This week is Noise to Signal’s fourth birthday. On May 27, 2007, I scanned and posted the first cartoon I’d published in years… and I haven’t stopped since.
I’m celebrating with a caption contest and I’ll think of something else fun to do on the actual day. (It may involve a cocktail with such ingredients as gin, vermouth and Koh-I-Noor drawing ink, with a Pigma Micron marker instead of a swizzle stick.)
The cartoon’s changed a lot since then. I used to rough out a cartoon in pencil, draw it in ink, scan it in and retouch it. Today my workflow is most always all-digital. And my iPad is now my tool of choice for sketching ideas on the fly. (Thank you, SketchBook Pro.)
What hasn’t changed is what makes drawing Noise to Signal so satisfying: the response it gets, and the conversation it generates. I owe a hell of a lot to the folks who’ve encouraged me along the way: friends, fans of the cartoon, and the great folks here at ReadWriteWeb who’ve been running it since Noise to Signal was barely a toddler.
You’ve all helped make this one of the most worthwhile things I do. Thank you. And see you next week.
