Happy Anniversary to ..........ME!

Three years ago last week was the anniversary of my first day working at TSA. No big deal except that in my 27 years of my work history, It's the longest I ever held a job. Kinda sad I know, But that's how life is.

So, Why is that? How is a man with a college degree not able to hold on to any job longer than three years?

Several factors are involved.

One the main factors is that although I have a college degree. It's a BFA, an art degree. That gets you only so far, The portfolio takes care of the rest.

Plus, I hate looking for work, It was soul draining hearing why you're not good enough for the job. Too much work would be involved just trying to get a job. It took time from actually doing my art work for my portfolio. I was quick to learn I wasn't gonna be suited for freelancing.

That's another factor. What to put in the portfolio. When there are no assignments, you do what you want to do, Or at least that's what I did. Comic presentations, Timid Caricatures and unfocused water colors. The stuff wasn't bad but it was unfocused. My drive was limited, I had a hard time doing new pieces when I tried to market myself. I was and am lousy at networking. So after having a low paying artist assistant/publishing job I set out to a new frontier, Seattle.



It was 1991, I was 24 years old. I had an idea for a comic strip and I felt I was ready to conquer the west coast. After some false starts looking for art jobs I needed to work somewhere, anywhere. A friend from the east coast was a bartender, so I figured I look in that direction. I fell into a job working as a cook in a pub. It was only part time but it paid enough for me to live on in modest fashion. This allowed me time to my dream.

The dream, a comic strip I created whose name I hoped would be ironic: Pipe Dreams. I worked on it with gusto for the next few years. Sending it to syndicates only to have it rejected, Time and time again. It was good but not good enough and my enthusiasm would wane and wax depending on my mood. Still I worked at it, Improved it but than I met....her.

Her....or She, will remain nameless. Some people know who she is, A good woman for the most part. She supported me, Though I didn't like being helped and was upset that my efforts weren't successful so I sometimes resented her for it.

I met her when I was unemployed. My cook job was okay, But I needed more so I quit that to work at a nightclub. The nightclub was shady, and after a murder outside the club cut business in half and our quota was increased by double, We were laid off en masse.

That started what would be a unfortunate trend in my working life. Periods of unemployment. It took me six months to find another job and what I found was not good, paid little, and ultimately got me fired after a few months. It was a bakery after months and months of futile attempts of landing a bartending gig. I continued to work on my comic strip but was starting to think about getting a regular job doing graphic art of some kind. By this time all my fellow SVA alums were moving along nicely at their art careers in NYC. I had few opportunities but one in particular I was keen on...

By then I moved to the suburbs of Seattle in the town of Federal Way to live at my girlfriends place. I didn't like it there and hoped to move out as soon as I got this job at a place called Humoungous Entertainment. A computer software company that specialized in children's games. My interview went well but I was a little slow with learning to use a Wacom tablet. This being 1994-1995 and I had no computer I felt it was something I can pick up within two weeks. I didn't get the chance to prove that I didn't get the job.


It took about 3 months of unemployment when I took on a job through a temp agency. I also had a temporary gig doing caricatures for Guinness. Despite the low pay of the former gig and the grueling, depressing nature of the job, I was there for a year and a half. I got laid off when they cut their workforce right before Christmas 1995.

This started my longest period of unemployment to date. It lasted from December 1995 until August 1996. I spent the first part of it feverishly working on what I felt was my best set of comic strips I ever did.

Meanwhile I caught the acting bug by signing up for an ad agency. I thought about how ironic it would be if I could make a living as an actor in commercials and movies because I FAILED at regular jobs. Despite some work as an extra, It didn't work out. I was 29 and had gained 35 pounds and I was filled with enough self-doubt that I had to face facts and look for another real job.

The problem was that I wasn't getting anywhere looking at want ads and my piss poor skills at networking. So I went to another temp agency and they found me an even worse job than the warehouse job from a year back. I worked an assembly line in a bicycle factory.

I'm getting no closer to getting a career in anything. I hadn't lucked into anything substantial. Every job I had at this point were ones I wanted to leave the day I started. In both the warehouse and the bike factory, There was pretty much no direct way to move up into what would be a more suitable office job that paid better AND had benefits. But I needed to work regardless. Working a crappy job was better than being unemployed but every job I had was soul draining.

I worked at this bicycle factory for as long as I could and beyond. It was depressing, The only good thing was that I only worked four days a week. But I needed one whole day to recover from the job.

