For the past few weeks, Todd and Penguin has been on a wild ride through a mindscape of imagination and mystery, with such scenes as comics empty of Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes. I’ve wondered at times just what the point of all of this was. It’s not the cute whimsical Todd and Penguin I’ve so enjoyed since Holly’s return was Snarked. I’ve even considered putting aside TaP until the current storyline is complete (I’m currently doing that with GPF, as I’m uninterested in the alternative universe storyline). Now, however, I’m glad I didn’t. Tonight is the culmination of the comic… and a message to not only all us fans out there, but all the web cartoonists out there as well: Don’t quit. Keep trying, you’ll get better.

This strikes especially home to me, as I did quit drawing the Tangents web comic, partly because my artwork just wasn’t good. Sally’s words are my own: But I stink. Nobody likes my stuff. But… if I look at the earliest works of the cartoonists who mean the most to me… Charles Schultz, Maritza Campos, Faith Hicks, Jamie Robertson… their early works were not that good, not when compared to current work. All web cartoonists, and probably most artists (and definitely quite a few writers!) are unhappy with their work. They feel it could be better. They feel they’re just “dabblers” and that their “scribbles” aren’t that good. It could be better. It suffers a flaw here and there. The artists (I include writers as artists here) often point out the flaws to others, flaws that would otherwise go unnoticed. Even when someone notices, more often than not it’s with an addendum of “other than this, it’s quite good!”

David Wright is pointing out a fundamental fact to all of us. In time, with repetition and practice, we all improve. Just because things aren’t going well at the start doesn’t mean it will always remain that way. Hell, if Maritza Campos or Jamie Robertson quit after a few months or a year of drawing because they were unhappy with their art… then we’d not have two delightful comics today. Tonight’s Todd and Penguin makes me want to take out the pen and paper and start drawing again. Not to restart the comic though. Maybe just a few sketches at first, so that my characters heads don’t change shape from panel to panel. That and write a few more Tangents…