Savage Chickens began on a rainy day in October 2004 when, after one too many migraines, I scribbled two chickens on a sticky note. It was fun, so I kept drawing them and a few months later in January 2005, I posted them online in a blog. To my surprise, people enjoyed them and in the spring I was lucky to be featured on My Yahoo and things rolled along from there. Over 2000 cartoons and 8 years later, Savage Chickens now has a healthy audience and a book from Perigee Books.
Back in the early days, I scribbled the cartoons with a ballpoint pen. I never drew a second draft, and I kept all of the cartoons in a crumpled ziploc bag. They were pretty scruffy-looking! But over the years, I got my cartooning mojo back again and started putting more care and attention into the work. I tried drawing new animals and even famous people, from ABBA to Jabba. Today, I continue to push myself to keep drawing new things and to make the cartoons as fun as I can.
Every cartoon is hand-drawn on a sticky note. Sometimes I get the cartoon right the first time, but usually I draw it many times and use a light box to trace previous drafts. Then I scan the cartoon and clean up the image a little and post it on the site. I use Staedtler pigment liners and a variety of sticky note brands. On a good week, I’ll get a week’s worth of cartoons done in one day, but usually I finish them minutes before I post them on the site. So the chickens are pretty fresh!