Finally I got a job that made use of my artistic skills, Kinda. We finally got a computer for Christmas 1996. I found a job through the internet at an embroidery factory. My job was to be a digitizer, A skill I had to learn from the ground floor. The complication of the Compucon program and my relative inexperience with computers made sure my job would not last. Plus, We had an embroidery woman who suffered with frequent bouts of "brown bottle flu" and I had to cover her slack without having any previous ability to work the embroidery machine.

So, Most of my time was spent covering for a drunk woman while simultaneously learning how to do my primary task by training myself and doing other tasks without any assistance. So after a mere four months I was let go.

I didn't want to go through an extended period of unemployment again So I grabbed the first job I could find. It was back in restaurant work, As a cook. It paid better than my previous jobs but it was hard work at times and I bitched and moaned like no one's business. I was 30, Fed up and failed out. Thankfully I was in a relationship with an understanding woman who shall still remain nameless. I was at this TGIF-like place for longer than any job ever at that point. Almost 3 years. I might have been there longer if my relationship hadn't fallen apart. My ex broke up our engagement and emotionally I had to leave the town of Federal Way in order to get my head back.

I thought I got lucky when I got a somewhat creative job working with trophies and plaques that paid well. By then I was somewhat good with the computer but the job really wasn't as creative as I hoped. But that wasn't the problem. I worked with three women who were openly hostile towards me. One was a bully, Another was paranoid of what I was thinking because I refused to listen to her spiel about Mormonism, and the third one accused me of sexual advances. Needless to say when I depended myself to that charge and mistakes other people made that I got blamed for, I got fired, On the same day the Supreme Court decide the will of the people didn't count and gave us George W as president AND the day A-Rod officially left the Mariners.

It was before Christmas, I had just moved back to Seattle and had a trip planned to visit my folks for the holidays. It was probably the most despairing time in my working life. Again my move forward was stopped in its tracks. I even had to cash out my old Savings Bond from when I was a kid. Thankfully it was double what the stated currency value. But it didn't take long for me to get another job, But unfortunately it was as a cook again.

I worked at a gay bar as a cook at a place that happened to share the same name as the woman I was engaged to. I was trying to find irony working there. And there was irony. I was still reeling from the breakup and feeling low on my self esteem. The customers at the gay bar were quite kind and flattering to me. Made me feel good about myself. I befriended many of the customers. The year 2001 was enhanced by the Seattle Mariners record setting 116 win season. Too bad 9/11 and the Yankees would put sour note on that fun. However my employment would not last. You see, the ownership was a bit shady and they had a habit of firing cooks after about a year so they don't have to give out benefits. The father of the owner was given the task of firing me basically for having a bad attitude. This same man said I was a very positive presence a mere 3 months before. I hadn't changed much.

It took me less than a week to find another job. It was at a steak house located right across the street form the under construction Seahawk Stadium and Safeco Field. A whole slew of us got hired at once. It was great having that kind of comradery there. The mass hiring was in anticipation of the 2002 Mariners baseball season. I was fortunate to be put in the seafood section of the kitchen. I developed lots of new skills plus I occasionally had the opportunity to serve people too. This was a financial windfall on game days. I made lots of money for three hours of work along with my cook salary. I hung out with my co-workers often on the off days which were slow, TOO slow. So when the Mariners collapsed at the end of the season and failed to get into the playoffs, My days were numbered and I was laid off. Too bad, I liked working there a lot.

It took a few weeks to get a job at Ruth's Chris. It was okay, We were allowed to cook off scraps of prime A fillets (which there was plenty of) to eat, But the management was too corporate and would send us home early at any point it was slow. They'd send the American born workers home first because we were paid quite a bit more than the Mexican immigrants who also worked in the kitchen. So I would be scheduled for 39 hours only to find that I would work as little as 28. So, I had to find a better job.

And I found it. The best job I had at Seattle. It was again at a restaurant. It was called 5-Spot. A local company owned this place a long with others that had its own identities. It was located a mere 5 blocks up Queen Anne Hill from my apartment. I got lucky and was put in the best part of the kitchen. The skill level was slightly above my abilities but I was able to pick it up pretty quickly. The menu would have a changing theme every three months. Part of the theme change involved the opportunity to do some paintings reflecting the theme. the best part, The paintings were for sale and I was fortunate to sell three of them. My co-workers were great, Interesting and artistic. I was scheduled for 4 day work weeks in which we had plenty of overtime opportunities and half hour breaks. These are rare benefits in restaurant work. I was happy there and had no plans of leaving until I started dating a woman who was moving back to Jersey. After a few months I would do the same thing. It was nearly a two year run, but I was foolishly in love with the wrong woman and moved back to Jersey.

