I'm an amateur cartoonist. Maybe what I should say is that I aspire to be a cartoonist, but in truth, the most I can probably hope for is a bit of success as an amateur. I'm not a prodigy, so I don't anticipate the sort of sudden, breakout success that we're all secretly holding out for, but I like what I do, and I think the right audience might appreciate it, too.
So I make comics on the side. At this point, they're mostly for myself. It doesn't matter if no one's reading them yet, because I'm still finding my style. I'm still paying my dues. I'm still learning.
I use that as an excuse sometimes. Should I buy this graphic novel, which I didn't even know existed until this moment, just because something about it struck me, gave me a good first impression, some subtle departure from traditional drawing techniques or some stray line of dialogue that I noticed on the first flip through, that made me think maybe this one is great, maybe this one is special? Well, it all counts as research, so I might as well. And while I'm at it, I'll take this and this and these. Then, maybe I'll read the shortest one that day before getting distracted or feeling lazy, and those others go on the stack, the shelf, the bookcase, the pile on the floor that now surrounds the overfull bookcase.
That's how I ended up owning over 300 graphic novels that I still haven't read. This in addition to the thousands I have read, the hundreds I own, the dozens I've sold or given away, the few I've borrowed. Sometimes I'll think, "I need to get through these before I buy any more," but inevitably, that sentiment weakens to something more permissive, like, "I can buy one new book for each five I read." Then, later that day, I'll accidentally buy five new books before it even occurs to me I'd made a pledge. And since I already broke my vow yesterday, there's really no reason not to buy these others today.
I go through phases where all I want to do is read novels, or go to the movies, or watch every season of some show from start to finish. Whatever I like at a given moment, I tend to love it deliriously and think of nothing else for a couple of weeks before some other new passion displaces it. Even within my individual hobbies, streaks occur. Now I only want to watch sci-fi blockbusters, now I only want to read indie comics, now I only want to read non-fiction, now I only want to draw knights. If I've just read a great superhero comic, I want to read another great superhero comic, not a great art comic, and especially not a mediocre one. So that personal library I've cultivated never seems to have the right next thing at the right next moment, and something new inevitably calls to me. The perfect thing might be at the comic shop right now. I could be there in minutes. And while I'm at it, these others look pretty good...
There's only one hobby that I always feel passionate about, and that's buying stuff. If I'm being honest, I like finding stuff, getting stuff, buying stuff at least as much as I like having stuff, using stuff.
This year will be about using stuff.
When my wife, Laura, and I moved into our current apartment nearly two years ago, the biggest chore was lugging a couple dozen boxes of densely packed books up the stairs. The next biggest chore was unpacking them, I knew, so I immediately buckled down - and waited a year to get it done. Once I get started, though, I can be a maniac for organization. Now I have a separate bookcase for graphic novels I haven't read yet, featuring alphabetized stacks sorted by publisher or grouped by size, where necessary.
Starting today, the first day of the first month of an arbitrary year, I will attack these stacks eagerly and often. I'll start with the stacks on the floor in front of the New Books Bookcase, the ones I left unorganized because I thought, at the time, I'd read them so fast it wouldn't matter. Well, now there are fifty or so. In fact, now my stack of prioritized comics has been subdivided into lesser stacks of varying priority, each stack capped with a particularly appealing entry in a distinct category. When I'm through with those, or maybe when I get distracted, I'll go to the top shelf and grab the next book. No indecision, no weighing my options, no wandering attention. Next, next, next. This is about moving on. This is about getting it done. This is gonna be fun.
Comics every day.