I have seen my dad cry only a couple times in my life.  It's surreal when you realize that daddy's are human too.  His birthday is tomorrow.  I miss him.  I think he would be proud of me working late into the night to create this story. 

As a teen my father tried gently nudging me toward syndicated comics, but like a teen who knows everything, I gently did not go that route.
I have spent most of my adult life failing to be a "successful" artist. Success meaning, making good money at it. I've always had a "day job" that did not define me while I continued to not make money with my art. This may sound harsh but that was my mentality. I disappointed myself a lot and worried that I was disappointing my family and friends.

After recovering from breast cancer in my 40's, I had decided to stop "wasting my time" and really focus on becoming an illustrator of children’s books. In hindsight, I think that turning towards kid lit might be the creative persons equivalent of the midlife crisis, lol.  Several years into that goal I was in a comic book store looking for a gift for a friend and I got my hands on "I Hate Fairyland" by Skottie Young. I was floored. I absolutely loved it immediately. I hadn't read a comic book since I was probably seven. I had never really been interested in comic books, strips yes, books no. I thought they were all about super hero's, which didn't seem like good reading to me.  Fairyland opened the floodgates and I dove in deep, researching and reading comics.

I couldn't shut up about maybe doing a comic, and a friend, who I'm sure was getting sick of hearing me just talk about it, challenged me to do a one page comic.  I did it and I had a blast. So I decided to do a little bit longer one, The Box of Robbers. I worked week after week, month after month. Working my day job, taking care of my family and making my comic. It took me 11 months.  So slow, LOL.

Fast forward two years and here we are!  I am chugging along creating this Kiddo Green story for myself and whoever else wants to read it.  I am absolutely content and at peace with where I am at in my life in regards to my art.  I have found so much joy in every part of creating this comic thus far.  I finally know what I am supposed to be doing, and I don't mind anymore if I have to have a day job that absolutely does not define me.  I don't need to prove myself to anyone.  All I want to do now is make comics.

I define success, now,  as being happy while creating and I finally consider myself successful.  Don’t mistake me though, I’m still going to try and sell the shit out of this comic. Lol.

(I think my dad would be happy).

Thanx for joining my adventure with me.

Lisa