The Portland Oregon Trail

I drew this comic in 2009, a time when I was still concerned with depicting and satirizing "indie" culture. It has new relevance, however. Like the star-crossed band in this drawing, I am embarking on a voyage west. In a month, I'll be moving from Kansas City (near the city in the first panel), navigating I-70 (passing through the college town in the second panel), and setting up camp for two and a half years just outside Denver, Colorado (not far from the location of the third panel). So please understand if the comics I draw over the next couple months keep repeating this theme of transition, travel, and new beginnings. And the frustrations that inevitably follow.

The Algorithm

Checklist for an Epic Summer

One box I forgot to add: draw a comic influenced by the legendary Bill Watterson. Check!

The Shakespearean Heckler

This week marks the beginning of Kansas City's Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, a free professional production held yearly at a park next to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. It's always spectacularly done, and you have to marvel at the actors for braving the Missouri heat and humidity in full costume. A couple years ago, my wife and I were kicked out of "Othello". Not for drunken heckling, but for smuggling in a small poodle. We were escorted out of the park during intermission, four-pound dog in hand.

Meet the Band

Public Displays of Unselfconsciousness

You can order a print of this drawing (and many other Incidental Comics) here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/incidentalcomics 

Drawing Hands

"Drawing hands is hell." 

-Picasso or somebody

I try to avoid rendering anatomically correct hands whenever possible. You'll see one of my rare attempts at hand drawing in last week's "Career Path Generator." Which is probably why I decided to repost this exercise in evasion. 

Also: you can now follow me on Twitter @grantdraws. 

Career Path Generator

Ode to an Aging Rock Critic

Not so long ago, I wrote a number of freelance concert reviews for a local music blog. It was a pretty sweet gig: see a show for free, take a few blurry photos, and scribble notes during the set like a true music expert. After returning home from the bar/club/hipster lair, I would transcribe my scribblings into an overly-detailed account of the performance. 

How to Get Ideas

This is a problem that any self-proclaimed creative person without a daily regimen of psychotropic drugs has experienced. The search for a great idea can be incredibly frustrating, like trying to force two unlike species to breed. 

Further reading:

Elizabeth Gilbert on the concept of "genius." 

Richard Thompson on where he gets his sublime ideas.

The visual inspiration for the third panel.

Suburban Anarchy

The Road Taken

Email gsnider11@gmail.com if you'd like to order an 11"x17" poster of this comic (for $15 plus shipping).

Love & Fonts

In combining the best elements of romance novels and typographic criticism, I could have made this comic much, much racier: "She felt the oblique, sinuous curves of his letterform. Their passion was legible. But could it ever be justified?"  At least I didn't stoop to making fun of Comic Sans.

The Memoir

Drawing Teeth

Teeth are fun to draw. They are shaped like tiny aliens, tentacled underwater creatures, or controversial modern sculpture. Using Kilgore dental study models as reference, I designed a number of t-shirts for my class over four years of dental school. To celebrate graduation and our shiny new DDS degrees, here all the designs in one extensive blog post.

This would be a great game for an arcade or dental office waiting room. I just have to clear up a few copyright issues: