I started making comic pages in Mar. 1996 after David Black and his dad took me to my first comic convention. It was held just north of Detroit in Novi, MI and at the time it was the fourth biggest con (now, it's the third, I think.) I did them just for laughs and to pass around at school. I stopped during the summer. I started working at the comic shop and I was making "Lou" comics in the fall when I started 10th grade. The "Lou" comics were actually funny and in the beginning they were representing a comic depiction of my good pal Lou Simonetti. (In the comics, Lou's name was changed to Cliff and Lou became my older and wiser self from the future. Confused?)

So, after making twenty or so pages, I got the idea of making actual comic books. I was planning on doing something like this for my Tech Ed. class the previous year but I ended up not doing it. It was at this time I was exposed to the comics of Jhonen Vasquez and Evan Dorkin. I got a copy of JTHM #5 and Milk & Cheese #5 and I was hooked. It was also at this time I was attempting to make a flyer for the comic shop (Shorty's Three C's) and I didn't want to pay for copies. I was going to make them at the office of Dr. Blair and use his copy machine. Well, I didn't make the flyer and instead I drew a comic cover. I then went around and asked people if they wanted to buy a comic in advance. Amazingly, people did! I made a list of a whole bunch of names and ended up making money; $1 for a regular issue and $2 for a "Bloody Edition." Adam Brown was my #1 supporter on this at the time.

This was the beginning in the first part of Dec. 1996 and I had all these people that wanted a comic and only a cover to show for it. I stayed up all night on Dec. 11th or 12th and drew the whole thing. A couple days later Stu, Lou, and I went with Lisa over to her dad's office to make copies. Stu made 25 copies of the comic because I didn't know much about copy machines. I don't remember what happened to Lou but I know he had to go home. Stu and I went to his grandparents' print shop and he stapled them all nice and neat along the binding for me. I had my first comic.

These first 25 were the bloody editions. I went home and splattered carmine ink all over the covers and it simulated real blood. The next day I handed out all of them and I was well on my way to making more of these little comics. This time, it was Stu, Dann, Lisa and I who went to make the copies. Once again, Stu made them and I now had 100 regular copies to hand out and most of them were already pre-sold. Then, it was Christmas Vacation.

I drew my little heart out over the break and most of it was done at the library. I got the second book done around Mid-Jan. 1997. I didn't get copies of it made until March, though, because I couldn't use the copy machine at the office due to the fact Lisa wasn't around. So, I dragged Stu to Office Max and he made the copies for me again. (Thank you, Stu-ee! ha!) I then went with him to the office building he had to clean that night and sat down in the eating area folding and folding over and over copies of my new book. David Barnes has the rarest copy of any of my comics. This issue, I made a Bloody/Acetate Edition with Lou's head on the cover. There is only one of them.

Dave Black and his dad took me to my second comic con in Mar. 97 and it was in Novi again. I knew about Matt Feazell somehow. I saw his stick people mini-comics and I loved them. That is why I drew stick people as early as my first book. At the convention, I got the chance to meet Matt and I was really happy. I gave him copies of my books and showed him copies of this thing I drew of tons of little people for an art project. He was really amazed at just how many people I drew. He showed it to Greg Hyland, creator of "Lethargic Lad," and he liked it too! The day after this, I drew my first mini-comic. This is actually not true because I remember drawing a "Lou" mini-comic in Sepia ink and having it over at Wayne Fortier's house in Sept. I had it in my front shirt pocket and I was going from school to the comic shop and it fell out somewhere along the way. I looked for it forever.

