Todd Webb published his first series of minicomics about his job as a stockboy when he was still a teenager. Barely out of his teens now, he’s had The Goldfish and Bob published by BlindWolf Studios and he’s hard at work on a new book with his friend Harold.
Todd Webb published his first series of minicomics about his job as a stockboy when he was still a teenager. Barely out of his teens now, he’s had The Goldfish and Bob published by BlindWolf Studios and he’s hard at work on a new book with his friend Harold.
How did you first get started in comics?
Todd Webb: I started out printing my own comics and minicomics on my church’s copy machine. I’d give them to my family and friends, and mail them out to artists whose comics I liked. And eventually I’d sell them at comic shows and just pretty much try to get them in as many folks hands as possible 🙂
Who were your early influences?
Webb: Trent Kaniuga and Matt Martin, who were just 16 when I started out. I saw the comics they were doing (and they were just a few years older than myself) and decided that comic books were what I’d have to do or go crazy. Earlier cartooning influences are Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson. I would trace Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes comics for hours!
What inspired you to start a journal comic?
Webb: I started my Cartoon Journal as a way to improve my drawing skills, to draw faster, to prove to myself I could draw at least a finished page a day, and to learn to keep my linework to a minimum and stop over-rendering things. I use it as practice for my longer, more formal works. What keeps you doing your journal comic? Usually, it’s the readers who write in saying how much they look forward to new entries. There have been many times I’ve stopped drawing my journal, only to be sucked back into it a month later 🙂
Once you’re in the habit, it’s a tough one to break.
What do you think makes your comic different from the other journal comics out there?
Webb: Well, my life is different than other artists drawing other journal comics. And my journal is accessible to all ages of readers, from little kids to big kids, where others are full of profanity and sex and couldn’t be shown to a younger audience.
What’s your favorite journal comic? Why?
Webb: My favorites are the little strips Missy Kulik draws about visiting her friends and buying records.
Do you have other auto-biographical stories? Which ones?
Webb: My book The Goldfish and Bob isn’t straight autobio, but it is born out of actual events and emotions I was feeling at the time. And my old series "The Stockboy" was about when I worked in a grocery store when I was 16.
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