Eight-year-old TEX was “born” on GoComics.com a year ago. Cartoonist, Jesse Atwell created TEX, the cartoon character and his family during the pandemic.

After playing with various other ideas, including a single panel cartoon, TEX came to be. This year it was nominated for the National Cartoonists Society’s cartoon of the year in the online short form comic strip category.

I had the opportunity to interview Jesse on the one year anniversary of TEX’s syndicated publication.

TOM: Jesse, are you from Texas? TEX is the main character in the strip, and he has a brother named Austin.

JESSE: I didn’t hide that very well, did I? I currently write and illustrate TEX in the Texas Hill Country, outside of Austin. The strip doesn’t necessarily take place in Austin, but my wife and I have called Austin home for the last twelve years. Both of us are originally from Kansas and bopped around a bit, but this is the longest amount of time we’ve lived anywhere so now it’s home.

TOM: It looks like you color the strip with watercolor rather than the usual Photoshopping spot colors in. How long does it take to draw the strip and then how long to color it?

JESSE: I’ve tried coloring digitally and it takes forever and makes my eyes hurt. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. But that said, I wanted TEX to look softer, dreamlike, abstract… something that leaves a lot of room for interpretation from the reader. I’m also pretty terrible at making decisions and watercolors force me to make a decision and move on; I don’t have a second chance to get it right. Once I lay down the color, it’s a part of the art and I have to work with it. I must move quickly.

The entire process begins with the script. I click-clack it out on my 1964 Hermes 3000 manual typewriter. I stand when I type and it’s a very physical process that involves pacing, hitting keys, and dramatically ripping paper from the typewriter. Then, I let the script sit for several days before I edit it. When I edit the script, I first figure out the beats… I cut lots of dialogue and determine how the beats align with the panels.

Then, I draw my pencil rough – which actually takes longer than the ink master. Once again, I have to make decisions here and the decisions take me a long time to figure out. I do about a month or so of pencil roughs all at once so I’m not switching processes. I’ll do the same with ink, watercolors, textures, colored pencils, scanning, etc. The whole process is easier when I can batch a bunch of strips together at the same time.

From writing to uploading the final digital file to GoComics, a daily strip probably takes 3-5 hours and a Sunday format takes 4-6 hours. But it all depends on the idea and how much coffee I’ve had that day.

TOM: There’s a lot of Cul de Sac in TEX, I mean that as a compliment. Is there? Is Richard Thompson an inspiration?

JESSE: Richard Thompson was just… so… DARN GOOD. I could stare at Cul de Sac for hours and never get bored. I mean, just look at his lines!! Before launching TEX, my daughter and I took a pilgrimage to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. We viewed lots of original strips including Cul de Sac, Calvin & Hobbes, Peanuts, and others.

Jenny Robb and Caitlin McGurk at OSU are the best. They were incredibly kind to my daughter and I. When they showed us an original Peanuts strip, the air in the room changed.

We had the privilege of viewing original Cul de Sac strips painted with watercolor. And they were quite impressive. . . confident, bold, and beautiful. Richard’s work is very inspiring. I encourage every cartoonist to visit the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum to view his original Cul de Sac strips in real life.

TOM: I agree with you regarding Richard’s work. I would love to go to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library soon. What other cartoonists/comics were you influenced by?

JESSE: I’m just such a fan of the artform. And I appreciate different creators for different reasons. In terms of direct influence, I’ve read a tremendous amount of Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Mutts, The Far Side, Bloom County, Garfield, Baby Blues, and others. Will Henry is doing some very impressive work as well with Wallace the Brave.

I’m heavily influenced by lots of French illustrators. I love Marc Boutavant, Olivier Tallec, Benjamin Renner, and Anouk Ricard. Their work just feels so darn “other-wordly” and unique. It’s something I’m striving to accomplish with TEX.

We are also getting a wider variety of voices in the space and that’s an incredibly wonderful thing.

TOM: How did the GoComics thing come about? Did you submit samples to them? Did they contact you?

JESSE: I’ve developed multiple strips over the years, but they never took off. I could never get past the first thirty strips or so. And the concepts died before any real character development could take place. I played around with animation, I toyed with single panel gags, but nothing clicked. In the years before the pandemic, I was creating lots of one-off character illustrations and sharing the watercolor art on my Instagram account @jesselikestodraw.

Stephen King says, “My idea about a good idea is one that sticks around and sticks around and sticks around.” This little kid with big ears and wonky eyes kept coming out. At the time, I didn’t know who he was or what he wanted but eventually he stuck around long enough for me to get to know him a bit better.

TEX is about that time in your life when everything feels brand new. For me, it wasn’t until the lockdown when I had the time and space to really explore this kid and his world. I spent nine months working on the pitch.

I submitted a pitch to GoComics. At that time, Shena Wolf, acquisitions editor, and I had some initial conversations about the strip. She urged me to take another stab at the character design for Wayne and Barb, the parents. TEX remains relatively unchanged, but Wayne and Barb look radically different.

TOM: Would you like to have TEX eventually appear in newspapers on a daily basis or do you prefer the much slower pace of online publication?

JESSE: TEX has a lot of energy. He can easily fill any space he is given, including a syndicated daily newspaper strip. I look forward to being able to develop that at some point.

TOM: Where do you get the most readers for TEX? Instagram, Facebook, the GoComics site?

JESSE: This is a great question! GoComics is a wonderful partner and I appreciate everything they do to help creators find readers. I love being a GoComics Creator. Several other creators have come together to support each other there and I’m happy to be among them.

I have a wonderful community on Instagram, but I’ve been developing that pre-TEX. And I’m now building out reels with motion graphics and audio commentary and publishing that content on TikTok and YouTube. I’m reaching new audiences on those channels but I’m not sure if they’re converting to readers just yet. Either way, I’m happy to see Tex spread his wings and I’ll go wherever he goes. I’m deeply interested in animation too.

TOM: What does your studio or workspace look like? Where do you create TEX?

JESSE: I draw TEX at the kitchen table. We have three kids all under the age of ten and there are loads of distractions. The dog barks, the kids scream, someone pokes me with something sharp. . . . but it’s this sense of urgency that helps me create TEX. And I hope this energy comes through a bit in the final product.

Our kitchen table is metal and bumpy so I went to The Home Depot and had them cut a piece of wood for me. I tape drawing paper to a piece of wood and get to work. There is nothing fancy about the way I create TEX. It’s a very crude process.

TOM: What song would be the theme of TEX?

JESSE: At the moment, I’m leaning towards “Energy” by The Apples in Stereo. But “Birdhouse in Your Soul” by They Might Be Giants is a very close second…

Music is important to me. I’ve spent most of my life working in the record business. I do less of that these days, but I still use music as a source of inspiration. I would like to animate TEX someday so I keep a running playlist of songs that I’d like to use either in the show or for writing inspiration.

TOM: If you could crawl into any comic strip for the day (old or new, not including your own), which one would it be and why?

JESSE: Calvin & Hobbes because I want Calvin to teach me how to build those incredible snow scenes.

TOM: Thanks, Jesse! I feel like I know you and TEX quite well at this point! I appreciate you speaking with me!

TEX of course can be seen/read at GoComics here: gocomics.com/tex
At Instagram: instagram.com/jesselikestodraw
At Facebook: facebook.com/jesselikestodraw
Jesse’s website is at: jesseatwell.com