The mini-comics were so fun in the beginning. I drew the first one with little additions from Joe Sullivan, Dave Vlassis, and Rob Hoyle. Stu took me out to Office Max and this time I made the copies. I folded, cut, stapled, and signed those first hundred as Stu, Wayne, Josh Weiss, and I were heading out to go fishing at Roethke Park. So, that was the start of those little things. They came so easily in the beginning. I was making one every few days. At the end of the school year in 10th grade I had 13 comics. I sold a bunch at school and at the comic shop. During that summer, I was getting nuts into ska with my being exposed to Telegraph. I remember hanging out with Emily and Stu after getting Skarmageddon 3 around this time and Stu and I going around throwing fire crackers out his car window but that has nothing to do with this. I drew a whole bunch of comics with almost doing 1-3 a day and July came and Stu and I went out to Olde Jamestowne Hall on the 26th. I had recorded some Let's Go Bowling off the radio and we listened to that on the way out there along with The Skastafarians "Drink More Courage," that he had just got. This was my first hall show and Sinister Skank played one of their last shows and it was a lot of fun. The Parka Kings played and I fell in love with them. You can never have a Jamestowne experience unless you actually go to a Jamestowne show. Anyway, Chad Swiatecki was running the show and he let me set up some comics to sell and whatnot so this was definitely something cool.

August 14th, 1997 was a very rainy and cold day in Freeland and this was the day of the Tri-City Comic Convention. For some reason, I was very bold and I asked John Kinney, Jr. if I could sell my comics and he said yes. I sold a few and was actually filmed for something on TV that I never saw. Rodney Roberts came in with his son Dustin and he bought one of each of my comics. At this time, I had about 35-36 comics and he bought them all! I was so amazed that he did this. There were only a couple people who were collecting all of them and they were Paul Andrews and Shaun Manley. Paul still has one of all of them and all the flyers I've done and pretty much anything else. This day was also a day where there was another chemical leak from the Dow Chemical Company in Midland. What else is new?

11th Grade brought the start of my Junior year antics and the beginning of my Graphic Arts class over at the Saginaw Career Complex. I will never quite share a bond with another group of people as those who were in Ms. Bryll's class in 97-98. We all wanted to do something with art and we all got along so well. I became really good friends with everyone. I am so grateful to all of them for making me feel good about drawing and having fun while doing it. Adam Hamlin and I were paired up on a computer before they got more to accomodate all of the students. Him and I were always causing some type of trouble. Around this time, I was actually starting to get fan mail if you can believe that. Dean Meisel wrote the first letter and ended up writing some great stories for me.Oct. 1997 saw the release of Quarterly Comic #4. Adam Hamlin, Nick Boensch, Josh Price, Katie Sule, Chad Adamowski, and Dean Meisel all contributed great material to the book. Emily Ryan and Melanie Steffen also appeared in Nick's Stick comics which I wish he would have done more of. This book also marked the first appearance of Josh Price's "Maniac TV Boy." Right after this, Josh got to work on his own book and he worked really hard on it. He even let me draw the cover and ink all the pages. I had some of the pages with me and this was when I was taking driver's training and Stu's brother Ben was also in the same class and we worked together doing office cleaning. He took me over to Office Max and I made copies of Josh's art and I stupidly left them there. I got back there a little bit later and thankfully they were still there. Josh only ended up making 20 copies of "Maniac TV Boy" #1 and if you have one you are very lucky. This is a great comic. I know that pages exist for #2 but I've never seen them. I started making flyers for Chad and his hall shows around this time, also.

Quarterly Comic #5 came out in Dec. to celebrate the one year anniversary of this whole mess. It was a double-sized issue and once again featured some guest art and pages including some Lucas Weiss stuff. Shaun Manley also wrote an article about me and my comics for the Jan. issue of the Arthur Hill Newspaper that ran two new comic strips. The mini-comics were starting to look better and I was spending more time on them. This was a huge downfall when it came to trying to get a whole bunch of comics done. I got about 5 comics done in 1998 and I've never been able to go back to the glory days of making the comics and having so much fun at it. Toward the end of 11th grade, I started on "Stick-People Scum-Bags," a mini-comic starring the stick people that were influenced by Matt Feazell. I drew them in my Astronomy class when I was supposed to be working. I didn't want to work and I had a better time drawing this books than doing my final assignment.

