Come with me and you'll see...

...something pretty mundane.

When I was a young aspiring cartoonist, I would look everywhere to figure out how to be a cartoonist. What did their studio look like, what was their day like, what tools did they use. This was way before the Internet, so a Google search wouldn’t have helped much.

As may be clear from my work, I am a lifelong Peanuts fan. I discovered the Peanuts Pocket books at my Uncle’s remainder book warehouse. I still have the books from those days in my studio. Then one day I found a book titled Charlie Brown & Charlie Schulz and in it were pictures of the cartoonist at work. I scowered those pages to get just a crumb of information about the man and how he works. Here are the pages:

Like the Pocket books, I still keep this book in my studio.

So, I figure, on this first installment, I can give you a tour of my studio.

This is the place it happens. My art board where I do my watercolors and original art. Above it hangs a gift from Library of Congress of a photo spread of Charles Schulz at work. Life comes full circle sometimes. That little screen in the middle is my Wacom Cintiq. I draw all my books on it in a program called Clip Studio Paint and color in Photoshop. Above it hangs an original seat from Shea stadium, a gift from Cory Petit, and to the left a golden ticket and wrapper from Willy Wonka.

The screen to the left is for my Xbox so I can play some video games with my kids. On the bookshelf you may be able to see my original Peanuts Pocket books…as well as my desktop picture on my computer.

On the other side of the room are my old comics, including some of the original first comics I ever got as a kid…that Flash one being my absolute first. On the walls is a signed Stephen King Dark Tower cover (story about that to come), a gift from Brad Meltzer—a Donald Duck original drawing. Then 2 of my Franklin Richards covers. It’s on that couch that I do my writing. I take that blanket I’ve had since I was a kid, cover my legs with it and dream up stories. I find I am more creative when writing away from my desk. When I’m there, the temptation to check Twitter or e-mail or get distracted by any number of other things is too great.

When I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do was sit in my room writing and drawing comics and now, as an “adult”, it still is and I get to do it all the time.

In the next few installments, I’ll show you the steps of creating an Ordinary People Change the World cover, my enormous collection of R2-D2s, some process pictures and videos of work-in-progress and some art as I create.

Thanks for joining me and be sure to tell a friend, and to pick up a copy of my book, The Yawns Are Coming! Just click on the image!

Thanks for tooning in!

Chris