Savage Chickens: 20 Years in 20 Comics

This week I celebrated the 20th anniversary of Savage Chickens. Twenty years ago, I posted a few crumpled post-it notes onto a Blogger blog. I had no idea it would change my life! Twenty years later, I’m making more comics than ever, and I’m still loving it. Just for fun, I thought I’d go through the years and follow my comics journey by featuring one personally significant comic from each year. Here we go!

2005 – Happy Birthday

The linework is still scruffy, and for some reason I drew the chickens kind of small and at the bottom of the post-it note. This comic is special to me because it marks the beginning of a 20-year friendship with one of my readers, Karina.

2006 – Explosion

I like this take on the absurdity of advertising lingo. I was particularly happy with how this works as a single-panel cartoon, with the joke making sense as your eye scans from top left to bottom right. First appearance of The Daily Cluck, which appears in many later comics.

2007 – Eight Steps

This comic captures the original spirit of Savage Chickens, being drawn as a response to my unhappiness with my office job at the time. This comic was very popular, even though it’s more sad than funny. When you laugh at this, it’s the uneasy laughter of recognition.

2008 – One Cloudy Day

I love drawing jokes where the final panel is wordless but it all comes together nicely. This one stands out for me as a comic where I started to step up my art style. I was so proud of that meteor crater!

2009 – Easter Prank

This one’s special for me because many years later it was shared on Facebook by John Hurt, just shortly before he passed away. It was John Hurt’s big scene in Alien that gave me nightmares as a kid and is basically responsible for all of the xenomorph-related comics I’ve ever drawn.

2010 – Chewbacca

The most work I have ever put into a single comic, drawn on a special 12″ x 12″ post-it note. I meticulously transcribed all of Chewbacca’s dialogue from Star Wars, and I don’t think anybody ever fact-checked the accuracy. Later, one of my readers showed this comic to Chewbacca himself, Peter Mayhew, and he thought it was hilarious.

2011 – Spot the Differences

Probably my most-shared comic, ever. This was a big year for the chickens, and marked the release of my first book, Savage Chickens: A Survival Kit for Life in the Coop, published by Penguin USA.

2012 – Stomp

Even though I’m Canadian, I rarely make comics about Canada, just because I don’t want to have to explain super-Canadian jokes to people outside of Canada. But this is my favourite Canadian joke, especially because I drew a tribute to Group of Seven painter A. J. Casson in the first panel (based on his painting “Mill House”).

This was another big year for me because I got invited to the prestigious San Diego Comic Con as a special guest, which made me feel like a comics rock star. All the cool Comic-Con stuff was a blast, of course, but the best part was getting to meet my readers in person for the first time. Check out my photos from the convention!

2013 – Be an Artist

This cartoon comes closest to capturing a sort of Savage Chickens mission statement.

2014 – Hot Mulled Cider

There are a few of my cartoons that make me laugh every time I see them and this is one of them.

2015 – I Am Your Father

This one took a lot of work and meticulous watching of The Empire Strikes Back. I revisited this comic years later for an art auction: check it out.

2016 – Practice

One of my most popular comics ever, this one is special to me because it’s based on conversations I overheard as a kid when my mom was teaching piano.

2017 – The Beauty of Nature

This comic shows the influence of the forest scenes from my work on the Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy graphic novels. At this point, my publisher had just published the second book in the series, Disco Fever, after an insanely quick drawing schedule.

2018 – Freakbot

This one captures the chaotic vibe of 2018. It seemed like there was a new crisis in the news every day, and I wished I had a Freakbot to help me process it all.

2019 – Shish Kebab

Visiting Ontario to visit my mom got me thinking about funny family stories, and I started drawing Savage Family Moments. This one about my grandma is a favourite of mine, and I still say “Shish Kebab” randomly. These comics are also part of my “road comics”, comics drawn on post-it notes and photographed, because I was increasingly on the road doing school visits and comics conventions, and this was a way to keep cartooning without my scanner.

2020 – Melancholy Blob 3

It was the first crazy year of COVID, and my comics veered towards weirdness and escapism. I created many strange characters in 2020, including Melancholy Blob, Moon Bear, and Zep Broondar. I chose this Melancholy Blob comic because it was when a fun unexpected collaboration with my musician brother Tom led to the rockin’ Melancholy Blob theme song.

2021 – Flying Home

My mom passed away in May 2021 after a long battle with cancer. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make comics about it, because at that point it was very rare for me to make personal autobiographical comics. But I’m so glad I finally did. The response was overwhelming. I got so many thoughtful emails from you readers, and it helped me to celebrate mom’s life through my art.

2022 – The Empty Space

I continued my personal comics about my mom when Tom and Trina and I gathered in Ontario the following spring, to sell mom’s house and sort through all of her stuff. It was a difficult time, made easier by the many kind words that readers sent along to me.

2023 – Rex

Another one that makes me laugh every time. Another personal favorite creation of 2023 was my Jonesy + Xenomorph series, which began as post-it doodles at Fan Expo Vancouver.

2024 – Häagen-Bot

Artificial intelligence was on everybody’s mind in 2024. After a few comics about the topic (which only succeeded in making tech-bros angry at me), I finally captured my feelings about AI perfectly in this comic about a robot that eats ice cream. It’s not that AI is evil. It’s the question “Why rob yourself of a joyful experience by handing it over to AI?”

I know some people view art creation as an annoying chore, and I would say that those people need to adjust their attitude. Creating art (in whatever form it takes: comics, painting, dance, music, etc.) is the best that humans have to offer. It is humanity at its greatest. For me, art has been life-changing these past 20 years, and I’d hate to see somebody else not explore their artistic potential because it was easier to push a button and create automatically. My experience as a cartoonist is proof that anybody can do it. You can make wonderful things. Get out there and do it, for yourself and to make the world a better place.

That’s it! Do you have a favourite Savage Chickens comic that I didn’t mention here? Post a link to it!