Steve has shared a bit more about his background.
“I currently work for Sid Meier's Firaxis Games and have been there for over 22 years now! Before that, I worked for Myst and Riven developer Cyan in Spokane, WA, a real dream job for me at the time. I love narrative-driven art and that was really cool to work in that space.
Before that, I worked for a handful of other companies, painted signs and designed t-shirts, and even dug ditches as everyone told me I would when I was in school if I chose to be an artist. It's been a long career as I started professionally in 1980. I make comics in my spare time.”
We were wondering what initially drew Steve to the world of cartooning and artistry. He replied: “I've loved cartoons since I was a kid. I grew up on newspaper comics like Peanuts. I gravitated toward Doonesbury, Bloom County, The Far Side and most importantly Calvin and Hobbes, and those comics have had a huge influence on how I write, draw, and approach character and humor.”
The artist also shared a bit about his creative process.“Stephen King once addressed this question - ‘when you ask authors where they get their ideas, they'll inevitably make up something because they know that they don't know!’ So I can only echo that. I don't know where the ideas come from but they just don't stop. I am inspired by everything. I will get 15 ideas by breakfast.
But then I think part of it is to be involved in other stuff besides just the writing desk or computer. When I've spent too long online or at my computer, I have a tendency to write cartoons about writing cartoons. That's so meta that I don't believe it has broad appeal.
But my family and I run, hike, bike, and kayak around the state, and that always frees my mind to think of different things.”
“Here's another quote from King, which I also agree with: ‘There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing to you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun.
Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.’These quotes are from 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft' and I would recommend anyone looking to boost their idea generation to read that at least once. I read it yearly,” wrote Steve.
Lastly, Steve added what he hopes for the audience to take away from his comics.“I always hope to leave them either thinking or maybe happier than before they read my comic. I used to be so cynical, making comics that were airing my grievances, jokes of the 'Can you believe this crap?' variety. 'Airports...am I right?'I think there's enough negativity out there now, I no longer find it funny. As they say, 'Cynical is easy.' I don't want to take the easy road, so I don't make the easy, obvious joke, and I don't take the easy way of artistic tantrum in the name of getting today's comic out.”
Finally, Steve shared something that has become a bit of a motto for him: “Life is short. Create.I think there's a lot in there, and I hope people take it to heart.”
