I'd written the first fifteen Dinosaur Comics over the previous two days, them all done in advance because I wanted to make sure my idea ("pictures are repeated but the story changes!") would actually work. It was my second idea for a comic: the first one was "story is repeated but the pictures change!" - an idea that was the perfect idea for someone who knew how to draw, and that was Not Me.) My very first comic didn't work out so well:

But I changed the layout a bit and everything clicked.

9.9 years ago I got my first piece of fan mail. It was from one Joey Comeau, who with Emily Horne had just started a comic called "A Softer World". The message asked me what I was going to do with my money when I won the Nobel Prize for comics. It said this because Joey Comeau is a charmer. When the DC collection Everybody Knows Failure Is Just Success Rounded Down came out, the dedication read To Emily And Joey: the first friends I ever made in comics / and still the best. Emily edited the book so it wasn't a big surprise to her, but it was still nice.

9 years ago I moved to Toronto. It also poured rain during the disasterous move, and my apartment flooded with poop (not mine) a month later, and all my books got ruined. Joey sent me a copy of his favourite Mordecai Richler short stories and told me to go to a party that his friends Tim and Rosemary were hosting. They're my friends too now. Most everyone I know in Toronto can be traced back to the friends I made that night. It was a really great party! I showed up unexpectedly 2 hours early and helped the hosts prepare. I was not good at parties then.

8 years ago I went to my first convention and sold $5 worth of comics. One of them was to Jeph Jacques, who I was excited to meet and acted really shy around. We're cool now though! I guess I got my hair braided on that trip too? I was growing it out for Cuts For Cancer, but forgot about my appointment, so I had to grow it out another year. Near the end my hair I went down past my butt, ladies.

7 years ago I graduated and started doing the comic full-time. It was easy! All I had to do was graduate and then fail to get an actual job. I didn't announce I was doing the comic full-time for a year though because I was worried people would be mad at me? For some reason? Also I put out a professionally-printed book. It was in black and white, but it had a nice full-colour image of a piece of meat on the cover. I don't know why all books don't do this!

6 years ago I met Jenn: the woman I would marry. I didn't tell her that at the time, obviously! That would be creepy (also I just met her). Instead I barely spoke to her all night and as she was walking away I shouted "Hey I like your jacket!" at her. This is called being smooth.

5 years ago I got better at parties. Also me and Kate Beaton made friends and eventually she moved to Toronto which was really convenient for pal times - and parties! Which I was now better at!

4 years ago I spent a lot of time parked outside Andrew Hussie's house. Also I received the final prototype for squishable T-Rex, dyed a special shade of crazy green that we had to get a custom order. The crazy clip art dinosaur I'd been writing about had become REAL. He lives in my house.

3 years ago I got married to that same woman I mentioned earlier! Um, CALLED IT.

2 years ago I started working on the Adventure Time comic! It's lots of fun. I'm glad people like it!

1 year ago I started writing this crazy idea I had: a choose-your-own-path version of Hamlet. The book will be available this year, and I hope you like it!

And 0 years ago (math says that is today) I'm super flattered and humbled to get to work on something like Dinosaur Comics for a nice round number like ten whole years. Thank you so much for being here, reading my crazy comics, and for letting me have the best job in the world. It has been the most amazing decade of my life. Although when you slice a 30-year-old's life into decades a good section of the first one features poop pants, so it's a pretty easy choice. Still! Dinosaur Comics has let me travel, most of my friends I've met through comics one way or another, and I love love love it.

Thank you!

Oh PS: to celebrate, here's a brand-new, hot-off-the-presses squishable Utahraptor! Out today to celebrate 10 years of this sassy dude being here on this website!

YES HE IS THE CUTEST.

One year ago today: this comic was inspired by a twitter post that i myself made! welcome to the world of autoerotic plagiarism. wait, no, just autoplagiarism, who put "erotic" in there

– Ryan