So today is my birthday, and one year ago, I think I was working on some blase piece of freelance work that probably involved Sponge Bob. I decided since it was my birthday, I was going to do something fun. I had been nervous about drawing the kiss I had written in Issue #1. First, have you ever tried to draw people kissing?? Illustration teachers in school used to tell us it is the most difficult pose to draw. Secondly, I had been doing commercial illustration for years, and hadn't done much "comic book" stuff. I was just deciding that I was really going to do this--to take a chance at living out my dream as a comic book artist.

So on my birthday I decided to forget about Sponge Bob for a day, and just do a rough sketch to see if I could get something I was at least sort of kind of happy with... So I could stop being so afraid of this page. (I knew that it was the selling point/starting point for the entire series.)

I did a rough sketch in blue line in my sketchbook and thought, "You know, that might actually work." I turned the page and... out came this.

I loved it on the first try. So, yeah, the infamous kiss scene on page 2 only exists in my sketchbook--it's not to size, and it's not on bristol board. But... I thought it was perfect. And it gave me my drawing confidence back and well, the rest is history!

This is the drawing exactly as it exists in my sketchbook. I didn't clean it up, change the levels or anything. (Final art here: [link])

Bea and Alan have been sucking face for a year, and they still don't seem tired.