"The World of I DIG DUG Comics"

Once in awhile, someone asks me, "How did I DIG DUG begin?", or "How did you create I DIG DUG?". And it's a rather interesting story. Go grab yourself and little snack, come back, sit down and read all about the humble beginnings of I DIG DUG.
I DIG DUG wasn’t always "I DIG DUG". In fact it started as "The Gang’s All Here" and starred eight characters based on myself and my friends. Actually, I only ever did one 'poster', and five comics with that group of characters. When I decided to submit some comics to The Lantern (Ohio State’s daily newspaper), I scaled the comic down focusing on 3 main characters; Dug (based on myself), Carrie (based on my wife), and Matt (based on my best friend), and thus I DIG DUG was born.
Why "I DIG DUG"? Well...there's this old '80's video game called DigDug which was my absolute favorite arcade game. Back in middle and high school, a friend of mine used to compete with me to see who could get the high score on that game every year at the Richwood Fair. So, when I started kicking out name ideas, "Dig Dug" was the first one that popped in my head. It was Carrie who suggested adding the "I" at the beginning. I'll admit I didn't like it at first, but as I started to get some input from other friends of mine, it grew on me...and stuck!
My inspiration to create IDD came from reading the comics section in The Lantern each day on OSU campus. You see, the comics didn’t really tell any stories, and were more interested in cracking jokes at one another…mostly inappropriate jokes. So I took it upon myself to create my comic, and on February 1st, 1999, I DIG DUG began seeing print in The Lantern. I was very excited!!! It was so cool to see my little comic in print, in a paper!!!
IDD was the 6th and bottom comic on the comic page. It didn’t take long for the other comics to start cracking their jokes at me either. My favorite was the way they would make fun of my drawing ability, specifically the ‘stupid looking eyes’ of my characters. But I didn’t let it bother me. I shrugged it off and kept doing my thing. And by April during spring quarter of 1999, I DIG DUG was placed on the top of the comic page because, as my editor told me, it did what a comic is supposed to do; tell a story and be funny.
IDD continued to run, DAILY, in The Lantern for almost the next two years. I graduated from OSU with my Art Education degree in the May of 2000, published a short run of strips for the summer quarter, and continued the comic until December of that year. I began student teaching in January of '01 and I could no longer keep up with the deadline of creating a daily comic. It was heartbreaking...but it had to be done. I DIG DUG became something I dablled in to pass the time for my own enjoyment. Until just a few years ago, when I got the bug to wanting to see my comic in print again. So I set out to see if I could do it all over again.
In October of 2005, I DIG DUG saw print again in Marysville, Ohio's weekly newspaper, "The Hometown Connection". However...things didn't really pan out well. So, I shuffled the strip over to "The Hometown Connection in February of 2006, where it is printed each week. I still get a kick of seeing my comics in the paper. I have a large collection of old "Lantern" newspapers from OSU with my comics in them. I still do the same with "The Hometown Connection". It's no longer a 'daily' comic...and I really do miss being able to tell week-long stories, but it's still a lot of fun.
And that's "I DIG DUG: A History" for all of you who were interested. I hope you enjoyed the story, and I certainly enjoyed telling it. Thanks for visiting I DIG DUG comics.
-dug!
Oh...the poster...I didn't even get to that, did I? Characters appearing from left to right are: Starr (name not final), Smitty and Dave (the I DIG DUG movie review guys!), Senor Squid (name not final), Matt, Carrie, Dug (the main 'triumverate of IDD), Brodie Rock, Allen Android (not not final...but almost), Sir Master Zorbanian, Action Lass, Not-So-Super-Man, and Generic Villain. Questions? Kick me a comment....