It all began in the Spring Semester of 1996. I had just gotten a job as a cartoonist at the college paper, The Herald , began drawing cartoons. But I had bigger things in mind than the odd politcal cartoon, I wanted to draw a comic strip. I had an idea, but wasn't for sure that it would run. The idea, which I developed during the summer I graduated high school and through that fall, became "Mosquito Creek". When I got to do the strip, I had no name for it. Searching for ideas, at the least minute I choose to call it "Sassafras Roots" after a title of a Green Day song in which the lyrics ask, "Can i waste your time, too?" In a way, this was exactly what I was asking the reader at that time. Most of the first strips were about eight panels long in a format that you'd see in the sunday funnies, only the strip was in black and white. My second semester, I modified it down to four. Here are most of the strips,plus drawings of the characters and the first concept sketch I did that fateful summer.
The Concept Strip the drawing that started it all....and boy did it have a corny plot back then! 98k
Here are portraits of Natalie and Beth I did during this time. All rough sketches from this time are included with the present day sketches in the Mosquito Archives.
The Strips
I found them! For awhile I thought they were lost but here they are scanned and ready to view! The first and fifth strips have not been scanned in due to the fact that they were cut up by editors trying to place them on a page or covered with wax from the waxer. Here are the strip in an eight panel Sunday format and the standard four panel squares.(these range from 96k to 150k)
[Author] [Main] [Cast] [Gallery] [Archives] [Images] [Links] [Updates]
