December 25th, 2019

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! This is a little break from the storyline to celebrate. I had a lot of fun with this one, as the holiday-season style is such a different aesthetic from a usual Billy strip. The dark blue-and-purple color scheme is one I don't often use, so it was interesting figuring out how to do that effectively. I also added a snow pattern to the background panel just for some extra decoration, and I think it really makes the Christmas vibe.

I'm posting this from, of all places, the Philippines, where my family is on vacation. I won't be able to post again until I get back after New Year's, so I'll have to say Happy New Year now. I really appreciate all of you for sticking with the strip despite how sporadically I've been posting it. After the road-trip storyline ends, I think I'm going to be finishing off the strip for good, so this may be the last New Year for Billy the Pop! It's sad, but six years is a pretty long time, longer than I ever thought I'd be able to keep this up. I'm proud of how far the strip has come during that time, and I'll be bringing these characters into 2020 with more drive than ever. Thank you all, and see you next decade!

December 18th, 2019

This story is getting more and more tangled up, so I think it helps to have a little "update strip" like this just so we can check in all three characters and see what they're up to. I like that each character has a different idea of what the other two are doing; Pete thinks Harley is waiting for him at the hotel, Harley thinks both Billy and Pete are off adventuring together, and Billy is just in his own world. There is a lot of comedic potential in that, but it's difficult to write a coherent strip with that concept without getting confusing. Let me know if it works here!

My first semester of college is over! I won't lie, I expected to be finished drawing this storyline by now, but unsurprisingly school got in the way. Now that I'm on break, though, I should have plenty more time to draw, and I'll be sure to take advantage of it.

November 28th, 2019

The joke only half-works here. It's a challenging task writing storylines in strip form, because you have to progress the plot and be funny at the same time. The attempt here was to make the joke coincide with the introduction of a new plot point at the end and connect the two simultaneous stories, but I found it hard to tie the two together in a non-awkward way. Oh well, I'll get 'em next time.

Happy Thanksgiving! I appreciate and am thankful for you all!

November 21st, 2019

I had the same difficulties as the previous strip in figuring out the right compositions inside the car, but this time it was a little easier. More importantly, what is Billy thinking??

November 15th, 2019

Interiors of cars are quite difficult to draw, it turns out. And it's especially challenging to fit a wide-angled perspective within such a cramped location; I have to stray from the actual design of a car to show all the necessary visual information. For example, in the third panel, in order for the gas pedal to be seen, there is nothing shown between the seats of the car, so that the "camera" can placed there. It's pretty fun working out how to fit everything into the constraints of a comic panel.

November 10th, 2019

This can't be good.

November 3rd, 2019

The story continues! I must say, drawing cars is beginning to get tedious at this point. And I'm still not even that good at drawing them. Nevertheless, the road-trip series must go on.

October 12th, 2019

Hi all! It's my birthday today, and by pure coincidence it's also National Billy the Pop Day! Hard to believe it's the sixth Billy Day already, wow. 

The dialogue in this one might be a little too wordy, but I think it shows both sides of an internal debate that I've been having. I have both the views of Billy and Pete in me (minus Billy's goals in the last panel). I also had some fun using the colors here, trying to make a glowing sunrise-type palette.

October 6th, 2019

I'm having a lot of fun with this story, although I wish I could update it more often than I have been. I've been putting more effort into the detail in the artwork recently, which makes drawing these time-consuming and difficult to fit into my schedule. But fall break is coming up in a little while, so maybe I'll be able to squeeze in more than one strip that week!

September 29th, 2019

Oh boy, this situation is getting difficult. It's going to be fun to explore this story, because since all the characters are separated, I need them each to carry a separate plotline. Perhaps it's going to take longer than I thought to finish.

September 22nd, 2019

For those just tuning in to the story: Harley took Billy and Pete on a cross-country road trip, and it's currently the day before they reach their destination. But in typical fashion, Billy has ditched Harley to hitchhike back home, taking Pete with him. However, Pete then ditched Billy to regroup with Harley, so now Billy is hitchhiking on his own.

I'll probably have to stop doing these recaps at some point as this story gets more complicated.

Edit: Fixed a small typo where Harley said "has" instead of "have." I should be better than this by now.