Part of the reason I moved back to Jersey was that I thought my failure to sustain a good art related job was due to my lack of connections and opportunities in Seattle. But no, I had to face facts, I fell way behind in my art related skills, Especially involving computer graphics. It was getting to 2006 and the economy was starting to sour. It starts in the creative sector. No boom in that department, So my lack of experience would hamper my abilities to get a good job in the filed. Plue one of my main connections moved away two days after I moved back to Jersey.


I had worked three low level jobs to keep busy. Night stock man at Shop-Rite, Followed by summer work at a fish market/restaurant, and a stint at another bar restaurant when my unreliable unattentive girlfriend announced she was leaving me without giving me a valid reason. I had applied TSA by this point because she gave me crap about my inability to get a better job. Gave me crap about always being on the computer looking for jobs, Working on artwork while she was watching the Bravo channel on TV.

But I got into an argument at the bar where I worked and got fired the next day. I desperately needed to find a good paying job to survive at this point. My money was running out, I was paying off the rest of the lease my ex left me with by myself. I applied for a driver job at UPS because of its great reputation. Didn't get the driver job, Because they don't allow you to do that right away. They needed loaders and made the mistake of accepting. I had to do it because I was collecting unemployment at the time and couldn't refuse a job offer. The job was terrible in so many ways. It was the worst pay rate I had in at least ten years. The work was brutally hard and the hours were very few. So I was able to combine unemployment and my feeble UPS pay to survive while I looked for much better jobs and waited for TSA to come through.

The only good thing about UPS is that my resume looked good in that there was no gap in my employment history. It also vital in getting me a cheaper apartment that was my base while I licked my wounds. I finally got the call to TSA and after working part time for 9 months I finally was able to quit UPS and here I am three years later happy with a secure job that I enjoy. I have no plans of leaving other than to transfer to Seattle when I move next October, Barring any wishy-washiness on my part.

So, what's the lesson here?

I have no idea.

I know I am terrible about selling my skills. I have a hard time dealing with failure and I have never said "no!" to any job offers that came my way. I feel like I'm begging when I inquire about job opportunities at any friend's work place. I give up at the wrong time, I get settled into jobs I don't even like and I fail to apply myself well in getting promotions. But I'm content. I'm at my most financially secure and hope to be more so when I'm back in Seattle.

Pipe Dreams History Continues "Holding On To The Dream"

So, It was 1997 and I quit my job at the bicycle factory and has gotten what I thought was a great opportunity to become a digitizer at an embroidery company in South Seattle. I was still new with computers in particularly Photoshop but I had worked my way into a position through my enthusiasm. It didn't pay much but I saw this as the ultimate opportunity to develop my skills with computer graphics. this in turn may help me develop discipline with my artwork.



















There was a problem. I had to learn a complicated program called Compucon (sp?) that was the Photoshop of digitizing. The boss knew I didn't know it and I was supposed to be trained by the guy I was replacing. the guy didn't see that as his mission and left before training me. This left me to train myself and since no one else at the place knew anything about it, I was left to my own devices.


















One of my duties included working the embroidery machines whenever the morning embroiderer was out with the "Brown Bottle Flu" which turned out to be quite often. I had to learn this skill on the fly too. Needless to say I never was able to balance this out successfully enough to satisfy the owner, Who knew next to nothing about the actual workings of the operation he ran. The one skill he had in spades was knowing how much money he was spending for an in house digitizer and felt it wasn't worth it. So, after a mere three months I was out the door and out of luck.



















That would continue to be the trend with Pipe Dreams. I was starting to use my computer to work on my corrections and coloring my work. It was fun but my putting it on the internet wasn't getting the results I was hoping. I still was submitting it to the syndicates. I was getting more personal replies but none that would say that I was to be the next comic strip sensation.




















My work was starting to be less "Gen X" and more gag oriented. I was thinking about giving up. I hadn't thought of any other "killer" idea and after getting fired from another job my self esteem was low and I desperately was looking for a job, any job.



















I got that job. a job I should have tried for three years before. It was at a restaurant called Billy McHales. The pay was quite good, It was close to home and I was able to leave my work behind when I got home.

















