Wow…50 Boxcar Astronaut comic strips. I can’t believe we’ve already reached this milestone. It’s truly amazing to me. To help us commemorate this achievement, Marc has provided me with a spiffy new blog header, and there are great new updates to the website as well. Make sure you hit up the new “Extras” page, where you can download three different Boxcar desktop wallpapers! Let me tell you folks, these wallpapers are astonishingly gorgeous. Marc has poured his heart and soul into these and the results are nothing short of spectacular. My breath left my body when I saw the 50 strips all assembled together in one gorgeous wallpaper. Simply incredible.
This week, instead of providing some commentary on this week’s strip, which features Diogee and Caveman in some more hilarious and adorable visual gags with a game of fetch, I thought I’d share a little history with you and tell you a little bit about how the strip came about (I’ve also included something never seen before, an actual scan of one of my chicken scratch strip thumbnails!) Enjoy!
One year ago, I was sitting in front of my computer struggling to write a very adult, emotional screenplay. I had already been working on it for about two months, and I completely hit the wall. I had absolutely no idea where to go next, so I spent several nights staring blankly into the monitor, one hand on the keyboard and the other nervously running through my greying hair. Things were pretty dark for me around this time. I was just getting over an illness that caused me to drop about 25 pounds in three months, I was out of work, and a bleak New England winter raged outside my window. After torturing myself on the script, I just decided to stop. I needed to drop it for a while and focus on creating something that was a complete 180 from what I had been raking myself over the coals for months.
So, on that fateful winter’s eve, I grabbed a piece of paper and plopped it down on my desk. Instead of trying to think about dark, adult concepts and emotions, I started thinking about happy, innocent, colorful things. I began reminiscing about my childhood, and the things I used to do in the backyard to keep myself amused on those long, sunny summer days. At the time, I had a pop-culture review blog called “Boxcar Astronaut”. There was really no rhyme or reason to the title, it was just two words that I thought sounded cool together (I think I initially thought of it as an alternative-rock band name, then it later became an online “handle”, a screenplay title, a comic book title, and finally a blog), but then it struck me like a bolt of lightning. ”Boxcar Astronaut” had always been a metaphorical concept for me, but suddenly, I realized it could be literal.
I sketched out a little kid in an oversized, plastic space helmet sitting in a cardboard ”boxcar” spaceship, and thus, Ben was born. He wasn’t Ben yet, just a little, poorly-scribbled kid playing in his backyard. But just seeing that image in my head got me really excited. I remembered back to my childhood, when all I ever wanted was to go off into space and fight stormtroopers with my lightsaber and fly cool spaceships like Luke Skywalker. Like millions of other kids, I used calking guns and busted hair dryers as rayguns, whiffle bats for lightsabers, and carboard boxes for spaceships. I thought capturing that feeling in a comic strip could really strike a nerve with people and be very successful. Later on, I added a dog (a boy should never be without man’s best friend), another kid for ”Ben” to interact with, and the one element that I felt would really put the concept over the top, Robot.
I excitedly scribbled out what would eventually become the first five or so Boxcar strips and showed it to Marc (click the above to see one of the early concept strips!). I knew that something like this would suit his art style perfectly, but I wasn’t sure what he would think of the concept or if we would even want to commit to working on something like a webcomic (He had just been married and discovered his wife was pregnant with their first child). Marc told me he really liked the concept and flet that there might just be something there. He said he would work on some designs and run them by me the next time we got together. When I saw Marc the next week, he showed me a few pages of character designs for Ben, Devin, Robot, and Diogee. I’ll never forget that day because it was downright scary how he absolutely nailed exactly what I had in mind for the characters. With the exception of Robot (who I didn’t really develop a “look” for), it was like he reached into my head and brought the boys to life right there on paper. It was a truly awesome moment. I knew then that Boxcar Astronaut was going to be a reality.
Now, here we are celebrating the 50th Boxcar strip. We’ve come a long way from that cold winter night in my room and the day Marc showed me the concept designs, but I feel like we are just getting started. I know deep down in my heart that Boxcar Astronaut has the potential to reach a lot more people and make them laugh than it is now. With hard work and the dedication of you readers out there, I think Ben and Devin are going to get their wish and truly soar among the stars!
Thanks for coming along for the ride on 50 great comic strips. Here’s hoping you can help us get even more folks on board for the next 50!
Enjoy the 50th strip, see you next week!