I went to another comic convention and school got out. I worked on my stupid old web-site. I wasn't getting anything done and I got a little flyer from Josh Blaylock about his comic "Penguin Bros." Immediately, this influenced me to send out flyers on my own books. I gathered a bunch of addresses together, including newspapers, TV stations, and comic shops. The day after I sent out the first batch, I had to go get my picture taken again for my driver's license and I went to the Secretary of State downtown. It was right by TV5. As my mom and I were going by there, I joked and said that someone probably got the flyer and threw it away. Later that day, I was checking my e-mail over at the Andrews' residence and I had an e-mail from Brian Wood, the host of the news program Take 5. He wanted me to call him. I called him and he said that he wanted to take a look at the comics. The next day, Patrick Andrews and I peddled over to East Side Saginaw on our bikes and went to the TV5 studios. Brian came down and brought his producer and said he liked what he saw. He then took us on a tour of the place and I gave out comics to all the reporters and had a great time. A week later, on July 14th, 1998, Brian came over to the comic shop with his cameraman Doug. My buddies Patrick and Brent were there. Also, this dude that sold sports cards named Derrick was there but it was cool because all three of them said some really nice stuff on camera about the books. I wonder if they meant it. Ha! Ha! It was Brent's birthday so it was cool he got to be on TV. Brent and his brother Blake are a couple of really cool kids. For some reason, I did not want to see myself on the news. I was over at the Andrews and I left so I wouldn't have to watch it so I went to the comic shop. Back at the tanning salon, they had it on. Jenny and her sister watched it and Jenny's son Robert grabbed my arm and took me back there and I caught the last part of it. Immediately after this, I got phone calls from Adam Hamlin and a few others. It then stormed like crazy. Patrick rode through it and I asked him what anybody said about the news thing. He said that everyone liked it and then I felt better. I said some really geeky stuff on there. If you ever want to see it let me know. I got it on tape.

I made the third free mini-comic and people would bring up the TV story every once in awhile. Then, my mom gave me her station wagon. This car was the best! I loved it. It enabled me to go out and make copies myself without having to ask anyone for a ride. Patrick and I always used to bike ride and now we just always ended up driving all over. I didn't do a whole lot of comics. School started again and it was my senior year. Melanie Steffen would be a sweetheart and saddle-stitch comics for me over in Ghostface Bryllah's class. She did it all the time and I really appreciated it. The first ones she stapled were the Trade Paperbacks of the second collection of "The Josh Sullivan Adventures." Nick Walsh got me to draw with him and we came up with mini-comic #27. I continued to send out flyers and mini-comics. I got a few responses here and there. Around this time, I got invited to the big Novi Comic Convention! I was so happy because this is something that I've been wanting for awhile. I couldn't wait. Patrick and I started filming silent films on Feb. 18, 99 with his brother and sister Rusel and Lydia. We started when we were in search of a birthday present for Ben, the second oldest Andrews sibling. We bought a bunch of stuff and then I suggested we film a silent movie because of all this old style treasure (suit stuff, old hats) we purchased. They also starred Li'l Robert, Lou, and Pat's bro Daniel. This was a lot of fun but it meant I wasn't working on comics. On March 26th, 1999, Nick Boensch, Matt Kinney and I went to Ann Arbor instead of the big basketball game in East Lansing. We were all allowed to leave school if we had written permission and if we were going to the game. Nick forged my dad's signature and we decided to go to Ann Arbor! While there, I was dressed in a cool suit/jeans outfit and a bum kept asking me for money. I think this is the first time I ever saw Uprising! magazine and I really liked it. Eventually, I ended up sending some comics to RobG of Uprising.

In April, Jon Villanueva and Nick Brandt and I went and made copies of my first magazine, Quarterly Comic #7. It featured some comics by Stu, Rene Aguirre, Emily Ryan, Andreja Hall, Nick Brandt, and T.J. Uhrich. In May, in preparation for the comicon, Pat and I went to Office Max and I made TONS of copies. I made copies of all 65+ of my comics. We were there for 8 hours one day and 8 hours the next day. It was a good thing Office Max was having 1 cent copy weekends or I would have spent $300-$400. We carried 18,000 pounds of copies back to the comic shop on our bikes. By this time, my poor wagon had died. Boo-hoo! My computer technology friends including Emily Ryan, Todd Pettit, and Dre-Ha all helped me in folding, stapling, and cutting them.

