Back to school

Back in my college days, somehow or other I convinced the folks at The Daily Universe, the BYU student newspaper, to run a comic strip that I had developed.

There were a few things that I had going in my favor to help convince them. One was that I had been taking journalism classes for the past year or so, so the Powers That Be knew who I was. Another was that I said I would do it for free. And, as one of the faculty advisors said, "This is better than a lot of the stuff they run in the Herald." I think he meant it as a compliment...

The name "121" came from the apartment where the characters lived. I couldn't think of anything better at the time. Most of the characters in the strip were based on my fellow j-school students. Some knew who they were, and some still don't.

Publication of the strip also fulfilled a dream of mine - to have a comic strip printed in the newspaper next to Peanuts, which was the only other strip they were running at the time.

This "Sunday" panel was drawn as a way to introduce the characters when I tried to market the strip. It was subsequently turned down by all of the major syndicates (and many of the minor ones as well!).