Hello everyone, this is Clincy! I am the man behind EMScapades and I’m celebrating my year one anniversary of my comic!
Just wanted to let you know, it’s about to get wordy, so if you’re pressed for time, come back later. If you’ve got the time now, I hope you read on…
Can you believe it’s been a year?!
From the casual readers to the really huge fans (love the emails and social media messages, keep chatting me up whenever! Especially you S.E.!) I want to thank you so much for an amazing first year of EMScapades! When I started this a little over a year ago by sharing these comics on reddit I would’ve never imagined I’d be saying any of this today!
Now, if I could get all mushy and sentimental on you for a few minutes…
I have always been a creative type. I used to be an entertainer, even did some work on screen and radio, but as I got older and began to work more and more overtime in EMS, it seemed as if I was beginning to pack it in. I hadn’t been on stage in any capacity in almost 2 years, and hadn’t even written a new bit or pulled my guitar out of it’s case in almost a year.
However, I still would draw all the time.
Especially at inservice training.
One day, I created the “Hypodilaudidism” comic, the first EMScapades ever, just for fun. I thought nothing more about it at the time other than maybe having a new hobbie or creative outlet. But the entertainer in me, needy for that audience reaction, decided that I needed to post them on reddit/r/ems (I truly love you guys! Truly.) where I had already posted some memes before. But unlike memes, these were my artwork and I just had to know what others in my line of work thought of them! And it turned out that the boys and girls over there seemed to appreciate my new little hobbie.
Very shortly after posting these comics on reddit, I was discovered and approached by a girl named Allie Daugherty at JEMS about having a blog on their network.
Before I even replied to the email, I went on the network to see what other blogs there were about and instantly doubted that I would fit in. I also doubted I had a shot at gaining an audience when guys like Steve Berry and Paul Combs and their great cartoons already existed.
Then after figuring I truly had nothing to lose, and with some kind words about my comics from Allie and now others at JEMS, I quickly bought the domain name, and decided to give it a chance.
And to this day I regret not one second of it.
I can never be sure if that time of “packing it in” was me getting older and focusing on money and OT, or if it was the beginnings of some job related burnout or PTSD that was bleeding into my personal life, I just know that Allie seemed to come out of nowhere and save my creative spirit right when I needed it most.
I not only share my gratitude to her through these words I’m writing today, but also, the female in the above comic, the one dressed as a “taxi”, is my drawing of Allie herself. I shared it with her back when I created it and said she liked it, and that I even got her messy hair right.
Thank you so much Allie. Words and a cameo in one of my comics could never express what you have done for me. I can’t wait to meet you one day.
Now, I’d like to break the mushy mood with a list of facts and a few things I’ve learned during my first year doing EMScapades!
CLINCY’S LIST OF FACTS AND A FEW THINGS HE’S LEARNED DURING HIS FIRST YEAR OF DOING EMSCAPADES!
– As many of you have probably figured out, Clincy is a portmanteau of ClinicalCynic. Kind of like how smoke and fog is called “smog” or a combination of spoon and fork is called a “spork”. Which is a utensil that I have loved since elementary school and still steal from Taco Bell whenever I get the chance.
– The reason for Tuesday and Friday being the days for posting? As a fat kid, my favorite lunch days were Tuesdays and Fridays because Tuesday was the hexagonal Mexican pizza or “Fiestada” as they were called, and Fridays were the rectangle, little pepperoni cubed covered, never quite cooked all the way “regular” pizza. Also, Tuesdays and Fridays were the days of my middle school art class when my desire to create comic strips for the school paper began. Never made it into the school paper, not once, but I always had Fiestadas and Pizzas to cheer me up. But look at me now! I have my own comic strip!
It’s the ciiiirrrcle of liiiiife!
On a serious note: If anyone knows where I could find Fiestadas these days, let me know. That would really complete the circle… that is my waistline.
