Tauhid Bondia, from Elizabethtown, will soon be making readers across the country laugh.
His daily comedy cartoon, Crabgrass, about two best friends named Kevin and Myles, is distributed nationally. There’s a cast of family and extended family members, but it’s mostly about the two kids and their adventures at school, home, and more.
“It’s kind of loosely based on my own childhood,” said Bondia, who first drew inspiration from her own experiences growing up in Elizabethtown with a good friend. “I think I really wanted to capture my version of childhood. When I read comics as a kid, I loved comics about kids but I didn’t really see my childhood experience reflected.
Bondia said there’s a lot of fantasy in Crabgrass, but it doesn’t rely as much on the world of fantasy that can be found in other cartoons and comics.
Whether it’s having a bike accident, trying to hide a broken arm, and getting lost in the woods on a fake scavenger hunt to one of the friends shaving their heads in solidarity, Kevin and Myles find themselves in all sorts of situations.
Bondia said he has published several comics online for years with varying success, but this is the first time one has been selected for print syndication, unless you count the comic he has. made in high school for her school newspaper.
Before Crabgrass, Bondia did a strip called A Problem Like Jamal. He said Shena Wolf of Andrews McMeel Syndication approached him about posting it on their website, GoComics.com.
“I was happy to do that. I did that for a few years, and then I decided to try to do a comic book geared towards print syndication,” he said.
Bondia said he and his wife came up with the premise, he wrote four or five weeks of tapes in one weekend, then sent them to Wolf, telling him he was developing a tape, hopefully, for the syndication.
“She immediately emailed me back and told me she liked it and asked for more tapes to get a better feel for the world of Crabgrass. I wrote the extra tapes and she offered me a printing deal. It kind of changed my life,” he said.
Bondia said the comic would officially launch on March 28.
“We’re really excited,” he said.
Bondia took an early interest in comics. When he was in elementary school and they sent all the students to the library to pick out a book to read, Bondia and a handful of others figured out that it mattered if you read the comic book collections.
“We would all race there to catch the Garfields and stuff like that,” he said.
But it wasn’t until he was 20 that Bondia said he decided to become a comic book artist.
Before that, Bondia said he wanted to be a comic book artist, but it was mostly about drawing things he didn’t want to draw. For example, he liked drawing Spider-Man but not so much Spider-Man’s apartment.
“So I decided to try my hand at comics because I thought it would be easier but also because I had trouble finishing entire comics. I would be distracted or bored or I would have a better idea,” he said. “With the comics, I could knock out four boxes and feel like I did something and that would give me the momentum to do the next comic.
“Within a short time, I had done hundreds of comics and was involved in various artist communities online. I got a lot of support there,” he added. kind of motivated me to keep doing these comics.”
A few of Bondia’s other features include The Angry Dead and Good Ship Chronicles.
Bondia currently lives in Hodgenville with his wife, three cats and two dogs.
People can check out Crabgrass on GoComics.com or @Crabgrasscomic on Instagram.
“I’m really excited about the band. I worked very hard on it and I’m very proud of the work I’ve done,” he said. “I can’t wait to see how it goes.”