September 15th, 2019

Now Billy's left to his own wits on this adventure. What will become of him next? Will he make it back to Florida? What will Harley think of all this??

September 8th, 2019

The story continues. How does Pete keep getting sucked into these situations? 

This is my first post from university! It's going to be a little difficult to draw regularly over here, but I will do my best to post at least once a week. I'm still trying to raise my standards for the artwork in these strips; I like how the background in the second panel turned out here.

August 25th, 2019

I don't often draw attention to the fact that Billy and Pete don't have thumbs (or in Billy's case, hands at all), but I like to do it occasionally just as a reminder that these characters aren't just humans in the bodies of a turtle and a popsicle.

In two days, I'm going to be off to college! I've decided that, rather than stop this strip when I leave for school, I'll continue the strip until this story is finished. How long that will take I don't know, but you can look forward to more Billy strips after the summer ends! I can hardly believe how fast this summer went, and I can believe even less that this strip has lasted me into university. I started Billy out in seventh grade, not even imagining it'd continue as long as it has. I hope you all have enjoyed reading the strip all this time, because it's been an essential part of my life the last 5 years. I'm nervous but hopeful about my life to come, and I hope you stick with me into it. Thank you so much!

August 21st, 2019

Ah yes, another classic water-balloon prank contraption. Billy and Pete have really stepped up their teamwork.

I enjoy how the colors turned out here. They're vibrant and fun without distracting too much from the action. I tried giving the floorboards multiple colors in the third panel which was a successful experiment in my eyes.

August 14th, 2019

For those just tuning in to the story, the characters have been on a cross-country road trip for several days now, with Billy having to stifle his typical grumpy attitude the whole time. Looks like he can't contain it much longer, though...

I've heard that some people who have subscribed via email haven't been notified when a new strip was posted. Hopefully this one gets through, and if you want, look back through the last few posts to see if you missed anything!

August 12th, 2019

I always enjoy doing Billy's dress-up characters, so I thought I'd sneak one of those into this storyline. I'm having fun with the montage-esque feel of the strips in this story; each strip feels like a little snapshot from the gang's road trip.

I'm posting this from Maine! I always go there in the summer, but this time I've brought a portable scanner with me, so I can post right after I draw rather than bringing a bunch of already-completed strips to post. That only really matters on my end, but I thought I'd let you know anyway!

August 2nd, 2019

Billy pretty much likes everything I dislike about cities.

Man, how is it August already? It's hard to believe I'm going to be at college by the end of this month. Don't worry, I'll make sure this story gets completed one way or another!

July 29th, 2019

This one was particularly difficult to fit everything into the panels. Cars are very big objects, and having to show two windows of a car for both characters to look out of takes up a lot of space. Add the gas pump and Pete on the ground and you've got a claustrophobic panel on your hands.

July 23rd, 2019

Man, talk about a fun first panel to draw! Both that and the second panel were made to look cinematic, as corn fields have an inherently cinematic quality to them I think. The second panel is smaller in height than the other two panels to look more like a widescreen movie.

July 20th, 2019

Back to the story! Having a moving car as a setting for multiple strips is a fun challenge. You have to constantly think about what angle would best show all the characters and action, which is a difficult task in such a small, cramped location. Backgrounds are also fun because of how much movement is happening outside the car.

July 17th, 2019

Here's a little break from the storyline with a colored strip! Remember these? It's been so long since I've made one it's crazy, even though the normal amount of strips in between colored ones has remained the same. This one was definitely a lot of fun to color, although the bottom-left panel is a bit jarring in comparison to the color schemes in the other panels.

June 29th, 2019

Hello readers! It's been a very busy June for me, so allow me to explain all that's happened:

First of all, early in the month I had the remarkable experience of being interviewed for a short TV spot about Billy the Pop and the Hamilton Prize I received for it (more about that in the previous post)! Having a reporter and camera operator come to your house is an unforgettable time for sure, and I never would have expected drawing this strip would've eventually led to such a thing happening. Shoutout to Kellye Lynn and WJLA for doing this! Check it out here.

Next, I was busy for the first half of June with my senior project, for which I directed a short film! I'm pretty proud of the result. If anyone's interested in watching it, it can be found here.

