A New Set of "firsts" for Jeremy And Tim

So, today (or, I should say "yesterday" to be precise) was a big day of "firsts" for "Jeremy And Tim".

The comic strip has had many firsts. It is by no means a "new" comic strip. In fact, the strip itself may very well be older than some of the readers of this blog. There was the first actual strip (which was actually a page) that I did in elementary school that resulted from a class project; there was the first time that somebody noticed that I had continued drawing the characters long after the project was over, and decided to pass my name along to a few other people; there was the first time that the strip was put online for public viewing, then the first time that the strip was published in a newspaper. Eventually, the strip went on to experience many "firsts", but yesterday's "firsts" left me with a profound sense of accomplishment and pride.

Let me start by giving a brief back-story on the comic strip itself.

As a pre-teen, I started a comic strip that I entitled (aptly) "Jeremy And Tim". The strip centered around a 9(ish)-year-old version of myself (aka: "Jeremy"), and a semi-imaginary lamb (aka: "Tim"). A series of fortunate circumstances (that are far too detailed to explain in this email) and a bit of luck lead to "Jeremy And Tim" being published in local newspapers from about 1990 to 1998.

Though I always enjoyed making the strips (which ended with a total number in the hundreds over the course of the 8-year run), I pretty much stopped doing them in college.

But recently, I have decided to go back to the original comic strips (some of which admittedly look like a 9 year old created, haha) and bring them into the digital age, using modern hardware and software.

This new push has brought with it much more than a fresh look to old drawings. I have found myself feeling like I am a teen-ager again... sitting in my parents basement, laughing with my dad as we generate new ideas for the upcoming strip concept. Every time that I finish rendering a new strip lately, I find myself wanting to run upstairs to the old living room and watch my mom laugh at the final punchline.

But even though working on the strips have, in a way, been able to transport me back to my teenage years; the fact remains that things are different now... now I am the dad; and now I am a husband. These facts bring with them a whole new set of perspectives toward not only the comic strips, but their impact on me and my future. My old "brainstorming sessions" with dad have now had discussions with my wife about what people want to see the strip become added to them. My impression of the way Jeremy sees the world around him has become influenced as I watch my little daughter react to her environment. And the joy I got (and still get) from my mom laughing at how "cute" Tim was in the strip, is now only really "complete" after my wife gives me a similar analysis.

I have grown as an artist, of course - if I hadn't after 20 years, I should have changed professions. But more than that, I have grown as an individual. WHICH... brings me back to yesterday's "firsts".

Yesterday was the first comic strip that my parents saw for the first time only AFTER it was completed. This is because it was my wife (not my parents) and I who came up with the concept. For so many reasons, this means more to me than I think my wife may understand. I mean, how many things can most men share a connection with their wife in, that he has been working on since he was 9 years old?

This sort of crazy life-connection was only topped later in the day, when I decided to have the first run of new Jeremy And Tim T-Shirts printed. I got home, and gave Aidyn her T-shirt. It didn't really hit me until after she had it on that my comic had now actually become "generational". My comic strip - the one that my parents had helped me begin, was now gracing the T-shirt of my little girl. To me, that was a BIG "first".


...So, now that I've started these new "firsts" it will be fun to see what comes next. I am happy to say that none of these new memories have replaced the "firsts" from my early times with Jeremy And Tim, because they happened when I was a child, and therefore continue to hold their own significance. Instead, I am humbled and thrilled to dicover that I have been given one of the very rare opportunites that we as humans get to "pick up where I left off" without missing anything. By re-establishing myself as a cartoonist, I am effectively "connecting" my life's timeline back to a place when I was really, really happy. And, I get to do it alongside all of the things that make me really happy now.

This is why I am confident that there will be many more "firsts" for Jeremy And Tim. At the very least, I am promising that the strip has not begun to see any "lasts".