Here goes...

If you're reading this, I'm amazed. To be honest, the only time I've tried to blog was on myspace (not exactly professional, I know), and even then, at my absolute best I churned out the occasional rant, doing my damnedest to be witty, verbose, and biting. At my worst, by the way, I churned out results from quizzes like "Which Looney Tune are you?"

That's not my purpose here. My blogger sketchbook is just that: an interweb extension of the sketchbooks I carry with me most everytime I leave home.

See, I've loved drawing since I was a kid. I started out young, drawing my favorite characters by rote imitation. Then, the magic happened: I developed my first mental toolkit for how to break out on my own, via the godsend that is How to Draw Comics the MARVEL Way. I mark that as the moment in history when I officially started teaching myself how to draw.

My commitment has been sketchy, though. I have this problem with my imagination - since childhood I've daydreamt of a million and one things I'd like to be when I grow up (I still do it). I thought my last aspiration to professional art died when I turned down my acceptance to the Kubert School (I still regret that! What a place! And to be accepted there, no less!)

Today I find myself inspired again by a wonderful, wonderful woman I had dimly hoped against hope would exist somewhere out there (you may know her as Jennie SMASH!) and her near and dear friends. From 2004 to the start of this year, I filled roughly 40 pages of a yellowing sketchbook in occasional fits and starts; since the renaissance of Miss SMASH, I've filled more than that amount in the past two months. God forbid, I had to go buy more sketchbooks!

And now I find myself hungering to do anything and everything to get into the good habits that'll make me not just a dreamer, but a producer - a creative machine. If I want to do anything with this, I've got to churn out something - ANYTHING! - on a regular basis, until it's second nature. I love to sit around daydreaming much as the next bloke, but I see Will Eisner's early start in The Dreamer, the endless pursuit to create something day in and day out and flood the drawing board until something really sticks, and I WANT THAT!

But I need something else - I need to follow up on what I've started and reach out to others, seek advice, criticism, feedback. And I need to build an audience (even - especially - a casual one!) that expects me to deliver something on the reg, even if it's not my best. I need that audience, if they'll be so kind, to leave comments on my sketches, so I can take in a broad sweep of what makes people ooh and ah, what they find clear, what they find confusing, and what they find downright unappealing. After all, I want more than just to doodle (I've been doing that for years)... I want to make things that people will consume and enjoy, and maybe even treasure.

Will you be my audience?