After that, some very important news is that I have now graduated from high school. It's fascinating to look back at my first days drawing and posting Billy in 7th grade; back then I imagined that perhaps I would continue the strip all the way through senior year, but I was always unsure that I would last that long. But here we are! For those who have been with the strip since the start, does it feel like it's been five and a half years? It's hard to grasp that it's been that long for me, but I know I've changed a lot in that time.

Anyway, I'm going to stick to my promise and step up the pace of these posts starting now. Since college is speedily approaching, I sadly won't be able to keep drawing Billy for much longer, so I've gotta make this summer count! I'll be on vacation at the beach next week, so I'll be sure to take plenty of time to draw while I'm there.

May 27th, 2019

Hey guys! A lot has happened since the last time I posted, so let me go over that real quick:

The biggest news is that Billy the Pop received an Honorable Mention for Wesleyan University's Hamilton Prize! This means I'll be given a $5,000 stipend to use for creative purposes at university. It's really great that my work on this strip has resulted in any sort of recognition, so I'm incredibly grateful for this! As if that weren't enough, Lin-Manuel Miranda (who you may know as the guy who did Hamilton) mentioned my name in a tweet about the prize, which is just unbelievable. Like, seriously how. 

I can see from the statistics that a lot of new people have visited this site because of this prize and the press rollout thereof, so if you're still here, welcome! Obviously I was a little late to make a post on the matter, but since school is winding down, I plan to post more reliably in the coming months. If you like what you've seen, stick around!

Shortly after receiving the prize, I was lucky enough to be interviewed about Billy for an article in DCist, which can be found here: https://dcist.com/story/19/05/22/meet-the-17-year-old-arlington-cartoonist-who-just-got-a-shoutout-from-lin-manuel-miranda/ Major thanks to Chelsea Cirruzzo for putting this all together!

Phew, that was quite a few things! There's a comic strip up there too if you want to read that. :)

April 25th, 2019

In case any of you were fooled by the last post, scroll down to find the real strip from that day. :)

I'd really like to say that I'm sorry for how infrequently these strips have been posted. School-related work, college visits, etc. have prevented me from drawing as often as I'd like to. Hopefully, as the school year nears its end and these things wind down, I'll be able to fit in more drawing time, and of course when summer break starts I'll have no trouble posting more. Thanks for sticking with the strip despite all this, again I'm very sorry.

April 1st, 2019

Hey everyone! This is a huge announcement. Billy the Pop has just stepped up to a new level. Through much networking and emailing, talking to agents, financiers and producers, I managed to get a contract signed for the development of a feature-length Billy the Pop movie! 

Real Hollywood executives have already green-lit production and distribution of the film, to be titled Billy the Pop the Movie. It's set to be out by the end of 2020. Here's the poster:

I know it says my name at the bottom there, but actually I'm having very little input on the final movie. The contract required that I give away the rights to Billy and all its related properties, meaning I can no longer draw and post this strip online, nor will I have any oversight in the writing of the film. I'm not even sure if it's going to be animated or live-action. But that's okay, I'm sure the studio will come together with something great!

Thank you all for coming with me on this great journey. And be sure to see Billy the Pop the Movie, in theaters late 2020!

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April Fools!

You guys know I couldn't miss my yearly April Fools' prank. It's a Billy tradition!
Actually, a Billy the Pop movie would be pretty cool, but I would definitely need to have creative control over it. Although it would require voice actors for the characters, which might ruin some of the magic of the strip.

Anyway, here's the actual strip for today:

It's a bit of a shame to see Pete being corrupted by Billy's ways. I like to think he's just trying to blend in with what Billy is doing; he's not like that on his own. 

March 3rd, 2019

For those just tuning in to the story: Harley is taking the gang on a cross-country road trip. Where will it take them? Across the country, perhaps? Who knows??

It was pretty fun to draw that highway complex. For anyone interested, here's the source from those car crash statistics: https://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalityfacts/state-by-state-overview

February 16th, 2019

Hey everyone! Deepest apologies for taking this long to get started posting in 2019. But we're celebrating the occasion with one of the strip's biggest stories yet! Probably one of the biggest, anyway. I'm trying a new approach with this one; usually I have a general idea for how the whole story is gonna play out before I start drawing it, but here I'm trying to improvise a bit more and come up with it as I go along. We'll see how successful that method is, I guess!