I had a silly dream of becoming a cartoonist when I was young.  In my math notebooks, equations and formulas were squeezed in between countless doodles. I marveled at the artwork and humor of Bill Watterson. I was humbled by the skill of comic book artists. Then I started playing guitar and sort of lost track of the whole drawing thing.

Within the last few years I reconnected with the old passion that had been lying dormant for so long. I started drawing again and found new inspiration in some modern comics—first the irreverent print comic Pearls Before Swine, and then a number of amazing webcomics like Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and several others. I loved the freedom the web provided; freedom of a format that can change, freedom of dirty jokes that fear no censors.

But as much as I love great artwork, it had become abundantly clear to me that the heart and soul of a great comic was the idea behind it—just look at great stick figure-based comics like xkcd and Cyanide & Happiness.  A little while back I dreamed up the story of a hip, self-aware dinosaur trying to pass on his wisdom to a caveman, the brutish creature representing everything that was wrong with human nature and who would inherit the Earth after the dinosaur’s inevitable extinction.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the possibilities for stupid humor and clever commentary of the human condition. I drew a few sketches and let the whole idea ferment in the back of my mind for a couple years, occasionally remembering that I had what I thought was my first good idea for a strip. Eventually I got myself a Wacom tablet and got to work breathing life into the pre-historic cartoon I had been threatening to make for years (plus some random, unrelated single panel comics for good measure).

So now it’s up and running, and there’s no looking back.  I’m hoping to update it as much as possible, but I’m still new and slow, plus I have plenty of other commitments to keep me distracted. But I’m really excited, and the bulk of my cartoons will now be going to this new site. I’ll be sure to continue to share some of my art on this blog, as well.

It may not be newspaper syndication, but I now present to you for your consideration a comic that has been years, in some ways decades in the making: Of The Fittest.

Please subscribe, share on Facebook/Twitter, tell your comic loving friends, and maybe even follow it on Twitter: @ofthefittest

No, I did not record a cover of the Rolling Stones song “Under My Thumb.”  Swap in a “the” for the “my” and you have the title of my newest song, “Under the Thumb.”  You’ll notice the two compositions have no resemblance beyond a couple words in the title.

Please take a gander at the Music page to listen to the new tune.  And while you’re listening, you can catch up on some of my monthly blog posts that you haven’t read in a while.  Or re-read all the ones that you loved, which has probably been most of them.

If for some stupid reason the audio on the Music page isn’t working, kindly let me know and then head over to my Facebook or MySpace page, both of which also have the song.

Enjoy.