I drew my first horse comic strip in 1998, for an under-the-radar zine called Undermatter. In 1999 and 2000, The Wash, a Washington, D.C., art zine, published several horse comics under the name Beyond the Box—a name that alludes to how media "boxes" (computers, TVs, magazine or newspaper columns, and even comics) shape our perception of reality, and how we (well, some of us) may struggle to get beyond those premade frames to find subtler understanding. In 2004 I started self-publishing Beyond the Box (along with a one-off strip called Always & Forever) and, for a time, distributed free copies to San Francisco cafés and bookstores. Around the end of this period, I hit upon the permanent title for the strip: Stewball, the name of the prize-winning racehorse in the old folk song ("Oh, Stewball was a racehorse, and I wish he were mine..."). My Stewball, however, is not this champion Stewball, but a befuddled, underachieving version of his heroic ancestor, with an ongoing existential dilemma.
Enter Stewball's world by clicking on the comic strip titles in the left sidebar.
Hear the song that started it all on Stewball's Myspace page. Oh! What fun! Speaking of media boxes, MySpace is the mother of them all. But Stewball can't pass up the chance to connect with fellow seekers 'round the world, all mousing away in quiet desperation.
