I have a wide range of creative pursuits including video games, music, and art, but it is comics that have become my primary passion for the past few years. I have wanted to make comics since I was a child but I always felt my art was lacking. I developed my art a bit further in high school for game development but drawing people was still a huge hole in my skill set. It wasn’t until the New Year of 2021 that I finally decided to just put ink on paper and figure out how to make it look good later.
Jimmy and Bill’s first appearance was as two generic characters engaged in a duel. At this point, they had no names and I had no specific intention of using them further. However, as I continued to make comics it felt very easy to continue using them whenever I needed generic characters. At a certain point, I realized that I might as well flesh them out as characters which would allow me to create some character-driven comics rather than always relying on standalone gags.
Building upon Jimmy’s brand of innocence and optimism as a catalyst for new adventures is one of the most natural ways I have found to come up with new comics. Inserting him into normal scenarios and just asking myself “What would Jimmy do?” is all that is needed to find some sort of spark. Of course sometimes what Jimmy would do is pretty normal so it still takes some time to work through the ideas and find the ones worth drawing!
In the beginning, I was much more focused on just getting comics made and not worrying too much about the art. It wasn’t until last year that I really started to develop a more consistent style for myself. Since then I have gone back and remastered some of my earlier comics, most noticeably my first comic “The Duel”. A lot of the comics from earlier in this process have no backgrounds and oddly shaped heads, but I have transitioned to using brighter colors, fuller backgrounds, and slightly less oddly shaped heads. Either way, as long as there is a blue blob with a yellow hat and a red blob with a darker hat, I figure it will be recognizable enough.
At this point, I myself still don’t know exactly how Jimmy and Bill met or why they continue to stick together. It’s clear they have a soft spot for each other and maybe someday we’ll learn more about how that came to be. Either way, they can help remind us that you don’t have to get along with someone all of the time to still value them as a friend.
If you enjoyed these comics then I have good news because more are constantly on the way! Otherwise, if you did not enjoy them then my news may be less than stellar, but congrats on getting through it! Thanks for reading!
