1977 the Comic

Hey! That’s me! I grew up in a lot of places across Illinois, as my family moved a lot (my Dad’s a professional criminal, er, teacher). But in 1969, at age 12, we landed in Lombard, Illinois and I spent my High School years in this little suburb of Chicago finding out about life and the 70s.

I always wanted to be a comic artist, and did draw comic strips in High School and College, but never was encouraged to draw professionally; it wasn’t the popular thing to do in the 70s. So I went to college as a Business Major and quickly became a drunken fool, playing in rock bands and smoking a few joints here and there.

But thanks to those drunken nights in bars, bands and women, I have a few memory cells left to recall those events and that’s how 1977 the Comic was created.

1977 the Comic started life on January 1st, 2008. I chose a three times a week schedule and dove straight in. For about 6 months I had a small & steady stream of readers, then on August 4th, 2008, someone Stumbled Upon that day’s comic and I had 60,000 hits in two days, and the rest is history. The comic had been “discovered” and the readership grew by leaps and bound! In January of 2009, I introduced “Old Bud” and his daughter, and Bud is was telling the story of 1977 to her.  That “story” lasted all of 2009 and ended with the Road Trip series that came to a conclusion in January of 2010, just over a year later.

“1977 the Comic” is based very loosely on my experiences back in the wild – or what seemed like wild to us – days of the 1970s.  Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll was still the call of the wild, but disco had invaded with a thunder and punk was just getting started. Bud and his band of friends will tell the story of these times with tongue firmly in cheek. Plus, I’ll stray from the usual gang and just drop in some random silly thoughts as they strike me. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do creating them.

Drop me a line or leave a comment; I love to hear from fans/critics.
Contact me at byron@1977thecomic.com and I’ll say “howdy”!

Your comic friend,
W. Byron Wilkins.