New stuff and Dragon Nerds

It’s been more than a month since I posted a new carton and yesterday I got an email that said, “How come you haven’t posted any new stuff lately?” That was the entire email. The person didn’t even leave their name so I didn’t bother replying. Despite kind of implying that I’m one of these, the guy (I’m assuming it was a guy) did have a valid question so I’ll respond here.  

Where are the new cartoons? What the heck have I been up to?

I haven’t had much drawing time lately because I’ve been pretty busy. Life stuff. But I’m always thinking of cartoon ideas and I’ve been filling up the ol’ drawing pad with various sketches and jokes—some decent, some bad, some really bad.  There were a few jokes I was unsure about so I showed them to my wife (her reactions were mainly eye-rolling and/or head-shaking). I have a general rule: if you have to ask someone “Is this funny?” it’s usually not funny.  

The rare exception to that rule happened recently. Several months ago, I sketched out an idea which turned out to be this cartoon:

The idea made me chuckle at first but I wasn’t sure about it. I had second thoughts. So I showed it to my wife, who said, “I don’t get it but I really like the dragons. They’re cute.” The idea ended up staying in my sketchbook for weeks because I thought it was too “niche” and possibly too wordy…basically I just wasn’t sure if it was worth spending the time to finish.

One day, I decided to draw it and posted it on Facebook. I figured if it was a flop, at least I’d be satisfied about the drawing. To my surprise, people liked it a lot. And to my utter surprise, it ended up going viral. Over the past few weeks, thousands of people have shared it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and Pinterest.

This made me realize two things: 1. My judgment is crap sometimes and 2. A heck of a lot of people out there play D & D, used to play D & D, and also seem to like nerdy dragons. 

I want to thank those who’ve shared this cartoon. Power to the dragon nerds!

As for new stuff….it’s coming next week.