Ooooh, Mr. Important Cartoonist

by on October 18, 2012

So I appeared on a panel last weekend at the ProBlogger Event, which is an annual conference that brings together all the blogging enthusiasts of Australia. After speaking on a panel called ‘Taking a new blog to success’ I am glad to report I didn’t make too much of a fool of myself. This was my first time speaking in front of such a large crowd and despite my initial anxiousness, I had a lot of fun and hope to do more public engagements in the future.

The theme of the event was ‘From little things, big things grow’ and it allowed me to reflect on the growth of Zen Pencils. At the start of the year, I was just a frustrated dude who wanted to draw comics. I remember thinking before publishing my first post “What the hell am I doing? Who is going to read this? I’m making a horrible mistake!”

Well since that day on January 30th, this site now has hundreds of thousands of readers visiting it each month. Zen Pencils brings together a community of like-minded people that contribute intelligent and informed conversations who sometimes disagree, but don’t let the discussion turn into a petty, name-calling fight (I’ve only had one troll leave a comment). I’m so thrilled because it’s shown me that there are people out there just like me, who enjoy using their brains and discussing science, art, literature and history but also don’t mind the odd pop-culture reference. It proves that the claims of society dumbing down is not true. It proves once again that comics can be used to communicate real-world issues and topics and not just superhero soap-operas. It proves that from little things, big and beautiful things can grow.