We got an interview from Tauhid and he shared what inspires him to create art: "I’m mostly inspired these days by my favorite cartoonists. Folks like Will Henry, Bill Watterson, Scott Kurtz. All kinds of folks." Tauhid has lots of favorite comic creators and they help him keep doing these amazing comics by inspiring him in his artistic journey. The list consists of Jim Borgman, Janet Nicholas, Dana Simpson, and the three mentioned previously. Tauhid also said that he has many more, but the list would be too long.
Tauhid is thankful to his mother for supporting him when he started getting into art: "I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I was lucky enough to have a mother that supported my art. That’s so important for young artists. Just having someone encourage them to keep it up."
The artist shares why he chose to create comics about childhood in the '80s: "Crabgrass is just the latest of several attempts to create a feature and find an audience over the years. I chose to make it about two best friends and base them on myself and my best friend as a kid. I think that personal touch is what helped it resonate more with people than my other comics did. But over time, Kevin and Miles have evolved so that they don’t really resemble us much at all. Characters sort of develop themselves after they’ve been with you a while."
"I like to think about my comics as a fun reminder of how innocent, rotten, and just plain confused we all were as children," said Tauhid when asked how he would describe his comics. "Artistically, I like my style to be as organic as I can. I do everything digitally but try to hide that fact as much as possible. From a writing perspective, I try hard to at least make myself smile with each strip. The humor is important, but sometimes a poignant moment is just as important."
Tauhid shared what he enjoys most about creating art: "My favorite part about art is finishing something. It’s also the hardest part. Finishing a piece is the very best way to inspire yourself to keep creating."
The artist shared with us some of his other hobbies and told us more about himself: "Mostly just video games and binging Netflix, if those can be called hobbies. Until recently, I worked as a freelance graphic designer, but now I work on Crabgrass exclusively for my living. I went to Murray State University very briefly on an art scholarship, then didn’t do anything art-related for quite a while. I got my first art-related job as a graphic designer for a local custom apparel shop in my mid-twenties. I stayed there for about 5 years and when that place closed, I began working at a slightly larger custom apparel shop, which I stayed at for almost 7 years. I ultimately left that job to work for a friend who’d started an online media company. I got to draw comics, help design video games and do a ton of web design. It was a blast, but that too ended when the company was bought out. No matter what job I had, though, I was always working on some comic or other and sharing it online. After the media company gig ended, I decided to take a real stab at making comics my career. It wasn’t long before I started Crabgrass and saw more success than I’d ever had with a comic. Two years later, I’m still doing it and the audience is still growing somehow!
"If there’s anyone with dreams of being a cartoonist, my only advice is that the main ingredient is time. You’ll get better at drawing. You’ll get better at writing. You’ll eventually build an audience. The only thing you HAVE to do is keep at it and give yourself time."
What do you think of these comics? Do they remind you of your childhood? Tell us in the comments and upvote your favorite comic! Don't forget to go show the artist some love on social media.