Back to Pipe Dreams. I didn't change it much with this current set of strips. It was a little less sloppy than the previous set. However it was lacking some spark. I was now 30 and I didn't achieve my goal in getting syndicated by that age. My relationship with my girlfriend was entering its 5th year and I needed to do right by her. She was experiencing her own job troubles herself which I used as an excuse to delay marriage or breakup.


























Treading water, The story of my life.

Odd Coincidences

So, I was in the city last week visiting my friends who work there. I met two of them at lunch and my buddy Delfin after he was done at work. We met up at Foley's on 33rd street. Shortly after we started getting into our conversation a woman whom Delfin worked with before walked in. Now Del is one of those guys who somehow has many friendships with women. Nice women that are usually good looking. This one was no exception.

We asked her to sit down while she waits for her friend, another former coworker of Del's. This friend walks in about ten minutes later and after exchanging pleasantries, Del and the first woman got into a specific conversation that allowed me to get to know the second woman. (Apparently names wasn't something I got to know because I forgot both of their names) Since she was attractive and I was having a good day I was friendlier than usual. I told her I was celebrating the fact I got full time work at TSA and that I finally quit my other job at UPS.

She said "Really? You worked at UPS? My boyfriend works at UPS! Where did you work?"

Leaving the fact that I was disappointed at the fact she had a boyfriend I decided to pursue the conversation.

"I worked at Tinton Falls."

"Omigod! That's where my boyfriend works! Do you know Reno?"

"Yeah I know Reno, he's my boss!"

So, we were able to engage in conversation until Del and the other woman were done and a pleasant time was had for all.

The thing is, I have been looking for some kind of coincidence like this fro a long time. A person who knew someone I've known in my past. I just wished it didn't involve a job I really hated that I just quit the week before.

But It's My First Day...

So, in 1996 I decided to give up on my brilliant acting career. I was running out of money from unemployment, so I needed to get a real job fast. So I made the mistake of going to a temp agency. This was the second time I looked for work through a temp agency. The first time I was sent to work at a horrible warehouse called Norvanco. The work was hard and the pay was low. The only good thing I got out of it was the ability to drive a forklift. I switched to a different temp agency hoping that a better opportunity would come along.


I was wrong.

Still, this little story isn't about the job itself more about what happened the first full day I worked at A Raleigh bicycle plant in Kent, WA. I was sent there late one afternoon where I did some rudimentary training work. They asked me to come in the next day at 6AM.

6AM.

I didn't have a car, so I had to do the bike/bus combo to get to work. This meant I had to wake up at 4 in the morning. This was the beginning of my not sleeping in the same room as my girlfriend.

So, I would ride my bike to the bus stop 3 miles away. (If my shift started at 7, I would have been able to catch my bus outside my street.) I would then take the first bus to yet another bus stop at the top of Kent Valley. I had to wait ten minutes for the next bus that would take me to the street where the factory was at. It would let me off at 3 minutes before 6AM.

The problem was that Kent WA, is notorious for having a bunch of grey and beige warehouses that all look the same. Their street names were all numbered street with 3 digits. My memory where I worked the day before was a little faulty. So that first day I got off at the wrong street. The problem was that I didn't realize it until I walked about 200 yards east. I saw the street I needed to be north about two blocks. The problem was that I would have to walk back west two hundred yards go north two blocks and again walk two hundred yards east to the bike factory.

I was running late and was looking to see if there was an alternative. I could maybe cut through the woods and tall grass that separated me directly north in front of me. I figure it was worth the possible trespassing violation.

All was fine and dandy at first. It was just short cut grass at first. I headed towards the trees and approached the tall grass that had been beyond the trees. I brushed the first of the tall grass aside, took one step ...

Sploooosh!

I had plunged chest deep in cold October wetlands water. I quickly got out of the murky liquid and proceeded to go with the other choice.

I walked into the bike factory, punched in late and went straight to the work station I worked the day before. I was moved to another station by my supervisor, keeping a safe distance to hide the fact that I was soaked to the bone.

Periodically, I would go to the bathroom to squeeze out the excess water from my socks. I finally got dry by the time my girlfriend picked me up.

That was the first day of what would turn out to be the worst job I have had so far. The beginning of an 8 month nightmare.

The lesson learned?

Always bring a dry pair of socks, and put it in your hat.

