It’s Friday night and I’m still at the computer tweaking things on the site and updating my computer with the latest version of Mac OS X. (Yes, I’m a die-hard Mac addict). Kim is cleaning like a fiend; I can tell because she’s got the CD player turned way up and the unmistakable aromas of bleach and Pledge are permeating the office. My parents are coming up to visit tomorrow – everything must be in tip-top shape…
Today I spent way too much time reorganizing things around here in the misguided pursuit of somehow creating space where there is none. Prints and mats and oversized boxes and packaging peanuts and my rubber Jabba The Hutt sculpture all demand precious square footage in this ever-shrinking apartment. I long for the days when we’re making enough to move the business into a dedicated office space and have a room just for boxes, and a table just for packaging orders, and a bedroom just for sleeping.
After finally getting all the prints and mats into what I believe appears to be logical order, I went to take out some frame boxes to the trash and try and find a place to stick some envelopes. It occurred to me that “Kim & Jason” and the business in general has completely enveloped this apartment. It looks more like a kitschy Disneyworld exhibit featuring your favorite comic strip about childhood. There is a 4×4 foot vinyl sign hanging in the living room over a six foot wide table my Dad made in the shape of the K&J logo. Almost all of the two tall bookshelves he made for our wedding are jammed with packaging supplies, PR materials, and sales binders. The Big Closet, as we affectionately call our once spacious walk-in closet, is choked with boxes and frames and bicycles we don’t get to use enough. And there is a fax machine in our bedroom, because that’s where the jack for the second line is.
As frustrating as it is to be constantly fighting for air and elbow room, I am reminded by how much this little company has grown in a short time. Less than two years ago, when Kim and I moved here, I was still planning on pursuing a lucrative career as a freelance illustrator and designer. The second bedroom was converted to an office and did a nice job holding everything pertaining to art and business. Heck, even the Big Closet had a much larger ratio of personal items and still seemed pretty big. What a difference a year and a half makes.
I’ve decided the good news is that we’re headed in the right direction. It’s exciting to think where we’ll be next year at this time. Will I still be sitting here, in this room? I’m not sure, but I hope that we are able to afford a bigger space before we are swallowed alive…
JK
It’s exciting building something new, from scratch. When I started doing Kim & Jason full time almost a year and a half ago, I guess I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t know it would be this fun. I didn’t know it would be this tough, either.
From the beginning, one of the goals has always been to get syndicated or picked up for a big licensing deal. Then I could concentrate on the artwork and let someone else focus on the business and the finances and the marketing. Well, those doors have yet to open up, so I’ve pretty much been left with two options: give up, or do all those things on my own. Actually, there really wasn’t much of an option at all.
Luckily, I’ve had a lot of help along the way. I’ve done a lot of reading – I joke that I’ve learned more in my three years out of school than I did while I was in college. I’ve got a nice collection of “Idiot’s Guides” and “Dummies” books in my repertoire. I’ve met a lot of fine people with way more experience than me who have been gracious enough to not laugh in my face when I tell them what I’m doing.
Things have steadily grown, and doors keep opening for us, but I always think I’m not doing enough, or that I’m missing something. Is the strip good enough? What can we add to the site to make it better? How can we effectively get the word out about this thing and still make our car payment? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
As many times as my mind wrestles with the current situation and the best way to proceed, I usually come back to the fact that it’s patience that I’m missing most.
The waiting has been the hardest part. And giving up some of the things that I could have were I to settle for the 9 to 5 corporate job. You know: house, kids, leather La-Z-Boy, frequent trips to Disneyland…But every time I think of changing directions, I think of how unhappy and unfulfilled I’d be doing that, and it makes the waiting bearable again.
One of the things that drive me are all the people who believe in me and support me. I feel as though I’ve got something to prove. I believe that everyone should go after their dream, no matter what their fears or society tells them. I think the only way to be most happy with life is to be doing what you love to do. Even though many others have succeeded before me in this aim, I feel like I’m a living experiment. If I can do this, anyone can. I’m just a kid from Peru, Illinois who cried on his first day of Kindergarten because he was afraid of new situations and didn’t make it through swimming lessons until he towered over the instructors because he was afraid of drowning.
Sure, it takes some talent. But people usually are somewhat talented in the thing they love to do, even if that particular talent isn’t as flashy as slam dunking a basketball. It really takes a lot of persistence, a boatload of patience, and a heavy dosage of pa** ion and faith, which anyone can acquire. And when I think of what lies ahead if doors keep opening and I stay on course, everything seems worthwhile and easier to swallow. Which brings me back to the waiting. The excruciating, impossible, virtuous waiting.
Do they have an Idiot’s Guide to that?
Pardon the cleverly titled, marginally disgusting title of this category. Being that my nickname is J-Bird, I found it hard to resist using “Bird Droppings” as the title of this experimental online journal, especially since the message board itself is called The Sidewalk. Forgive me.
I’m not sure how this journal will evolve, but I hope it will be at least somewhat interesting to whomever finds themselves reading it. The reason for starting this is not because I feel that I have some great knowledge or experiential wisdom to share, but mainly because my wife thought I should. Apparently, she thinks there are people besides her who might like knowing some of the thoughts that take up residence in my head.
My plan is to just write stuff here from time to time; stuff about the strip, the characters, and the daily ups and downs that go with trying to live out this dream. I imagine it will be sort of cathartic for me, which is good, because even if no one reads it, I’ll have saved tons of money on a psychologist.
I guess a good place to start is why I’m doing the strip in the first place. I love to draw, first of all. I think I always have. I don’t remember the first time I started to draw or even picked up a crayon, but someone along the line encouraged me so I kept at it. I don’t recall defacing any walls as a youngster, but that may be because I didn’t see it as a “wall”, but rather as a nice big flat white space that needed some color.
Secondly, I like to make people laugh. It’s far better than making them cry or become really, really angry. You (usually) don’t have to worry about people trying to beat you up for making them laugh.
The main reason I do the strip, (and this may be the most inspiring or the most pretentious reason, depending on how you look at it) is to express my view on things and make people think. Why do we see things the way we see them? And why do we think the way we think? Kim & Jason is obviously about childhood. It’s fun to point out the little things from childhood that people have the tendency to forget.
But I think it’s important to point out the big things as well. Why do we all run around like maniacs focusing on all the wrong things? How come we miss the simple pleasures in the day, like a robin’s spring song, or a gentle breeze through an open window, or the wonderful arrangement of sidewalk cracks? Who said we have to get a 9-to-5 job with benefits and have 2.5 children with a pet and a pension and an SUV? And just when did we forget our dreams?
I think the strip has more of me and my thoughts hidden within it than I’ve ever really paid attention to. I can’t imagine doing anything else. (Well, I can, but I’m not too good at those things.) I always thank God for allowing me to do Kim & Jason. I just hope that when people read it, they’ll laugh. And think.
JK
