Behind the Comic Strip: Jason Maddox

When he was 16 and freshly enrolled at LBCC he was too shy to ask The Commuter if they wanted to publish his work. So Jason Maddox left a letter in the dropbox with a comic strip attached and waited for a call. A year later the paper called. 

Now a senior at Lebenon High, but duel-enrolled at LBCC, Maddox has been drawing comics for eight years.

His progression from stick-figures to what they are today has included eight or nine characters. He experiments with new types of art as he expands his talent.

"I look back at drawings I did two months ago and see how much I've improved."

Choosing a favorite, he likes his current strip the best.

"I like this [character] because of how it's evolved. It looked a ton different from what it does now."

A perfectionist in his work, he checks out of reality and puts all his attention into getting that one curve right. When he creates at his light table in his room he gets into "the zone."

"Not while I'm inking!" he admits will exclaim when his concentration is so intense that his family can sneak up on him.

He seeks opinion from his siblings and says his brother, who tried a short-lived hand at comics, likes his current character too. Maddox hopes to create a web comic with his sister. He wants to draw and she wants to write.

"Growing up my dad wouldn't let us read the comic strips until he read the paper."

Favorite comics to read are Calvin and Hobbs, Garfield and local comic Stone Soup by Jan Eliot.

"They are stimulating and funny!"

Many of his story lines pop randomly into his head and others are influenced by what he sees people do. When he gets in a creative zone he has pumped out 20 comics in just a few days.

He likes to use sarcasm in his work and admits he has not published some of his comics for fear of offending. Recently he's been focusing more on content then looks.

"I'll just create little stories in my head."

As if high school, college courses, and freelance work are not enough to keep him busy, Maddox is also illustrating a book for one of his teachers at Lebenon High. They plan on selling it on Amazon.

When he's enrolled full-time at LBCC and majoring in computer science he wants to learn how to create his own page on the web. For now, readers can view his work on his Google Plus page for Three's a Crowd.