The characters in these comics are Stephen Beals divided into four different parts. A truly interesting concept. The artist believes that we all have different personalities, or at least Stephen has "four usable ones."
As the artist explained, Penny and Berle are brother and sister. Harvey (named after Stephen's grandfather) has known them since they were kids and has formed a long-term relationship with Penny.
Harvey is Stephen's ego, Berle is his complete ID, Penny is his small part of the responsibility and Claremont (the dog) is Stephen at his best, "which is why he's a dog." There's also Todd (an extra), who represents the naive side of the artist.
The artist told Bored Panda that he graduated with a degree in animation from the California Institute of the Arts. For nearly all of his college years, according to Stephen, he was still a teenager and, thus, still stupid. "I made a bad choice. I love animation and film, but I ultimately didn't want to work in the industry. I wanted to make comics, which notoriously doesn't pay enough to buy the luxuries I've grown accustomed to, like toilet paper, so I wound up working for the university library. I love libraries! Who doesn't? If you don't, find out more at your local library."
Stephen continued: "The library I worked for was busy. Very busy. 'I'm going to die' busy. I dealt with every kind of person imaginable. Libraries are similar to retail except they're free to the public, so everyone is welcome unless they are actively trying to set the place on fire."
"I thought about becoming a librarian, but I spent quite a bit of money on my art degree and it was kind of like letting a good bottle of milk spoil. I left to work in advertising. For quite a few years I designed every ad conceivable and worked on marketing strategies to sell things that I wouldn't buy unless it was to resolve some sort of hostage negotiation. Advertising wound up being somewhat cold and monotonous. I missed people, even the weird ones like myself.
At times, I would work part-time at large retail stores to help pay for my expensive habit of heating my house. I liked working with people again, but it was hard to get passionate about daily retail concerns like price tag placement or expired candy bars.
I combined my two passions and made a conscious decision to go back to serving the public at a print shop. I wound up working for quite a few printing establishments and now work for one of the biggest. I get to design things and deal with very strange people at times. Perfect!"
Being busy working at the print shop, the artist still manages to post comics every day. For Stephen, it's the best part of his day. "To paraphrase the great writer Shelby Foote, 'It takes me a very long time to get started on something and I solve that problem by never stopping once I've started.'"
Stephen shared that he loves to write and we guess you noticed that already. "If there's anything that I love as much as comics, it's books. I am constantly listening to an audiobook, reading a book, and reading blogs. If offered a writing gig I would not hesitate to throw myself into it."
The artist is also a huge fan of old humorists. "Many humorous essay books were illustrated by very good cartoonists and I always think of those as perfect books. I hope to have an eBook out, if only to please myself and have something for people to actually buy. Short of that, a blog post or weekly essay is something I wish to resume (I did do that some time ago for websites that no longer exist)."
