what's in a name anyway?

i don't think i've ever talked about where "Make Good Illustrations" came from. the name, i mean. the only reason i bring it up is that i think it's an (long) interesting story and one worth mentioning.

i'm going to take you way back to when i was a child in parsippany, new jersey. every sunday morning, my father would put me on his lap in the recliner chair of the family room and read me the sunday funnies. his favorite was "prince valiant", a serial comic about a medieval prince and his sword wielding adventures, and "beetle bailey", a bumbling private in the u.s. army who always got chased by his one toothed sergeant. but what i remember most is my dad's 5 o'clock shadow not matching his mustache, his messy hair which was usually pristine, his pea green terry cloth robe, and the mix of coffee and morning breath breezing past my nose as he read the comics aloud, reading each part with a slightly different voice for effect. that constant memory is not only one that i will never forget, but one that i built on. i plan to do that with my kids someday (but with a blue terry cloth robe since red heads can't wear green unless it's christmas), since my hope is that the newspaper industry survives until i actually father a child, though i doubt my comics will ever be clean enough to be in the paper. but i believe this is where it all started for me.

as time passed, i drew all the time. what really meant a lot to me was that my family supported me in my creativity - my uncle joe and aunt lisa specifically. they bought me art supplies (the good stuff) and always asked to see what i had worked on, a request i was usually too shy to oblige. as the years passed and after countless art classes taken, i decided i wanted to study art in college. i drifted aimlessly through my classes, resting on what talent i had, but never pushed to succeed. at the end, i realized i had majored in what i wanted, but had no idea how i would apply it to make a career out of it. when i graduated i tried to find an art job but couldn't so i did what every art student does in this situation - mooch off my folks until they tell me "enough's enough" and i got a "real" job. i did that for 5 years until i got fired for not giving a shit anymore. office jobs are just not for me. a year or so prior to my relief from 9 to 5 society, i started working at a bar (the one i still work at today).

years earlier, my aunt lisa passed away from breast cancer at the age of 29. i took it pretty hard, but after i lost my day job i started feeling lost. i liked working at the bar, but knew it wasn't something that offered a future - at least not one that i wanted. i started feeling guilty - guilty about wasting my schooling, guilty about wasting my talent, and guilty about wasting the encouragement my family and friends gave me to pursue my dream. i felt like i owed them and myself a second chance. i felt like i had to make good on the chance they gave me. and so, Make Good Illustrations was born. it's my chance at redemption and my second chance at doing what i've always wanted to do. i'm very lucky that i have this second chance and lucky that i even recognized it when it knocked on the door. i truly hope you all enjoy my comics as much as i do. all i hope for now is to do this full time. then i'll have really made good.