Seriously. It’s a terrifying reality for me to acknowledge, but the truth of the matter is that the comic was first published in the McMaster University student newspaper a full quarter century ago. It feels like it was yesterday. But it also feels like it was a million years ago. If that makes any sense.
Now, to be fair, it hasn’t been a solid twenty-five years of continuous Puck comics. There was a brief ten-year hiatus in there after I left university. So it’s been twenty-five calendar years and fifteen active years. Still, though, that’s a lot of years.
Will it still be going twenty-five years hence? I dunno. I mean, it’s an active question as to whether I’ll still be going twenty-five years hence. And honestly, the concept of working on a relatively obscure comic of middling quality with a very small readership for a full half-century is … kinda sad. But also seems kinda reassuring?
There’s been some highs, and there’s been some lows. Mostly it’s been a whole lot of mids. Lots has happened since I started this comic. I got married, had kids, developed pains in a number of joints, struggled to maintain my sanity in a crazy world — all that good stuff. As for the comic, it has changed. What once was black and white is now color. What once was really terrible art is now … slightly less terrible art? What has remained constant, though, is the freckles. And the chutzpah.
But for those people who read the comic, those veritable dozens of people, I’d like to say thank you for taking the time out of your day to check out my dumb creations. If it weren’t for you guys commenting and encouraging and supporting me (emotionally through your words and even financially through Patreon), I would have given up a long, long time ago.
25 years of Puck. It’s not an accomplishment I’m proud of, but it’s an accomplishment I’ve achieved. That’s my life in a nutshell.