While I was working at the lousy bicycle factory and putting in work for The Seattle Scroll, I continued to put out Pipe Dream submission to the syndicates. After I had been told that Pipe Dreams was too de classe, I toned down the anger and made it a little goofier. It helped that I was able to express my anger and my angst for the Seattle Scroll.









































































I kept the sideways format for this submission. I felt that seeing it large would make it more presentable. I started this set of strips with the re-introduction of the character of Julian. I expanded his background. Before he was an incidental character, mainly as a foil for Skat outside of the Pipe Dream gang.




















This time I decided to make him much more eccentric. The house I lived in that served as the setting for these set of strips, had a messy basement that was very dusty. I decided that it would make for a good place for Julian to reside.





































The friend I based Julian on had lived a month or so in a basement in Brooklyn one summer. It was a miserable setting for anyone to live. Another friend I had, who lived in Sloane House was a squatter in a basement in the lower east side. Both of these guys had similar backgrounds. Both grew up upper middle class and went through a period of time rejecting their upbringing. I decided that would be the basis for Julian. The Socialist Bourgeois.




















Anyhow, I was starting to get sloppy in my presentations. I missed some typos in this set of strips and wasn't able to sustain continuity. I added some quirks to Skat like the fact he was into hacky sack. The fact that I was doing hacky sack in a vain attempt to lose weight had nothing to do with it being featured in Pipe Dreams.








































One other thing, We had finally got a computer at this point. My first obsessive interest in the new technology at my disposal was fonts.

All at my disposal, fonts, fonts, fonts. The variety of fonts I was able to buy, I did. I experimented with the variety to find the best one for Pipe Dreams.













Oh what fun!




















Anyway, I continued my periodic tradition of receiving of being rejected by the main syndicates. If only I can get out of my job at the bicycle factory.

A Brush With Mediocroty

1994 was not a good year in my life. I had got fired from a job I didn't like, and moved to a house in a town I didn't like. So when I still didn't get a good job I liked that would have allowed me to
move out of the town I didn't like, Federal Way, Washington, I was starting to get doubts about my future.

Besides, The baseball strike canceled the World Series, The Republicans took over Congress in a meaningful way. I gained like twenty pounds, seeing for the first time, a 2 in front of my weight in pounds.


Kurt Cobain blew his brains out, which affected my desire to make Pipe Dreams the Doonesbury of the 90's. The Slacker/Grunge era was over. I loved my girlfriend but I was getting frustrated at the fact that I wasn't able to get Pipe Dreams syndicated and even more frustrated in not getting a decent job as an alternative. The OJ situation affected me in the sense that I realized that I was not in tune with the American Psyche. When my employment insurance was running low I went to a temp agency on the advice of someone I was working out with at a smelly gym.

I figured I could weasel my way into a filing office type job and develop marketable skills. when I walked in not knowing too many computer programs, they saw a strapping 27 year old man who was rapidly gaining weight and thought that hauling boxes at a import/export warehouse would be perfect.










This would be the start of my downward trend of my pride. In order to stop this trend I needed to get Pipe Dreams on track. It had been rejected a half dozen times already. I needed to change some things to change the minds of those who look at these things.

The most radical change I made to Pipe Dreams in the 7th set of strips was that I switched from a pen nib to a Windsor Newton Series 707 brush. I had practiced it in my sketch pads, and thought I was ready to work with it. The reason was that my favorite comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes made use of brush and you are not going to find a better rendered comic strip to be inspired by.

I was pretty good using the brush on organic forms like people and foliage but when it came to man made objects it looked really bad and it was evident in this set of Pipe Dream strips. If I used a brush to do straight lines my hand would shake and look sloppy. If I used a pen nib, the contrasting appearances made Pipe Dreams look amateurish.

These set of Pipe Dreams strips featured some progress in the characters of Rachel and Anais. In dating Sonya, I was getting some insight on the female psyche, but she is a unique person so I shifted some of her personality traits to Anais, which made her a more fleshed out character. Rachel's personality took on the traits of a former room mate that Sonya couldn't stand.














Although I wasn't up to speed in my brushwork skills, I was proud of the way my characters were fleshed out. The baseball storyline with dirk and Skat is one I enjoyed and I look forward to re-working on it in the future, either on the blog or when I get syndicated.























































The beach gags were okay, but I'm amazed at how true it rings to me these days, now that I live near beaches that have a view of the city. I was winging it at the time. It had been 7 years since I visited the Jersey shore, a decade since I went to Coney Island, and the beaches near Seattle had a totally different feel to it.

