Well, here is is, the very first furry picture I've ever drawn. Yes, this really is it! I'm a bit confused about the timeline for my earliest stuff, but this is definitely the image that started it all. I drew very little of Chris at that time. The real volume, and my signature style of squished eyes and peachfuzz cheeks, developed in 1991.

By the age of nine, I had already built a lackluster stack of comics featuring blobs and silly, borderless faces. I was not, shall you say, a natural artist, and did not start drawing “as soon as I could hold a pencil” as many other artists say.

That all changed when my parents took me to my aunt's wedding (and Disney World) in Orlando, Florida. While camping out in my aunt's home (with a horrible sunburn), I saw something that changed my life — a Sunday newspaper with a full-page Pogo comic strip on it. I was instantly hooked on anthropomorphic characters and comic strips. That same day, this drawing of Christopher was made.

I had just seen Crocodile Dundee on VHS a little while earlier, and thus I decided to make Christopher a dingo, sporting the flat-topped hat I had seen in the film. The first “real” Backing Out art and strips started showing up in 1991 with the full cast of kids, including Joshua, Rebecca, Robert, and Vicky. Things kicked into high gear in early '93, though I spent a lot of time coming up with ideas and not so much time drawing (thankfully, I put dates on all of my comics). The Kanus parents, Darryl and Nokino, did not show up until much later — around 1995.

It took about six years for me to ditch that damned hat, too. ;)

chris dingo