Ah, the beginning! I began TJHS 1987 in 2000, whilst whiling away the days in my apartment in Vancouver. Unable to work until I got my permanent resident visa, I decided that I was going to bring back the newspaper comic strip with a vengeance…back from the brink it would come, with my comics leading the charge. I grew up reading Peanuts, Bloom County, The Far Side, and of course, Calvin & Hobbes. I loved those comic strips and I used to take great pride in the collections that would come out on a regular basis. I used to enjoy reading the newspaper simply for the cartoons (especially the Sunday strips). But if I was going to create my own comic strip, then what in the world was it going to be about??
I had never really written anything autobiographical before, so I thought I would take myself and throw him into the seventh grade. Of course, hindsight gives me much more wisdom than I actually had, so this character is a lot smarter than the actual person it is based upon. This is the story of Donny, a 13-year old kid, going to middle school for the first time and the plan was for it to be all about his adventures in the 7th grade.
I had only planned on making a few of these strips to, perhaps, offer them as a sample to some sort of syndicate for publication. Ah, silly me. My strength has always been as a writer, and that’s evident here. My art skills? They’re a little lacking. Either way, enjoy the first 30 TJHS strips contained here.