Searching For Your Tribe
The National Cartoonist Society's Conference (& Reuben Awards Dinner) 2026
I know I’ve written a few times about “finding your tribe” the people who you can really be yourself around. At work you get strange looks and whispers for being the weird guy interested in comics, or games, or whatever. When all the people around you want to talk about is sports or celebrities or whatever - making you feel like you are the not normal for not watching some show or keeping up with the drama dealing with someone’s posts on social media. So when you go to a conference you hope that maybe, just maybe you will find your people.
I just went to Gen Con and hung around with a bunch of people who make me feel “normal.” I learned when I first started My Geek Odyssey that everyone is a geek about something. The problem arises when you are constantly around people who have no interest in what makes you a geek you end feeling weird. The internet has, in some ways helped create safe places for people to let their geek flag fly. Of course there are gatekeepers and those who strictly adhere to whatever canon is. Those who don’t understand the difference between fact and opinion. Someone once said “Nobody hates Star Wars as much as a Star Wars fan.” 🙄
I (as usual) digress…
Last week I attended the National Cartoonist Society’s Annual Conference in Columbus, Ohio as a lurker, but maybe, just maybe, I found the lost tribe I’ve been looking for. This isn’t a con for fans… these are the people that draw to make us laugh, escape, and think. These are dangerous people. “With great power there must also be great responsibility” and I learned a lot.
Imposter Syndrome
Yup- that’s me. Among my friends I’m the weird guy who draws silly pictures. I’m the one who gets laughed at but then asked every once in a while to draw something for them. My friend Mike Altman used to call this “giving away the golden egg.” Those of use who took the time to hone our skills with a pencil are wizards to those who didn’t. “How did you get so good?” Look at my grades throughout school. I could have been top of my class, but instead I drew silly pictures. I draw not for fame or fortune (although either would be nice) I draw to keep myself out of the asylum. I draw because, for a brief moment, people like me through my drawings. When surrounded by other cartoonists I feel like I’m an imposter. Funny thing I learned was we all dealt with the ridicule, the teachers complaining, the art professors saying we could be good if we’d just get these silly creatures out of our heads (true story). For the record I never complained about my students drawing. I learned about sketchnoting (something I had naturally done for as long as I can remember) and embraced it- trying to get colleagues to understand how drawing creates a connection to the material like nothing else can. Again, I digress.
The sessions were amazing! I’m wanting to read more and learn more and maybe even create more. Which was the whole purpose of attending. Being ‘Sessions Only” kept me from some of the social events, social anxiety kept me from the rest. I was overjoyed to meet and informally chat with some of the nominees for the Reuben award along with some fantastic cartoonists, too many people I admire. Listening to Jim Davis, and Cathy Guisewite talk about their experiences was awesome. I’m now catching up on the Comics Lab podcast. I’m basically trying to do everything and instead doing this, along with petting my cats.
How did this end up? Being a comics geek you only realize how much you don’t know when you are in a room with your tribe. You are no longer the font of all comics knowledge and you realize there is so much more you need to learn. Yesterday before heading off to the comic shop I submitted my application for membership… Now we wait and learn if I really can call myself a cartoonist. Of course I probably should draw something… Like Kyle Baker said in How to Draw Stupid - “To be a cartoonist, you must actually make cartoons.” Unfortunately, the minute I got home, we went to a geocaching event, then I had work, and a bunch of other projects that I was volunteered for so the Obliger in me puts off what I want to do for myself, in order to do what others have asked. So I’m off to draw a red truck for a pathtag! Woo Hoo! At least it’s drawing.
