Remembering the Fun

One of the earliest memories of my life that I can recall was of me receiving a box of old crayons that my older sister didn't want anymore. I think anyone with a sibling knows what I'm talking about. If you're a little brother or sister, you received second-hand stuff that your older sibling outgrew. With that box of crayon, I drew a bird out of geometric shapes - quite a Boccioni-esque picture, if my memory serves me right.

While I grew a little bit older, I think at around the ages of five or six, I started drawing my favourite cartoon characters. At that time there was no internet, so I had to wait once a week for the 30 precious minutes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to come on, and then immediately after the show I'd grab a pencil and and try to recreate Donatello and Leo on paper while the memory is still fresh.

At around seven, I started owning paperback issues and collector's cards of my most favouritest thing in the world - Dragonball! If my math is correct, 99.99999% of currently active comic book artists will tell you that they taught themselves how to draw when they grew up by copying their favourite panels of their favourite comic books obsessively and repeatedly. For me, those comic books were all the issues of Dragonball I owned. As a kid, all I needed to stay quiet and content for a couple of hours was a piece of paper and a pencil, seriously!

And lately, at the age of 26, after a long day at work, as I sit at my desk and watch TV - 'cause I'm too tired to do anything else - it occurred to me to grab a piece of paper and a pencil and try to relive those childhood memories. Picasso once said that it takes a long time to grow young - well, I'm gettin' there!

Spider-Man and Wolverine copyright belongs to Marvel, I believe. That, or the fantastic Mr. Stan Lee. Dragonball stuff copyright belongs to by personal favourite Mr. Toriyama Akira.