I started blogging way back in 2000, when I was working on my first graphic novel, Golden Boy. My blog was like most blogs back then: embarrassing. I wrote a great deal about my life, and what project I was working on. I ended up not working on said projects and writing about them instead. Around 2007, I stopped. Twitter launched online, and I soon found that format more appealing. And easy. I could be in the middle of a looming deadline but I could still write a quick tweet. From the first iPhone, no less.
After I moved back home from Vermont in 2013, I got a job at a new digital marketing firm in my home town. B² Interactive made me their creative director, and my love for blogging was renewed. The team was passionate about sharing their knowledge online, and they were great writers. Are, I should say.
I started blogging again on the company website. I thought I had something to share once I realized how long I’d been doing this. I got my first web design job in 1996 (and print design as early as 1995), but I was trained to do paste-up. I’ve had a great career through some seismic changes in my industry. And while I made a living from design, I also had been doing well with my chosen art: cartooning. A few months after I arrived at the Center for Cartoon Studies, a young man queen approached me. She shared that she had learned about drawing comics in Illustrator from one of my posts.
Basically, I have a lot of thoughts in my head. Everything I’ve experienced in several different fields. It’s time to start sharing. My old blog had maybe a handful of helpful posts. It’s time to change that.
I have wiped out my old site completely. It had its time and its purpose, but its time has past. Time to start sharing things that could help others.
Note: The “young man” who approached me was a young Sasha Velour, who has gone on to redefine her identity and kick all sorts of ass on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9. I struck out the previous pronoun in respect of that.