Brian Gordon is a cartoonist with two kids, aged 4 and 7.
"In 1997 I moved to Kansas to work for Hallmark Cards as a greeting cards cartoonist," he told BuzzFeed. He loved the job and "planned to stay there forever", but unfortunately Hallmark laid him off last June.
Transitioning from having a salary and health insurance to being an independent cartoonist has been "tumultuous and scary", he said.
However, "The upside is that I've been able to focus on [my series] Fowl Language as a full-time creative pursuit."
He always reassures his friends who are going to be parents that they'll be fine, he said. "How do I know? They're scared, which means they care. And at the end of the day, that's the most important thing."
He said the most rewarding things about being a parent are "the little things".
"I maybe went into parenting with unrealistic notions of how immediately rewarding it would be," he said.
"But it's those tiny moments when your kid just wants to hold your hand or falls asleep on you that make all the tedium and frustration fade away."
And the worst things? "Initially, it's the sleeplessness. Spending time with a newborn will make you question why people keep making more of them."
"They get a little bit easier as they get older, but they still seem to be hardwired against their own self-interest."
"You don't know frustration until you've argued with a tiny version of yourself over the reasons they need to eat, drink or use the bathroom."
He said that his biggest influence is Gary Larson of The Far Side: "He's the guy that got me cartooning and writing jokes as a teenager."
He also cites Mathew Inman of The Oatmeal as "the current God of webcomics".
"I'm hoping that as more people discover my work, they'll choose to support it on Patreon, and then I can continue to feed my kids, which is apparently important," he said.
As well as his website, you can also follow Gordon on Facebook and Instagram. "Thank you to all my fans!" he said.
