All of them were made, apart from few collaborative exceptions, by Zach, who started them as his final "last-ditch effort to find fulfillment." Zach was in a very dark place at the time: he went to college to pursue something he wasn't all that passionate about, and abandoned the field altogether after he graduated. He was also constantly getting chewed out by his abusive manager at a grocery store he worked in.
"Currently, I am working on a Kickstarter campaign for a book of my comics! I also began a new low-effort comic called 'Pervis Comics,' which is already more successful than my normal slightly higher-effort comics, a fact which has left me feeling empty inside.
As for how I've been doing recently, I have been okay! I have been preparing for the collapse of society by learning various useful skills like how to whittle objects out of sticks I find, and how to eat less food."
Zach was so worked up that he started reflecting on what he really loved to do, way back before he ended up in that mess in his life, and remembered that he always loved making his friends laugh with his drawings. Then it clicked. "One day I tried to think back to when I last felt ‘fulfilled,’ and it dawned on me that I was happiest when I was making my friends laugh with my drawings. Somehow, through years of schooling, that revelation escaped me. Had I thought of it earlier, I'd have started the comics years before I did."
11 years later, and Zach has found himself quite a solid niche in the comic scene for his 'Extra Fabulous comics.' With over 600k fans on Instagram and many more on other socials, he has built an impressive readership and made quite a name for himself. And good for him!
Here's what he loves about making his comics, as told in an interview in one of the previous posts. “I enjoy boiling things down and dissecting topics to the point where they're unrecognizable," Zach said. "I don't really have much to say definitively, I just prefer to get people to smile and think and come to their own conclusions. Depression is perhaps the most enduring topic in my comics since it's something that's always on my mind."
"Making comics has brought so much happiness and fulfillment to my life! Yet there is a bit of reservation in my heart, as I know that I will be among the first to be killed and eaten when the fall of humanity begins because I have no meaningful skills to contribute to the tribe. Hence, the whittling.
My creative process is: sit down at my most awake part of the day (1-3pm EST) and draw several comics via stream-of-consciousness. I don't have a list of ideas that I work from, I just begin with a first frame starting from whatever comes to mind first. From that first panel, I try to make a joke or a twist, no matter how low effort or terrible the idea is. Then I try to do it again and again as many times as I can fit in 4 panels. None of the jokes on their own are ever very good, and if the comic had only one of them it would probably be cringe and terrible. But when you put 2, 3, or 4 of those awful jokes into a single comic, it miraculously becomes something presentable! Yahoo!
I suppose my favorite thing about this process is that it feels like pure creative effort. Once I'm done vomiting the thing out onto the page, I snap a picture and slap it onto my Patreon, where the good people there are usually quick to tell me if it's decent or not. Something I dislike about the process is that I have to sit still for so long in order to get any work done, because I have tons of energy and I love procrastinating and sitting still for an hour or two makes me want to burn myself."
As for what these comics actually mean, Zach prefers the readers to make their own opinions about his work. “It is important to take breaks from the never-ending news stream, and I think there is honor in providing a place where people can lower their defenses,” he talked about how he’s making the internet a more wholesome, relaxed, and honest place. “That isn't to say I haven't made statements before, but I do often regret them afterward. Divisiveness has become the norm. I don't want to fuel the extremism and hatred perpetuated by so many voices on both sides. I do have very strong beliefs, I just don't believe I have the intelligence required to spew them into the masses,” said Zach.
"In terms of starting comics and all that jazz, I would say to them to eliminate the idea of "Risk" entirely. Post under a pseudonym or something if you are worried people will find out who you are. Just post your work! Share it to communities like Reddit where the potential to be seen by new eyes is so much greater. Try to learn and grow! Always try something new. Rarely do any of us get it right the first time around, so be willing to alter your vision for what you want your comic to look like. Ask for advice, and listen to people when they tell you what they want to see! "Playing to your audience" may sound contrary to "being true to yourself", but you may find (as I did) that allowing yourself to grow and change only results in you becoming even more of "yourself" than you ever were before. Also it is important to understand and accept that there is INFINITE creativity inside and around you. You have not run out of ideas, you won't "never make a good comic again". Open yourself to the boundless creative world! If you've exhausted all your "ideas", shift gears and try something totally new. You will find even more fulfillment as you explore."
