It was from a reader, a guy named Freddy in Ireland. Not a reader of Blogger Dad, but of the comic strip I used to do, Todd and Penguin. A comic I did with some regularity for most of the decade until Blogger Dad came about. In his letter, he told me that he was introduced to the comic by his girlfriend. He wrote to thank me, even though I haven’t updated the comic in more than a year, for all the years I had put into the comic, which helped him get through a job he utterly despised.

“So cheers for helping out man (even if you knew very little about it!), I hope you get everything sorted for yourself and you can return to Todd and Penguin with regular updates. I can’t wait anyway! I picked up “Embrace Your Inner Dork” for my girlfriend (and me!) for Christmas, I hope this helps you out in some way, and if there’s anything I can do to help and repay you from way over in Ireland, do let me know!”

His letter touched me deeply.

One of my favorite things about being an artist is when people take the time to appreciate my work. Drawing and writing are often thankless tasks, particularly in the early going when you don’t have a whole lot of readers. You plug on as a matter of faith, perhaps to stoke your ego a bit, and in hopes that you can connect to others in some way. So when people comment or email about why my work touched them in some way, it’s an awesome feeling.

His letter also touched me for another reason.

Even though he recently lost his job, he bought a book of mine for his girlfriend. Not only as a way to thank me, but also as an expression of love for his girlfriend. It’s been a while since I’ve had this experience.

During my years of drawing Todd and Penguin, I was asked regularly to draw custom art for people who were fans of the comic.

It began, somewhat out of the blue, several years ago when a reader contacted me asking if I’d draw a custom gift for their spouse, who was a big fan of my comic strip. A few years later, the spouse returned the favor and a little tradition was born. I’ve been asked to draw everything from memorials to anniversary gifts to birthday gifts, usually with my Penguin character.

While it thrills me to no end that my Todd and Penguin book can be found on book shelves throughout the world, it warms my heart even more to know that something I’ve drawn is sitting or hanging in a special place and was given as an expression of love from one person to another.

So I am emailing Freddy tomorrow and will, even though he didn’t ask me to do so, draw something for his girlfriend. My way of saying thank you to his thank you.

While I don’t draw Todd and Penguin now and the requests for related custom comic art have more or less vanished, I talked with Sean Platt over at Writer Dad and we are going to do what we did last year. We’re going to offer custom art and poems (or just plain prose, if you prefer) for you to give to another this holiday season. You can (or we can) send custom art and words to a loved one or even use it for business purposes, as we did this year for Collective Inkwell, as a way of saying thank you to our clients.

Because time is limited and the holidays are fast approaching, we can only make this offer to a limited number of people in order to get them out in time for the holidays.

If you’d like us to help you express your love, or thanks, to someone in your life, email us. We’re only able to offer this for the first 20 people who order, though. So if you want to take advantage of this offer in time to get your gift prior to Christmas or Chanuka, email me right away at idrawcomics (at) gmail.com and let us know what you’d like.

Prices for the art are as follows:
Custom drawn art and words: $60 via Paypal
You tell us what you want drawn and what message you’d like to send and we’ll craft the perfect custom art and words for you. Prices are slightly higher for complex drawings. Email us what you have in mind for an exact quote, but $60 should cover most orders.

We’ll send the file to you or your loved one in whatever formats you prefer – JPEG, TIFF, PDF or PNG. We will send both low resolution for inserting in email or sending via the web and high resolution (for printing) images.

For an additional $20, we will also send you a print of the file in the mail (U.S. only).

As always, thank you for reading,

David

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