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I have been drawing comics ever since my mom bought me a Bruce Blitz "How to Draw Comic Strips" VHS tape in the fourth grade. I would take my comics to school to impress my friends and teachers, but it never got me anywhere with the ladies. Girls in the fourth grade are very picky.
In high school, I produced a comic for my school newspaper that was eventually published by the local newspaper, the Chillicothe Gazette. Some people liked it, but a lot of people hated it. What do you expect from a seventeen-year-old kid who lives with his parents? A lot of comics about professional wrestling and Nintendo, that's what!
In 2003, I decided to get hardcore with comics and pursue my dream as a cartoonist. I began submitting to newspaper syndicates and professional cartoonists, and spent countless nights crying myself to sleep on a floor covered with rejection letters. Inspired by the success of PvP and Liberty Meadows, I decided to submit to comic book companies as well as the syndicates.
In October of 2004, Viper Comics made a move that would revolutionize the way people read comics forever! Viper signed me to a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract. But I told Jessie Garza that I couldn't afford to pay Viper Comics that much money to publish my comic. After a really long argument on AOL Instant Messenger, Jessie Garza told me that he'd publish my comic for ten dollars and a Coke. I said, "Okay."
Currently, I live in scenic Chillicothe, OH with my lovely wife, Tricia, and our two cats, Sophie and Stella. |
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While preparing submissions for the syndicates, I tried to make each submission different than the one before. I figured, "If the last one got rejected, why do the same thing over again?" During this time, I kept getting the same advice from friends, family, syndicates, and professional cartoonists. The advice they gave me was to "write what you know".
The first four submissions were steadily different from each other, but seemed to lack the "glue" that brought the characters, plot, and environment together. I was faking it. I thought I was being myself, but I realized as I read and re-read my comics that I was trying to force the characters into scenarios that I thought were cool, but I had never experienced.
And so began work on the fifth submission. It was, by far, the hardest as I went through several different ideas trying to find the one that I felt was most true to me. At this time in my life I was engaged to my wife and we were planning our wedding. I don't remember when it clicked in my mind, but I realized that the only thing I really "knew" about was being in love with Tricia. All this time I was trying to make comics out of jobs and friends and whatever else I thought would work when my perfect muse had been right in front of me the whole time.
I wouldn't call You'll Have That an "autobiographical comic", though a lot of the elements are based on situations my wife and I have experienced together. For me, You'll Have That is a fun way to imagine what my wife and I would do in certain "hypothetical" situations and in some "not-so-hypothetical" situations . . .
I love my wife, and I love comics. In my mind, it's the perfect marriage.
- Wes |
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You'll Have That follows the lives of Andy and Katie, a newlywed couple in their twenties, as they try to figure out life together.
 Andy is a career-challenged twenty-something whose only constant in life is the love for his wife, Katie. A college drop-out and admitted "nerd", Andy struggles with his lack of self esteem and his constant desire to impress Katie.
 Katie is a headstrong young lady who had her life completely planned out before she met her husband, Andy. Now, after two years of college and an interstate move, Katie is in an unfamiliar position of piecing her life together. The only thing keeping her remotely sane is the love she has for Andy.
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