I normally stick to the 3-panel newspaper comic format because I enjoy the challenge of working within fixed limitations. Anyone can tell a story if they have unlimited panels with which to get the point across, but squeezing an anecdote into three equally-sized panels is similar to condensing a panorama into a 17-syllable haiku. I enjoy writing haiku for the same challenge.
Turns out the only things I would be "stocking" were shopping carts. The full job description was "stockman/cartpusher," and eventually everyone just wound up referring to me as a cartpusher.
Four years passed. Four years of sweat, exhaustion, and aching muscles. I graduated high school, entered college, majored in English. Eventually, I had the realization that my life, boring though it may seem, supplied me with plenty of material for a comic strip. "The Cartpusher" was born.
That was around the middle of 2004. Now, as I write this in May of 2006, my life has changed in many ways. I began what grew into a serious and very loving relationship with "Mara" not long after creating the comic. "Mara" and I graduated college on May 10 of this year. I quit my job at Wal-Mart a few days later. This fall, I will be teaching English and Language Arts to a bright young group of high school freshmen. I just found out today (May 17) that "Mara" has been hired to teach art at an elementary school. (Wheeeeee!)
Either despite or because of all the changes, my life continues to provide me with plenty of material for humor. Since drawing comics is usually a relaxing, almost meditative exercise for me, and since I like to laugh at myself anyway, I plan to continue "The Cartpusher" indefinitely. Thank you for visiting the site; I hope you'll come back often.