The Big 300!

Tomorrow is my birthday... and no, I'm not turning 300, but I find it serendipitous that I get to draw my 300th Knight and Day daily strip to honor the occassion.  Or vice versa!  Because honestly, this is a HUGE milestone for me.

Yeah, I know... 300 strips is just a year in the life of a syndicated cartoonist, but I don't get paid to do this.  For me, it's a true labor of love, accomplished in what little spare time I have, with the occassional fan mail or book sale to spur me on. This is a very big. very proud moment for me, especially when I put these 300 strips next to the other Knight and Day cartoons I have drawn... panels and Sunday cartoons, and of course the many pages of my Knight and Day graphic novel, 3 Knights in India.  And then there's the many Sunday and daily cartoons (as well as illustrations) of The Inquiring Minds, and the hundreds of comic strips drawn before these two strips that make up my book Once Upon a Times...

Truly a big day for me, looking back at all that I've accomplished to date.  Looking back at my comics, to me, is like looking at a scrap book of my life... funny moments that I think others will relate to, embarrassing moments that I'm sure others will laugh with, and drawings of places that I've lived and visited.  Every moment was special, and so immortalised in ink on paper.

Last year at this time, I celebrated my birthday in Disney World, and it was awesome that most of the Cast Members in the park were so nice and cheery, wishing me a Happy Birthday everywhere I went, and sometimes even singing.  So, even though I'm skipping ahead a bit in the current storyline, it seems fitting that my 300th strip celebrate that special time.

Thank you for sharing this proud moment with me!    JOHN :0)

Knight Family Vacation Page

Just a quick note to say that I've moved all the Knight and Day vacation strips to their own page at the website.  This way you can read them all at once, and in order, and it's easier for me to update.

http://www.happyglyphs.com/vacation.html

A new Knight and Day was just added, and believe it or not, but the Knight's are finally leaving!  Well, they're in the car, anyway. :0)

While you're there, check out the rest of the site and see what's new.

Cheers,    JOHN :0)

September 11, 2001

I was taking a break from cartooning when the events of September 11, 2001 occured.  Those events brought me back, and reintroduced The Inquiring Minds.  It's hard for an artist to watch the world around him change, without responding in some way.  This was my response.

I lived close enough to the city to see the smoke rising from the horizon, and the army helicopters flying overhead on alert.  Everything changed, and so I tried to capture that feeling through the eyes of my young characters.