In Mid-May, my Dad, Patrick and I went down to Novi. We stayed at The Red Roof Inn and Joe Kletz was staying in the room right above us. Joe saw me with an ice bucket on my head the first night and yelled somthing at me. I just ignored him. The next day, he came up to my table and told me it was him and he bought a bunch of comics. I then bought a bunch off of him. I was like his little sidekick. He was also reading a book about Vanilla Ice. We would bring up things about Martin Mull, who is the spokesperson for RRI. This comic con was very fun. I got a lot of people to sign my mailing list and I sold a few books here and there. A few days later, I was called down to the counselor's office at school and was questioned for a half-hour about a mini-comic I drew back in 97 that had a comic entitled "The Burning of the School Choir." Some parent got ahold of it and anonymously sent it to the principal. This was a month after the Columbine shootings and everyone was a little tense. I explained that it was just a comic and that I wasn't going to do anything to the stupid choir. Two hours later the fire alarm goes off and I'm working on a cover for the children's book I was working on with Stu and Pat and their Dad. We were outside for and hour and they sent us home. Everyone knew that something was up. I left with Nick Brandt, T.J. Uhrich, and Jeff Hall and we ate Subway and played Nintendo games. On the news they said that they found a Coke bottle filled with gasoline in the boys bathroom. I'm freaking out because I got it in my head that they're going to blame me. I didn't think I was going to graduate. Eventually, they found out some stinky freshman did it. Then, school was over. Graduation Day was the happiest day of my life. The only thunderstorm in the midwest was over our football stadium where we were graduating. We went outside and my cap blew away and I had to go get it. They rushed us all back inside. Eventually, we did get to graduate and it was so awesome even in the humid 90-degree plus heat.

The whole summer, I didn't do anything though. I worked on the children's book but no comics. In August, RobG sent me a copy of Uprising! and he wrote a review on the comics. I got some mail from a guy in a Correctional Facility because of it. Yay! In the fall, I did Quarterly comic #8 and I had my first color cover. In November, Stu asked if I wanted to move to FL with him and I instantly said yes. Saginaw, MI is no place to be. We decided on the Tampa Bay area. We left Dec. 10 and went to Brunswick, GA to visit Ken Hammer. We came to St. Petersburg first and then went to Tampa for a week and then back to St. Pete. I worked on some comic stuff the night before Stu left. He left on Christmas and I decided to stick it out down here. I had no idea if I was going to survive or not. I started working the day after that and I couldn't handle it. I was going to go back to Saginaw but I didn't want to. Eventually, I moved out of the ghetto motel and got my apt. I was very motivated to draw. I hung out down at The Globe Coffee Lounge which is run by JoEllen Schilke. JoEllen has really supported my stuff the whole time I've been down here. I've met tons of people there including the bestest pal I ever had here, Jason Cook, attorney extraordinaire and one of my biggest supporters: Bill Donlon, upholstery wiz John Navarro and Matt Coleman. The punk comic soon followed.

RobG e-mailed me and said he wanted me to do some comics for his 'zine. I drew the punk comic because his 'zine is a punk publication. I sent it to him and then made a bunch of copies of it to pass out around here. It has helped me out a lot. The comic got published and then Matt published it in his 'zine "Trivia." Ink 19 published it and it is published on their web-site. Lauren Anzaldo helped me in getting it around the Bay area more. I even got a little write-up by Sterling Powell about the rotten books in Weekly Planet with a readership of 500,000 people! The second punk comic then came out and got published in Ink 19 and I've made a Florida Radical Calendar flyer for Lauren as well as a March Against Capitalism flyer. I've done stuff that has been in SinkHole 'Zine. I was featured in the Best of the Bay 2000 issue of Weekly Planet in Sterling's column. I was the comic superstar of it. I've done a comic for John Ostler and Blake Cappell's 80's Kids' Chronicle. Check out the Catalog page for a full list of everything I've ever done.

I wrote a comic column for STASH magazine. I do an online column for Ink19 and continue to churn out more and more insanity. My little comics are pretty lame. Ha! ha!