The long look back

The Press asked me to write a little statement about my time with them, and oddly enough, draw up a head shot. The headshot won't get published, but here it is in all it's humble glory:

As you may notice this week if you look at the comic page, this week marks the 300^th edition of my comic “Your Square Life” and its sixth anniversary in the Anchorage Press. Unfortunately, it also will be the last comic. Please don’t worry, it wasn’t anything you did, most likely.

Bingo Barnes asked me to comment on my time working on the strip and my rather sudden decision to pull the plug on what can only be described as my labor of love. In my effort to remain humble about my achievements with the comic strip, I have only included a small illustration of my handsome face to accompany this article. Let it be an inspiration to you.

Seriously however, I have had a phenomenal time creating “Your Square Life” for the last six years, starting when the then editor Robert Meyerowitz asked me to draft up a locally drawn strip to include in a comic page he was introducing to the paper. In the beginning, I had little idea what I was doing and, unfortunately or not, I still don’t know what I was going for most of the time. My goal throughout it all was to make something each week that at least a little funny or thought-provoking. I have no idea if I was successful or not, as I’m desperately trying to remain humble.

Over time, the strip opened many doors for me. It allowed me to do a “Your Square Life” inspired play, “the Simple Dating System”, with the infamous Duke Russell for Out North’s “Under 30”. I also had a successful retrospective show at the late, great Noble’s Diner. I even had the comic published in a few issues of a glossy art magazine in South Africa, the true measure of international fame. Apart from all my obscure accomplishments, the strip and the modest halo of fame I’ve accrued have allowed me to meet scores of people I now call friends. I even got a wife out of the whole deal. Not too shabby.

In the end, I made the decision that I need to get out from behind the drawing board, where I’ve been camped week-in, week-out for six-years, and get out of the house a bit more. Apart from all the fame and adulation I’ve described above, drawing comics is a pretty lonely, anti-social hobby. However, I’m not getting out of the art business and should have a few books coming out, including a “Best of Your Square Life” volume, in the next year. I’ll be posting my new artwork and updates for my upcoming projects at yoursquarelife.blogspot.com.

-Lee Post

Halloween

Email me photos of you dressed up for Halloween. I'm working on a sketch project and I'll be posting the finished sketches to the blog.

The FINAL Your Square Life

Here is the final Your Square Life, in color. I had no clue how I was going to end it. Just another joke, something sappy . . .? Last week I was walking to lunch, cutting through an intersection at Piper and Providence Drive, when I found this photo (see below). Magic! Thus the final comic was born.

Your Square Life - The end of an era

If you haven’t noticed, this week’s “Your Square Life” is the 300^th strip, which amounts to six years with the Anchorage Press, give or take a week.

The history:

For those not in the know, “Your Square Life” was originally a ‘zine I started after my return from college ‘98. It ran about ten issues over the course of a couple years. I distributed around town at random and I found out later, it was ravenously collected by a few and pasted around for long after. Robert Meyerowitz, who was the editor at Anchorage Press at the time, saw some of the issues and asked me if I’d be interested in doing a comic strip for the Press. I said yes, even though at that point beyond doodling in my college notebooks and a page long illustrated story in the ‘zine, I hadn’t done any formal cartooning. Thus YSL was born, becoming whatever it became over the years.

Originally, if the ‘zine was started to meet people in Anchorage after collage, then the strip was a way to meet girls. Well, I met exactly one. Within the first six months, I met and got engaged to my lovely wife Alex. I can only blame my valentine’s strip that was published the day before we met and not my dull charm.

Over time, the strip opened so many doors to me. It that allowed me to do a YSL-inspired play with Duke Russel “the Simple Dating System” for Out North’s Under 30. I plied my fame into MC’ing the last three Spenard Socials. I had a successful YSL retrospective show at the late, great Noble’s Diner. I had a few strips published as “artwork” in two issues of the South African glossy art magazine “Itch” as well as hang a piece in one of their gallery shows. I’ve got to do concert posters for a great number of local friends and their bands. Best of all, the strip and the modest halo of fame I’ve accrued have allowed me to meet scores of people I now call friends.

Now the shocking announcement:

This is going to be the last “Your Square Life” comic, in this form at least. I’ve decided to pack it in. Over the last year or so, it’s become harder and harder to produce the strip each week. Part of that may have been due to our move to a new house and my parents move out of state on top of some changes at work, but a great part of it is my need to get out from behind the drawing board/computer each weekend and to start to challenge myself in some new ways. I frankly need to exercise more, read more, get out more . . . generally take advantage of my youth and vigor.

However, I’m not getting out of the art business. Part my reason for stopping the strip, is to allow me to better focus and refine my artistic energy, rather than worrying about my weekly deadline. I’ve recently had the good fortune to be contacted by two different local publishers to produce some new work in two different veins. For one, I’ve completed illustrations for an Alaskan-themed puzzle book that should be available in stores any day now and I’m just finishing work on a children’s book, “Alaska Big and Small” that I hope will be in press before Christmas. The other publisher would like to publish a “best of” volume and wants to publish some longer-form graphic work in the future.

I’ve also started a small Etsy.com shop to sell prints and hope to update my blog much more often of whatever my project of the moment is. Go to the blog for more information about the store, the books, and my offer of commissioned illustrations for the holidays (no better gift!).

To everyone, thanks you for your all of your amazingly generous support and encouragement over the years. Hopefully I can keep giving that back to you.

Facebook

I'm now on Facebook under "Lee Post". I don't know how I feel about it yet.

Bring a little Your Square Life into your life

With "YSL" wrapping up this week, I've started an Esty.com shop, yoursquarelife.etsy.com to sell prints of past strips and other artwork.

I'm also going to start taking commissions for the holidays. I'll put a link up on the Esty.com shop, but the basics will be that I'll draw a small likeness or sketch for $50.00 or a color Your Square Life Strip with the person or persons of your choice for $100. All the prints will be on archival paper and will include the original drawing. For those who want their comic strips before Christmas, I'll be doing it on a first-come, first-served basis for up to 3 people. If you're interested, send me an email and we'll talk b'dness.

Here's an example of a strip that included my friends Buddy and Jay for Jay's birthday.

Two reasons why my life is crazy awsome

Just this week for example, I hung with stormtroopers and man-apes. I suspect you did not. I'm sure you don't want my pity.