I joined the DD community in December of 06 after looking at the majority of available sequential arts hosting sites. What can I say? This place felt right to me then and it still feels right today; and I really like the artists that I've interacted with via the forums and comment blocks.

Other than being a lone wolf iconoclast – Yeah, like none of us have ever heard that before – my reason for delaying so long to formally introduce myself is that I vowed that I would wait until I had a cartoon strip or comic book ready to launch. Little did I realize that it would take five months to reach that point after signing up with DD. Darn perfectionist genes!

So now that I have enough work ready to justify uploading, I figure I've earned the privilege to post So – um – howdy people.

My background . . . I am gazing boldly into the ugly mug of fifty, and will embrace that significant, big Five-O very soon. The beads of sweat are popping on my forehead. Ha! Actually, I'm sort of looking forward to the event and am considering the launching of my comic book to be an early birthday present to myself. Now do artists know how to self-indulge or what?!

Oh yeah . . . I'm married – but childless - and I'm about half a dozen different sorts of artist, and I also do a bit of educational related work to keep myself fed. My wife, on the other hand, is about a dozen different sorts of teacher and does a bit of art related stuff for relaxation. I'm not sure if there is irony, serendipity, or just wicked-crazy coincidence involved there, but we both like the results.

Hmmm . . . what else to state that you might find interesting? I was raised poor and blue collar, spent my latter teens working in retail and then heavy industry. I joined the military at twenty-one and learned how to care for nuclear missiles and their launch systems. I became a civilian again while still in my twenties. Just to keep myself physically active – and because it had always been a personal fascination of mine – I began a serious training regimen in martial arts. I also spent more than a decade in security work. Oh yeah . . . and eventually fell in love and got married, assumed a mortgage, learned about roofing and carpentry and a few other odds and ends.

Between my military years and the present I spent twenty-five years trying to turn myself into a novelist – and failed at that – and during that process drifted sideways into the educational field, after finally going to college, that is.

Now, I have always been interested in visual arts and, in particular, sequential art work, but I grew to maturity before the Internet became so richly developed, and so had to measure my talents, skill development, and interests against the commercial artists working for Marvel or DC or producing daily strips for newspapers, and I fell short of what was needed to break into any of those fields. Frankly, I was discouraged by the competition. Imagine my surprise and delight, however, when about a year ago I discovered the wonderful world of web-based cartooning replete with artists of all skill levels!

It was like a hurricane of inspiration swept through the musty chambers of my visual arts personality – or something neat like that. I looked at the ocean of artistic examples and knew I could find my artistic niche at last, that THIS I COULD DO!

Ahem! Although I admit that I didn't at the time factor into my revelation that I would have to blow off the dust that had collected on my art books, retrain in some basic skills, learn enough about the digital aspect of web-based cartooning to make this work, and then do fierce and unrelenting battle with that darn perfectionist's personality of mine.

So, the process of getting web-ready took a while. I think I began and then tossed aside well over a dozen cartoon strip and comic book concepts, complete with fully realized characters and hundreds of sketches. I wanted a certain unique hook, you see . . .

Anyway, anyone interested will be able to look at the results in a day or so. I've got enough ready to justify uploading, but now I have to re-read the DD-related FAQs on the process, and then perform a bit of inevitable trial and error work before I get it right.

Again . . . a belated HOWDY to the DD community.

Charleyhorse

you win fer the longest intro

Yeah, I figured as much. I even cut some out, too. Comes of training to be a novelist.
I take after David Eddings in that I can't clear my throat on paper in less than two thousand words. Fortunately I am succinct in my sequential art dialogs. Running out of the page border focuses the mind.

I agree, a finite amount of space in the frame does concentrate your dialog. Welcome to DD.

I could have SWORN we had already met…Must'a been another Charley Horse.

Hi, I'm Lynn. The older I get the younger fifty is. Also married, but childless. I used to do educational related work…but, now I trust my own Lone Wolf to keep me fed.
I'm a writer, husband's an artist. (He manages a horse and carriage company to earn the bread.) It's refreshing to see someone who is as longwinded as myself, welcome welcome welcome.

Congratulations! You've blinded me! \o/

Anyways, welcome to the Double D. Help yourself to anything fromt he complementary box of meat, but be quick about it, there's a run on sausages…

Go old age and wisdom!

Wow, it's kind of a shock to realize how many people webcomicking appeals to. I mean, I knew that there's people all across the board that indulge in it, but it always still seems to be the craft of teens and the twentysomethings. To me, that is (I guess), and, beyond that, they're all published.

So maybe you could contribute your infinite wisdom across these boards! Go out! Spread thy knowledge!

To Rutger: you already used the sausage run joke. I'm on to you.

subcultured
you win fer the longest intro

Oh man, tell me there's a trophy for that.

Welcome to the Duck!

Welcome to the duck!

Welcome to Drunkduck Charleyhorse. Member ID #11,956

The community is great and… I can't think of anything else to say. :(

Welcome to the fun - your intro is an interesting read. Maybe it shouldn't, but 50 still seems awfully young to me. I launched my comic for my birthday also (earlier this month).

okamimako
To Rutger: you already used the sausage run joke. I'm on to you.

But…it's not a joke! The sausages are going fast!

Sorry, but I only read the first four paragraphs of your post… I'm kind of tired right now.

Welcome anyway though. Have fun with being fifty, I'm sure it's at least a little better than 17.

hi!