying on a bike.✍️🥸🤘

I’ll be posting more about it as the day approaches! Thanks for reading! Thanks for caring! Thanks for dreaming!

-dan