– The program that I use to draw EMScapades is an app called “Sketchbook Pro” by Autodesk, and the first few months of strips were drawn in that app on my iPhone 6+ using my left index finger. Yes, I’m a lefty.
Around this past Christmas, I would purchase an iPad Mini 2 when they were like $149 at Walmart. Still the same app, still drawn with my left index finger.
Then, EMScapades would begin to make me some money.
That’s how I can now create the comics on an iPad Pro 12.9 and I draw them with an Apple Pencil. So, to the two of you who emailed me commenting on how my artwork is looking better, that is why, which you already knew because I wrote you back and told you. But now I’m telling everyone else.
– Comic strips that take longer than an hour to create, will never be as popular as the ones that I throw together at the last minute sitting in the ambulance at a gas station parking lot between calls.
– When someone at my work finds out that I’m the person behind the comics, they will immediately offer ideas for future strips. “You should do one where they called 911 because their kid licked the condensation off of a hydrogen tank… but it was just water!” That was an actual one from a former partner. You know I still love you man, next hibachi is on me.
– EMS groups on Facebook will share my comics, just the actual comic, not a share link from my own Facebook page. Their posting of my comic will get 3.5k likes and 2.5k shares, but with no link back to my website or Facebook page, I might gain 4 page likes that day. With the exception of the “EMT/Paramedic” Facebook page, who I owe the majority of my page likes to. The rest of my page got some help from a big love shout out from Doc over at the “Tales from the Boo Boo Bus” Facebook page and a bit of love from the “Ghettomedic.com” Facebook page. Thank you guys so very much, how can I repay you?
– I’ve learned that reddit will usually comment, Facebook usually won’t.
– And Facebook will usually like the comic, reddit usually won’t. Kidding guys. Thank you for some serious upvotes lately!
– I’ve learned that I have no idea how to gain Twitter followers.
– I’ve learned that my comic strip will never be as popular as a similar scenario on a meme with Kevin Hart’s face attached to it.
– No matter how many fans I think I have, no matter if they ask, “when are you gonna sell tshirts or a book?”, no one is interested in my merch. Honestly, I think I’ve sold seven t-shirts. Ok, maybe it was more than that… like 8 or 9.
– When sharing on social media, they say timing is everything. If Donald Trump tweets something, some guy posts a video of a CD player exploding in a bucket of gasoline, or Kanye West farts at the same time as my share, I will get no traffic that day. Some of you just know to visit on Tuesdays and Fridays and I appreciate it and hope that continues to grow!
– The actual title “EMScapades” of course is a mash up of EMS and escapades, but it was inspired by a music festival I used to go to in the MD/DC/VA area years ago. It was put on by the radio station WHFS, or HFS for short. Their music festival was called the “HFStival”. I always loved that.
– I’m a Paramedic.
– And lastly… yes, that is what I look like.
So that was just a short list, but I hope you had some fun reading it. If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to drop me a message. Maybe I could start a Monday mailbag on the site where I answer a few questions every Monday. I don’t know. Just spitballin’.
As for the book, if you are interested, I will actually have one out soon. It’s 101 comics from year one, I don’t have a title, but it’s coming soon. Like very soon. Working on the layout some more in a little bit. Stay tuned! You could possibly, maybe, might want to buy a copy.
And I actually just got an email about being at a big convention/expo sometime early next year. No lie! 10:25am to be exact. I really hope this works out!
Hey, if you are responsible for organizing one of those convention/expo/symposiums somewhere, please drop me an email, maybe I can do a book signing or something after my year one book is done.
I would love the chance to meet all of you, my readers!
Speaking of readers, to all of you reading this, I thank you again and again so very much for an amazing first year of EMScapades. I’ve got some changes coming for year two that I hope you’ll like, and please keep emailing me, and checking out the new comics, commenting on them, sharing them, and I hope you continue enjoying EMScapades!
Take care everyone! – Clincy
And of course…
