A little over a year and a half ago, I dug out a drawing I’d penciled back in the mid-1980s and finally inked it. Finishing that 40-year-old piece lit a fire under me. I started filling sketchbooks with new drawings and notebooks with ideas. About a month ago I began my morning ritual: one dedicated hour each day writing the story. I’m now well into the first draft.
It might become a prose novel, an illustrated story, or even a comic book—I’m still figuring that out. But as I write and draw, I keep needing reference and inspiration for the period details.
The story is set in a high school sometime between 1978 and 1982. I considered watching movies from that era like Foxes or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but they felt filtered through Hollywood casting and art direction. The kids were a little too perfect, missing that raw, authentic awkwardness of real teenagers.
So I thought about tracking down my old high school’s yearbooks. Logistically, that quickly proved impractical. Then I remembered the great modern elephant graveyard where people unload their pasts: eBay.
For $17 plus shipping, I scored this gem from Adrian, Michigan—grades 7 through 12. It’s everything I needed: the hair, the clothes, the gloriously awkward expressions.
I flip through it for character names, fashion references, poses, and general atmosphere. It’s also full of unexpected treasures.
Like this completely unlikely homecoming float based on the sci-fi film Logan’s Run.
A dystopian story about a society that euthanizes everyone at age 30… turned into a high school float. It was one of those things that only made sense at the time. Absolute gold.
And of course, no 1978 yearbook would be complete without a Star Wars reference.
These pages are pure time travel. For the price of a pizza, I bought a direct window into the era I’m writing about—unfiltered, unpolished, and wonderfully real.
I’ll keep sharing updates as the story and drawings progress.
