For most of my life, cartooning has been a hobby on the back burner. I could draw a little bit and I have always had an unusual sense of humor. But I would do it someday when I had the time. In late 1999, my perspective changed dramatically. News of Charles Schulz's illness and subsequent retirement upset everyone's apple carts. I realized I was either going to do it and make my mark, or I wasn't. Well, I'm doing it. I'm not too worried about making my mark. I'm having fun.

You'll also need to learn to use image processing software. You can get free programs or very costly ones. It depends how sophisticated you want your work to be. You probably don't need anything complicated or costly--at least not to start. You're better off not spending a lot of money and not making things harder than they need to be until you've been producing your strip long enough to know you really want to do this. (Trust me. It can be a big commitment.) If you can scan your drawing, clean up any smudges or specks, and color the image, you've got enough for a decent start.

The initial web design for a well-planned site is very time consuming. You could easily spend an entire week of vacation time working on it and still not get half done. Think of ways you can make ongoing maintenance easy for yourself and incorporate them into your initial design. For example, certain files will be updated more than others and perhaps could go into the same directory. And files you'll link to a lot will be easier to code for if you don't bury them several subdirectories deep.

There are many things you should know about domain hosting. It costs more than regular web hosting and can be kind of tricky at first because of the extra email accounts and other frills your service may come with. And there are lots of web hosts waiting to rip you off. Don't settle for bargain hosting. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! Decent domain hosts have tech support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also aren't afraid to offer money-back guarantees. And they'll cost more than a few dollars a month. If you go cheap, don't be surprised if the server crashes frequently and people can't get to your site. Your traffic will stay low and search engines won't catalog you.