Graduated Cylinder: A Jaded Look Back

In the third grade, I read Calvin and Hobbes for the first time, and was immediatly and permanently changed; I was to draw cartoons from that point out. The next great experience for me was finding an AOL Kids Only community called Blackberry Creek. I was in the 6th Grade, and found the place very compelling; and the best part of all was a little subsection called 'Comics By Kids'. There, kids around my age would make shitty comic strips in MS Paint, upload them to the site, and read and comment on each other's really shitty, elementary school MS Paint comic strips. It was like discovering fire; finally, a whole community of kids who loved comics as much as I did! I took to it like glue, and for the next two or three years drew countless comic strips for my internet buddies.

Blackberry Creek died a painful death at the hands of the Government (something about publicly showing screennames of kids under 13 being 'illegal' and 'dangerous'), and whimpered back and forth from oblivion occasionally, never fully restored to the thriving kid-cartoonist commune of old. It was a real influence on me; I read a lot of comics there, good and bad, and emulated a lot of the 'cool' kids. To this day, I can look at my artwork and sense of humor and pick out various parts that are clearly influenced by other cartoonists there. So, a few months ago, I decided to see if anyone else was still around, and made a Facebook group, 'Comics By Kids Alumni'. Turns out a lot of people were still around. Seeing all those people again really did put a smile on my face. I need more real life friends.

Anyway, one of the topics of discussion that came up was 'What would your old comic, from when you were a kid, look like now?' It sounded like an interesting idea, so I dusted off an old chestnut, 'Graduated Cylinder', a comic about a crazy scientist and his talking robot sidekick. Here is the result:







It struck me that I really didn't care for Professor Smultz, the non-robot. His character really didn't have much going for him when I drew this way back when. It seemed pretty logical, then, to make him an angry scientist, playing God, who could create and destroy life without seeing any of the consequences. This new direction made Y-Bot, the non-human, a more conflicted character; yes, he has morals and objections to Smultz, and yet...he was given life by Smultz.

This was great fun to do, and I hope to find some time to do it again. I already have an idea for the next one:

Y-Bot: Uh, Professor Smultz?
Smultz: WHAT DO YOU WANT?
Y-Bot: I was wondering if...well, you can install an Emotion Chip in me, so I can feel love, understanding, happiness...?
Smultz: I don't make no FAG robots

You're gonna have to trust that I'm not homophobic, I just think that 'Fag Robots' is a very funny combination of words.

Thanks for reading,
Love,
Steve