Today I was listening to a radio interview where an author was giving one sentence answers to rapid-fire questions. Even though the pace was frantic, the questions were mostly mundane. But there was one thing that caught my attention about the interview. The question was asked, “What is your greatest accomplishment?”

I find this to be an incredibly annoying question to ask somebody. A slight rephrase of the question, something like “What is something you’ve accomplished that you’re the most proud of?” feels more honest. By what authority does anybody get to comment on the objective greatness of their own accomplishments? But as I was scoffing and annoyed at the question, the interview sped along.

“What is your greatest accomplishment?” they answered almost immediately: “I haven’t done it yet.”

Every once in a while, I’ll run into somebody who is convinced that I am a greatly accomplished cartoonist. I take it as a compliment, but it’s usually attached to some weird insinuation that I must make a ton of money off of my comics, which isn’t even a little bit true. Observe:

My little blips of non-obscurity are welcome when they occur, but they are few and far between, burning bright(ish) and fading fast. While I would love for cartooning to be what I spent the lion’s share of my time doing, the fact is I don’t know how to make that happen, and I’m not even sure I could do it if I did, or would like it at all. These comics are a labour of love, made simply because I like making them, and shared simply because I like when people read them.

So, to the occasional random internet stranger hell-bent on proving (to me) that I MUST make money on the internet because of those little hiccups of view spikes, I don’t, and I’m okay with that being the case. I really do just think it’s cool that a handful of people read my stuff! I just want to make stuff and share it with people.

For example:

I made this. Is it great? Nah. Was it fun to make? Hecks yes! Do I hope you like it? Yes, that’s why I’ve shared it. If it brightens your day for a few seconds, that’s all I really want. And that is really as complicated as it gets. There is incredible freedom in NOT needing every creative impulse to lead to something that is monetizable.

I make the comics that I want to make. I’m sure they will continue to get better over time. I hope that you like them. If your measure of ‘accomplished cartoonist’ is that a person has made a bunch of comics, yes indeed that is something I have accomplished. But that isn’t my measure. And, truthfully, if you were to ask me what my greatest accomplishments are, I don’t think I’d mention comics at all. I’d probably join that author and say “I haven’t done it yet”.