ABOUT

Background Story

It all started in 2006, in the spring of freshman year, when I answered an ad in the The Bucknellian, the school newspaper. The current cartoonist was a senior who was graduating in a few weeks, so the paper was searching for somebody to take his place. As an "audition," I drew a cartoon for the last issue of the semester. Apparently, the cartoon was good enough to get me a second cartoon request for a special graduation issue of the paper. In the fall, I was asked if I wanted to continue drawing for the paper. I said yes, of course, and drew editorial cartoons, along with the occasional cartoon request from other sections, throughout the semester.

At the beginning of the 2007 spring semester, one of the Opinions section editors, Michael Dippery, proposed the return of a Bucknellian comic strip and gave me first dibs on the strip. I was definitely interested, but I wasn't so sure if I could pull it off. The cartoons that I had been drawing had articles that went with them and were only one panel in size. For a comic strip, I would have to come up with my own punchlines and draw multiple panels per strip. Yikes. Of course, I couldn't turn down the challenge, so just like with the cartoons, I said yes. The strip debuted on February 16, 2007 and appears in the Opinions section every week.

About the Strip

Since The Bucknellian is a weekly newspaper, as opposed to a daily newspaper, it's difficult to develop storylines and characters. Therefore, the strip relies on simple college life humor that is occasionally specific to Bucknell. The main cast of characters includes the unnamed baseball-cap-wearing college guy and his unnamed Asian friend. Every once in a while, Bucknell squirrels are featured in place of the usual cast of characters.

About the Cartoonist

I graduated from Bucknell University in May 2009 with a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering. I'm now an electrical engineering grad student at Bucknell. Beyond elementary school, I have no experience in art, whatsoever. (Some may say it shows.)