A friend of mine said the line in the last panel during the lockdown, and it resonated with me enough to make it into a comic.
After graduating from college, I moved back home with my parents for several years, working menial jobs and trying to save enough money to take the next big step in my life (which, it turned out, was attending the Center for Cartoon Studies). After graduate school, striking out on my own, and setting up a freelance business ... I was back living with them for much of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. While this was largely due to the pandemic, I can't deny that it was also incredibly financially beneficial for me.
Even discounting the global events of last year, I know a lot of fellow millennials who spent a large portion of our post-college lives underemployed and living with our parents. I remember feeling intense shame about this in my twenties; I had been taught by media that adults who lived with their parents were immature losers too dependent on others to leave the nest. After the 2008 recession, however, so many people ended up forced into this exact situation that we disabused ourselves of this attitude. Even so, the anxious impression that things are not as they should be remained.
A number of Ray's past (and upcoming) strips will be about the fact that he is living with his parents. I will be poking fun at the scenario, but I want to be clear that I'm not mocking MY parents for their generosity. They have been my biggest supporters, and their generosity has kept me going through some of my hardest times. But the fact is, this is a real situation that many people tied to the con community face. As long as I can keep it entertaining, I feel it's a topic worth pursuing.
Rock on, guys, and never stop drawing.
After graduating from college, I moved back home with my parents for several years, working menial jobs and trying to save enough money to take the next big step in my life (which, it turned out, was attending the Center for Cartoon Studies). After graduate school, striking out on my own, and setting up a freelance business ... I was back living with them for much of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. While this was largely due to the pandemic, I can't deny that it was also incredibly financially beneficial for me.
Even discounting the global events of last year, I know a lot of fellow millennials who spent a large portion of our post-college lives underemployed and living with our parents. I remember feeling intense shame about this in my twenties; I had been taught by media that adults who lived with their parents were immature losers too dependent on others to leave the nest. After the 2008 recession, however, so many people ended up forced into this exact situation that we disabused ourselves of this attitude. Even so, the anxious impression that things are not as they should be remained.
A number of Ray's past (and upcoming) strips will be about the fact that he is living with his parents. I will be poking fun at the scenario, but I want to be clear that I'm not mocking MY parents for their generosity. They have been my biggest supporters, and their generosity has kept me going through some of my hardest times. But the fact is, this is a real situation that many people tied to the con community face. As long as I can keep it entertaining, I feel it's a topic worth pursuing.
Rock on, guys, and never stop drawing.
