Who makes this comic, anyway?

Q2Q Comics is written and drawn by Steve Younkins. In the sixth grade, he was chastised for doodling in the margins of a math test. He started drawing comics in 2004 and has drawn webcomics since 2007. He’s been doing live sound since he was a teenager, working fire hall punk shows, and working in Professional Theatre since 2008.

He is from Maryland, but currently lives in Boston for some reason. He is currently the Audio Supervisor for the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He previously worked as the Audio Supervisor for STAGES St. Louis in Kirkwood, MO. He is a former company member of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre in Frederick, MD, where he worked primarily as a Sound Designer. He used to teach Improv and ran D&D for kids at the Boys and Girls Club. He attended grad school at Hood College in Frederick, MD, where he studied Modernism and Narrative Theory in the Humanities department. He received his BA in English Literature with a minor in Writing from Hood in 2011 where he wrote comics for the school newspaper, and was the student technical assistant for the Theatre program.

Liz Hastings helps out a bunch, too, as a shop assistant, editor, and co-table person at conferences. She reminds Steve to drink water from time to time, puppets the La Ropasucia plushie like a pro, and she’s a damn good prop carpenter, too.

Liz and Steve have two adorable kitties named Potato and Spoops. Poe is the Assistant Regional Manager of Knocking Shit Off My Desk and Spoopsy is a perfect little angel who has never done anything wrong in her life. They are also the main feature on his instagram page.

Is Q2Q Comics on social media? 

You can follow Steve and Q2Q Comics in these places:

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Comic updates are simultaneously posted on Facebook and Twitter, and eventually on Instagram, too. Steve follows the #q2qcomics and #whydoesthissoundbad hashtags on Instagram.

Do you just follow me around recording what I say and making comics about it?

No, it only seems like that. Don’t get all para-social about this.

Okay, but how are the comics made?

Through the #540, the comics were hand drawn on 5×17 smooth bristol board with (mostly) Kuratake Pocket Brush pens, Zebra Brush pens, and Sakura Pigma Micron pens before being colored digitally. Currently, the comics are drawn completely in Photoshop. He draws them the night they’re posted and they take, on average, 3 hours from concept to publishing. The font used in the comics is Steve’s own hand-lettering font, and no you can’t have it.

But are the characters based on real people? 

Some of them. Not all of them. Wuggles is based on a real person, and Dishrag’s nickname comes from a real person who is still Dishrag in Steve’s phone. Steve is a narcissistic self-insert, but the prop carpenter being a redhead has nothing to do with Liz. Morty is 100 stage managers in a trench coat. Leo isn’t named for who you think he’s named for. And most of the other folks share names of Steve’s friends or co-workers.

Do these things really happen? I mean, really?

About half of the comics, including the most ridiculous ones, are actual things that have happened to Steve, or his friends, or are based on stories that have been sent in, and the other half are things that made Steve really giggly so he drew them. La Ropasucia is real though. Blorp too. 

Can I send you comic ideas? 

You can send Steve theatre stories! He enjoys hearing about them and sometimes they’ll inspire a comic, but don’t send things like “in panel one Morty does this…” Those make Steve grumpier than he usually is. And he’s already pretty grumpy.

Why weren’t there any comics during the pandemic? 

Steve was depressed and unemployed like everyone else and he couldn’t figure out how to be funny about that.

But what was Steve doing if not making comics? Shouldn’t he have had lots of extra time for them?

Well, Steve had to take a survival gig working in shipping for a gaming company and developed an RSI resulting in trigger finger in his drawing hand, and that’s only slowly improving. It was not a good time. And then once he got back to his full time gig, they worked him too many hours and he suffered a pretty severe injury, to no one’s surprise. But he can sit up and hold a pen again, now, so let’s prop him up and make some comics, shall we?

What is this about a redrawing something?

The Q2Q Redrew Project started in May of 2022 in preparation for an omnibus collection of Q2Q Comics. The older comics really haven’t held up to0 well. For a huge number of them, Steve doesn’t have high enough quality copies to send to print, or they’re in a bad format, or wrong ratio. Look, there are lots of things wrong, and about 50 of them need to be re-written for any number of reasons. So Steve decided to start from the beginning and rewrite and redraw every comic until he’s satisfied they’ll all print properly, in anticipation of producing a complete collection of Q2Q Comics. All the updated comics will be posted as soon as they’re complete, but if you want insights or to read Steve prattle on about writing, become a patron, and get all the updates emailed to you.

Are there any articles or reviews out there about Q2Q Comics?

2014 Exeunt Magazine Interview
2015 USITT Signing Announcement
2015 USITT Signing Recap
2015 DC Theatre Scene Interview
2016 USITT Signing Announcement
2016 Stage Directions Magazine Interview
2017 Stage Directions Magazine Interview
2018 Silk Flowers and Papier Mache Hearts Podcast Interview

“Infinitely amusing, profoundly relatable, and diabolically true…”
2016 Pooled Ink Review of Q2Q Comics Vol. 1

Has Steve written any other comics?

The Anti-Christ and Friends Comic Adventures (2003-2006)
Circ Jockeys (2007-2011)
Doomsday Sandwiches (2014)
Fruit Bats (Upcoming)

Cool, cool. So, how can I support the comic?

I always need pens and paper and food, and things. You can help by supporting the project on Patreon or by donating! You can also buy t-shirts, books, prints, and assorted what-nots from the Q2Q Store.