2022 is a very special year for me!

One, I just turned 65 on the 5th and I’m officially retired, and two, it’s the fifteenth anniversary of “1977 the Comic!” Banner year indeed! Let’s catch up a little for those of you late to the party. (This may be too long for some, so skip to the paragraph where the first sentence is in a bold, red font)

Bud Design V1 in February of 2007

In 2007, at the age of 50, I switched careers from running my own corporate video production company to becoming a comic artist. The very first thing I drew was Bud, shown here on the left. He was not the Bud we know today, but it’s still Bud. In 2008, I launched the comic’s official website at its own domain name. But life was not easy behind the scenes as I was in deep financial trouble (for reasons I won’t get into as it’s messy) and nearly lost my home. As a result of years of stress, right around the beginning of 2014 I fell into a deep depression. I carried on the comic for a couple more years but never with any consistency. In 2018, I made another life change and moved to North Carolina kissing the cold winters in Illinois goodbye forever. But my depression was never put in check by any of the medications I was prescribed. 

Well, that change in 2021. This past July my doctor put me on yet another different set of depression and ADHD medications. Much to my surprise, these worked. My outlook on life changed in a matter of weeks. I took control of my life and immediately built my home office, which had been put on the back burner since we moved to North Carolina. And the biggest change was that I was able to draw again. For years my depression had made it nearly impossible for me to draw anything. If I did, it was painful mentally and most of the time I failed to complete any project I started. 

I’ve been drawing consistently since July of 2021.

I have not stopped drawing since then and I’m actually enjoying it now! So even though I had announced that 1977 was retired, I decided to bring the comic back to life! My goal is to post a comic or related new material twice a month on the first and third Mondays of every month. If I have the energy, and it does not push any stress levels with me, I will see if I can increase that output. I am going to do this the right way as I don’t want to start and stop like I have for the past five years. I really love drawing these characters and have many stories and fun stuff to do with them. 

To welcome you all back, here’s some REO Speedwagon from their 1979 album “Nine Lives” which was essentially their last rock ‘n’ roll album before Kevin Cronin ruined the group by recording all of those sappy ballads. Not only is the title of the song appropriate for today, but the song was also composed and sung by their bassist Bruce Hall! All power to the bass players of the world! We rock your world! It’s great to be back on the road again and I hope to not run out of gas this time! Let’s rock this thing.