I would walk into my math class, years ago,  with a couple of sheets of loose-leaf paper in hand. I am proud to say that none of them had any math on them. This was in addition to my school supplies - which consisted of a pen, if that. I sat down in the back and made sure I had someone obstructing the teacher's view of my desk. Finally, I opened up the comic.

For a little while in high school, my friends drew a strip called Corinne. They did it whenever they felt like it. The fancy usually struck them in the middle of a class in which they sat next to each other. I'd read comics before that but I realize now that this was the first personal comic experience I'd had. It made the comic that much better in a manner similar to the way webcomics are made better by the personality lent to it via the site (blog, forums, comments). In the same way that a community being built around a comic makes it even better (Dinosaur Comics and the whole Truth and Beauty Bombs community is a good example of this), being able to pin the author/artist to the comic itself and identifying with who was reading helps a lot in getting the point across. It makes the whole thing really personal.

Corinne, in real life, was a girl who will never know that this comic was based on her. In the comic, she was the main character. The difference being that in the comic Corinne was closer to an angst ridden silver back gorilla than any girl ought to be. She smashed things when she was angry - well, she smashed anything into orafices and, truth be told, she did not have to be angry to do so. Also, I'd like to point out that Corinne was, in fact, a small, skinny girl. They made her into an angry gorilla.

Looking back, it was totally and completely messed up, bizarre, immature and awesome.

It served two purposes: first, it helped me come close to failing that math class. In the end, though, I have to take some personal credit on that front. Second, it opened my eyes to a world of nonsensical, bizarre and off-kilter creativity in the form of panels that would lead me to gold such as PBF and, ultimately, help  me in my own comic endeavor.

Corinne was a piece of cruel and hilarious art that more than a dozen kids looked forward to whenever a new strip was passed around. I know that there must be some still lying around back home and I want to go check them out (and possibly scan them) more than I have in years.

I could have waited until the summer to post this with some scans but I'd really like to know if anyone has any similar experiences (with scans, possibly?). Did you and your friends make any weird strips? Or do anything weird and creative like this that was for your circle only?

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