Why do I make comics?

I've been fortunate to appear as a guest on some of my favourite comics podcasts and the question of why I make comics came up. At the time of recording, the question kind of took me by surprise and my answer was kind of rubbish. Thinking back it makes me cringe but I also occasionally come back to the question.

First, a little background

I've always been interested in stories and story-telling. I've also been interested in how films are made. I have a clear memory watching the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, I must have been 4 or 5 years old, and wondering how they cut scenes together. Before I knew what editing was, I imagined the film-makers must somehow instantly transport a video from one location to another. Ridiculous but the cogs were turning, even back then.

Over the years, as I started buying 'Art of...' books and watching behind-the-scenes documentaries, my interest in how stories are brought to life has only grown more and more. I love watching stuff like the 'Pixar in a box' course on Khan academy, particularly there 'Storytelling' module. One of my favourite YouTube channels/podcasts is Beyond the Screenplay (and their other channel, Lessons from the Screenplay). I think you get the picture. I love seeing and hearing about the nitty-gritty of story construction.

I thought this was about comics?

I'm a thirty-something guy, married with kids, a mortgage and all that other grown-up stuff. My childhood dream of being an animator for Aardman Animations is something that's extremely unlikely to happen now but I still get that urge to create stories and comics is how I do it.

I don't need a team of people to get started, I don't need any specific equipment aside from some paper and pens. I just need ideas.

But this is why I make comics. Putting aside any challenges of the process, comics is a simple and easily-accessible way for me to take ideas and get them out into the world.