Anyway, I was able to establish some Pipe Dreams character cliches that are evident in the following cartoons.




















Ha, Ha Gritzko is clumsy!!!


















Ha! Ha! A Pun That Mocks Dirk's promiscuous ways.




















Ha! Ha! Buck's So hungry that he eats crayons!





















Ha! Ha! Skat inadvertently commits blasphemy!

Pipe Dreams Writes Itself. Part 9

When 1993 turned to 1994 , I was dating someone I loved who believed in my work. I was living in a house that had many roommate types and yet I was not coming up with great new ideas that would move Pipe Dreams forward. I was on cruise control.

I had lived in Seattle long enough to develop ideas inspired by the city. Instead I started to get plagued with self doubt. I spent most of the second half of 1993, looking for jobs, mostly as a bartender.


















I needed at this point to make decent money. I had not made it as a cartoonist and any job I had would have to pay comfortably enough so I wouldn't have to work full time. A bartender job seemed ideal. My friend Pro was a bartender in NYC and I felt that the experience would inspire some great work. Instead, I failed in that pursuit. I had to compete with a lot of people with better experience.



















I thought it would be a no-brainer. The state of Washington had weird laws involving hard liquor and food sales, so that many places only served beer and wine. Since I didn't have to worry about mixed drinks, I felt I could do the job.









Instead I had to settle for a job at a bakery in Ballard. It was part time, didn't pay much, but it allowed me to indulge in my new favorite past time, making and drinking mochas. The job was dull, but not bad. Still, the owner, Mark seemed to have it in for me. My primary responsibility was to make soup. He had recipes, but allowed me the freedom to improvise. At the time I didn't have the confidence to do my own thing, but I did my best. My customers praised the soup I made without knowing I made it but Mark said the people in the sister bakery stated it wasn't salty enough.

Hmmm, what could these people do to fix that problem?

Anyway, there was a last straw that led to my firing.

One Sunday, I was cleaning up after 5 (closing time) when a woman came in wanting service. I told her we were closed, it was 5:30 after all. She said the door was opened and that the sign hadn't been turned around. Of course she chose to ignore the sign that said our hours were 8-5 on Sundays but whatever.

Anyway, she complained the floors were wet. I was mopping when she walked in.

She complained about the music. The jazz we normally played was replaced by Pearl Jam.

She complained it took too long to get her latte. I had already put all the equipment in the sink.

She complained about the selection of bread left over. We didn't keep bread for a second day, so at closing the selection is limited.

She wanted to eat in and complained that all the chairs were on top of the table.

So I did my best to please her by running around to fulfill all her requests. Most people would appreciate that effort. Most people would make it a point to make the requests easy, knowing that the place was closed . The Jazz was put back on to boot.

Did she appreciate it? Oh no, don't be silly. She actually threatened me that she knew my boss Mark and that she had some influence.

A few days later I go fired. And when I heard the list of the reasons why I go fired, most of them involved this one incident.

So now once again I stressed on trying to get another job. It would take a few more months and a move to the suburb town of Federal Way, WA.





















Before I moved down to Federal Way, I sent out another set of Pipe Dream strips. I was more vague in where the gang lived for the most part.




















I was trying to create a fictional city, so it could be an "everyman" strip. The boots were made smaller and Bucky was more refined as a short-haired character. I was starting to get away from dialogue heavy four or more panel strips, mainly because the average comic strip is printed so small that it would not be seen properly. I widened the lettering and improved the word balloons.




















Looking back, I see I was still trying to keep a sense of continuity with the previous entries and also my pop culture references were a little less dated but I needed to focus more on character development. Other than Skat's dad, I didn't succeed.




















I was cribbing from previous sets of strips, trying to see if I improved on my skills. I did, but I was worried that my ability to come up with funny ideas was starting to wane. I put as more thinking into Pipe Dreams as much as possible. Some times this would put a dent in my relationship with my girlfriend.



















We almost broke up before I moved in with her, and when I did move to Federal Way, I was hostile to my new environment of suburban dullness and its in ability to inspire good work.




















Still, she believed in me, so I worked on Pipe Dreams in my own room as much as I could take, and the fact that I had yet more rejections was starting to take its toll, especially when I was out of work. This time though I got my first rejections with a personal notes. It was by Jay Kennedy of King Features. He said my characters were too foul tempered to succeed.




























King Features, the distributor of Beetle Bailey