It’s amazing to stop and think about how many free comics there are online. We’re kind of spoiled. But that goes with the cartooning territory. I’m very fortunate to make a living drawing comics. The weird thing is, is that even before I was making a living drawing comics, or even if I wasn’t, I’d still make comics.

Case in point, this Primordial Syrup thing I’ve been doing. It started the same way all my comics did. I had to do it. Same with “Dog eat Doug”. I had to make it. This is true for most cartoonists. We’re constantly making cartoons. Now obviously, there is that part of your brain that says “hey, doofus, what if you turned this into a living?”, which is of course, the same part of your brain that over-complicates everything.

Thank goodness that part of gray matter exists. Of course it does make on heckuva bumpy ride when you do try and make cartooning a living. Which is why it’s important to separate that part from the creating part every now and then. Once you do start making a living, it can become all consuming. You get a tincy-wincy check from a magazine for a comic and bammo, that capitalist part of your brain goes into overdrive.

However, you have to treat it like a Tesla sometimes. Let the AI drive for a while and get back to making comics for the sake of making comics. When the syndication offer came in for Dog eat Doug, understandably, that became my entire world. Every other project, and even my daily doodles, got shoved into the back of the closet behind the five year old New Balance running shoes (which till this day I don’t know why I kept them).

This ultimately hurts the very thing you are so focused on improving. I learned the hard way that it was the seemingly superficial, waste of time things like doodling, or working on random ideas for comics and books, that keep that main project fresh. That crazy stream of consciousness, where bills don;t exist, is the very thing that helps sharpen the ideas you are trying to create.

Hence the reason I no longer scold myself for mindlessly doodling for an hour or two, or starting a single panel comic like “Primordial Syrup” for no logical reason other than to get the ideas out of that stream an onto paper. Or creating the Conjurers webcomic while trying to write and illustrate three books. Logically, it’s not a smart thing to do. In the long run, it’s the very thing that keeps your creative engine charged. Sometimes you have to let the crazy out.