David and John - It's better than something not as good!

Time for a history lesson. I hope you like reading. This page will take a long time to load on slower connections due to the large amount of pictures. I don't care, cause I got DSL! BAH HA HA HA! OK, I'll shut up now and get one with it...

I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. It's just been something I've enjoyed doing.

The first characters I can really remember drawing were the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Like every other kid in America, I loved them. I drew them all the time. I even drew them in school when we had drawing assignments.

The first original character I remember drawing is a superhero based upon myself. Super-Chris, he was. (Course, he went by Super-Christopher, his full name, back then) He fought bad dudes, occasionally with his friend, Super-Ricky. (You remember that, Rick?)

As time went on, I drew, and drew, and drew. I don't remember when, but a long time ago I created two cyborg characters, Kraid and Rayden. I don't really remember what they did, but I drew lots of comic books featuring them. I used them a lot, and they were my finest creations at the time.

As even more time went on, I started reading comic strips. Every day we had library class at school I'd run over and check out a Peanuts book. I became fascinated with comic strips, and I wanted to do one myself. I mean, I'd had enough of a drawing experience. My first comic creation was a lazy dog named Zebb. He hung around with his owner, Rayden. (Not a cyborg...) One of my favorite Zebb strips was where Zebb saw a snake on the ground, yelled "SNAKE!!!" and jumped up so high that he clung to a (badly drawn) star. Back on Earth, Rayden said "It's rubber!". Ha, ha. Real funny, right? Shut up.

Zebb just wasn't cutting it, though. I didn't really like animal characters, so I moved on. Out of the depths of my imagination came David, a stupid college kid with brown hair and no glasses. He occasionally hung around with his friend, John, who had black, spikey hair, and glasses. Of course, I was only...uh, however old I was in second grade, and didn't know what college was really like. So I gave it up.

I liked the characters, though. What could I do? Well, I did the right thing: I converted them to kids my age, and spawned a strip called David and John. I draw SO many of these strips, and they were really cool. I would scan them, but I seem to have lost them over time. I'm still devistated by the fact that I could lose these important historical documents. (or...sniff...throw them away...) I'll have to describe some to you. The first strip had David meeting John. David's like "You're a schmuck!" and John's like "No, YOU'RE a schmuck!" and then David's like "Hey, you're cool. Wanna be friends?". Weird? Yes. Another great strip featured David and John going on a roller coaster. It was one of those roller coasters that went through loops, so the seats need shoulder harnesses. David's seat did not. You can figure out what happens next. (He fell out, you idiot.) David also pretended to be the Caped Captain, a mysterious superhero who fought perceptions of his evil teachers, and such. The strip lasted a long time, but I gave up after a while.

One day I was on the computer, messing around with a graphics program. Out of nowhere I drew a kid with black hair and rectangular glasses. I knew right away that this was the character I was going to use. I gave him a name, David. I drew him lots of times in small books. The oldest book I could find was either the second or third one, called "It's Been a Stupid, Dumb, Idiotic, Deranged, Dimwitted, Braindead, but Typical Day". Here is one of the strips from it:

Pretty bad? I was in second grade, gimme a break. Now, I drew about five books worth of this, but, again, gave up.

Well, I didn't really give up. I really just took a hiatus. When I got back, I started constructing a new strip, entitled David featuring David, of course. John showed up occasionally, but just for a joke or two. Here's the first David strip:

Yes, well, here's some more:

That is an actual song. I can play it on the piano.

This is really funny cause I apparently couldn't spell it either.

OK, enough. People with slow connections are probably wishing that I'd die and burn eternally. Now, these are only a few gag strips from the first book. I drew several books in this series, entitled David, It's Not Good to Use Your Lightsaber in the House, How Do You Tell if You're Superior or Inferior?, The Return of Chris, Again and Return of the Jedi's Night, respectively. I'll have more strips from them up soon, on seperate pages.

A little bit into the third David book, I thought of a new idea for a strip, this time, having both David and John as main characters. I wasn't sure of what John's relationship to David should be. I didn't want him just to be his friend; that was overdone. So, what could he be? David's invisible friend? No. David's imaginary friend? No. An alien? YES! So, David was an alien. I drew quite a few of these strips, and even had them on the Internet at one time. Of course, they're all gone now. I only have one strip from this series intact, and I don't feel like looking through the closet and finding it. I'll scan it when I do. Anyway, I went with this story for a while, but quit once again. I went back to the original David stuff, but it was too big a transition. I abandoned it.

About then, my mom took me to have art lessons. I wanted to start drawing strips again, but I did need some improving on my drawing skills, as you've seen. Actually, I didn't need that much improvement. I only remember the teacher giving me pointers on drawing hands with digits, rather than balls when they were curled up. Thus came David and John, the strip you see today! I've been drawing it since 1996. During 1998, I took a two year hiatus, but resumed with the online strip that you see before you. All of the previous strips were drawn on 12" x 18" paper, and my scanner isn't that big. So, I have to wait to photocopy them before you see them on this site.

SO, THERE YOU HAVE IT!

...oh. If you simply wanted to know what David and John is about, it's a daily comic strip featured online about a teenager and his friend alien.