Pretty similar story actually. A group of my friends came up with characters that we would doodle and write messages to and from (our early form roleplaying.)
As far as comics, there was a kid in my middle science class that challenged me to draw a better mini comic than he could. Well, he turned up with nothing on the due date and I had (crappy) first chapter. I guess it just snowballed from there.

I've been drawing as long as I can remember because I come from a creative family. I've never been naturally good at it but it was something I always enjoyed, so I kept doing it. I also started writing and creating my own stories in elementary school. I found the idea of creating my own world and characters very fascinating and that just sort of stuck with me.

Been drawing since I could hold a pencil. Got into comics by reading my brother's comic book stash when I was little- I wanted to make comics myself.

I copy my sister back then and I read a lot of comics and manga as kid still do when I have time

I only started drawing about 1,5-2 years ago. And I did it because I wanted to tell my story in the comic book format. So I'm kind of using the comic to improve my drawing so I can then in turn draw the comic better! Snake eating it's own tail-kind of situation. ^_^

I've been drawing as long as I can remember. I know it sounds corny. What helped was that I was surrounded by comic books from a very early age and my big sister was also big on drawing, so it always came very naturally to me.

I've been drawing since forever... and I actually drew so much in high school, making comics and all that my grades dropped ... I realized I couldn't breathe if I wasn't drawing so I went to art school ! lol

I've always done little scribbles and such ever since I was little. My parents always encouraged art and music in our household. Christmases and Birthdays were always filled with gifts of paper, markers, paint, easels, brushes, pencils... they took us to art museums and my mom volunteered as an art history teacher in grade school (not her profession, she's actually a sheriffs deputy). So a love for art and drawing has always been there. Ironically I hadn't really ever read comic books. I read some manga, and watched some anime. It wasn't until I was in my 20s when I got married that I started drawing comics. My husband is an avid comics collector and reader and he's the one who really encouraged me to draw comics.

I have been drawing since I could hold a crayon! I got a lot of positive feedback so I just kept going. I got into comics first with Archie, then through Marvel because my dad was an avid collector. I used to draw fanfic comics as a kid. Then, I went to art school and made graphic design my career and make a webcomic in my spare time.

I've always loved art so my dad taught me how to use charcoal and oils and took me to art museums and that sort of thing... but I actually got interested in comics through film? I was always really into film (another thing I got from my dad) and I picked up a lot of storytelling from that.

When I was going to college I knew I loved drawing and storytelling and that comics would let me do both those things, so I majored in illustration and took play writing and film studies classes as electives. Comics and film are really intertwined in my mind because it's all about pacing and framing images.

I've been drawing since I was small. My uncle gave me my first how to draw book when I was in 4th grade and I liked drawing at that point, but I wanted to be a writer or a singer. In middle school I fell in love with manga and decided I wanted to be a "mangaka". I started drawing comics in 6th and 7th grade. I was reading a lot of art books at that point. After 7th grade I quit choir and started taking art classes. And I took art classes all throughout high school.

When I graduated from high school, I wanted to be an animator or a game designer, but the closest thing my community college has is graphic design with an emphasis on animation So I started studying graphic design. I'm trying to teach myself animation on the back burners.

ive always drawn, and loved art, but got into comics via the manga route at 12 or 13. i slowly transitioned to western comics and stopped reading manga for a combination of disinterest and not having enough space for manga readers on my phone. i didnt really start making comics until i discovered tapastic, though, and it all became suddenly possible.

on like the other side of the arts im also a theatre technician, which i fell on my arse backwards into because i had to take two years of further education by law and it sounded good, and i needed the skills for running events in the poetry circuit (its all connected~~~) technical theatres so easy to fall in love w tho - i have to more or less quit it to focus on comics and art and poetry, but its gonna be crazy difficult to quit.

Out of the burning need to put stories into visual format. Never one to draw for the sake of drawing.

This is why to this day, when I'm not doing a comic panel, I get mental block and at least 1/2 my skills go out the window... Lol

Like a lot of other people here, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, haha.

As for how I got into comics, idk, I guess I've always loved the idea of telling stories through a visual medium. So when I found out that manga and webcomics were a thing, naturally I wanted to try it out. And now here I am!

I hate to admit it, but Chris Hart is mainly the reason why I started drawing.
I got thsese bad boys when I was 11 or 12 I think.

@miesmud my first exposure to manga was when I was in art school(in the early 90s), started buying Silent Mobius by Kia Asamiya. I then moved on to You're Under Arrest & Oh My Goddess(Fujishima), and then moved to Gunsmith Cats by Kenichi Sonada.

I always liked coming up with stories in my head. Around 4th grade I started to doodle more. When I was in middle school, I started to write a "gag-a-day" comic and decided to expand on that and make something more story driven. I had a 5 subject note book which I drew thumbnail comics in. I carried that thing everywhere and all through high school.

I guess I was inspired a little by TV shows, like Dragon Ball Z. I remember first discovering manga in middle school and was surprised that a comic could be more than just superheroes. I think in small parts I pull a little from the Simpsons.

I was bored one day while waiting for my mom to finish stuff at the Church (because she dragged me along), and I drew my first comic. I still have it. My mom said I was in Grade 3 at the time.

Drawing since I was a kid, but I was never good at that, instead I was always a great writer, anyway I never stopped making comics. Over time I gave up and even tried to become a mathematician, but since that was not for me, I took drawing classes and what I did amazed me. In Realism I am very good but the manga style makes it difficult for me, anyway i always try to improve, and after a year learning to draw (at least in a decent way) I decided to make a comic here.

I have been drawing since apparently I could hold a pencil. (The drawings on our older wooden furniture pretty much told that as proof)

Anyway, once I got into elementary school I was always attempting to draw stuff I liked at the time. Looney Tunes, Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, Super Mario Bros, etc...

By middle school I attempted to do comics based off people I knew. Basically just 'slice of life' I guess before that term was really coined.

High school was when I discovered manga and anime and started to really emulate the artstyles of many artists I grew to enjoy, somehow having all those styles mix together into what I guess was my own.

Years later, I had kind of reduced my drawings to simple doodles in notebooks or sketchbooks I brought with me to places. And got myself eventually back into things as drawing again, has pretty much been a part of my life since I can remember.

This is kind of a funny but long-ish story so hang on.

I started speaking fairly late, so I found my expression through drawing. Fast forward to Grade. 1... the teacher was giving out worksheets and it asked: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" At that point, I was behind compared to my peers, and since I couldn't read I started to draw instead. This teacher of mine was particularly impatient with me and once she discovered I did not answer the question, she grabbed the sheet and wrote down "Artist". When I went home, I asked my mom what an artist was. Decided that people who draw all day were pretty cool so it was pretty much a straight path from there.

I've always drawn, I've drawn ever since I can remember and it is because my family and older brothers very really into drawing so that's what I did too. I got into comics very young when I saw my older brothers' comic which was quite funny. Most of the comics I drew were about video game characters like Kirby, Bouapha, Sonic, Mario and here and there I drew something "original". I think I drew my first own comic book in 2003-2004. My comics had always been drawn traditionally with just pencil and paper, nothing special. I still draw like that but I started to also draw digitally in 2015.

I guess little kids always draw, but the 1st time I saw Saint Seiya on tv was a magical encounter? lol I started copying the drawing and it's when I remember that I started to wish I could draw as well as that when I grew up (I know that sounds hilarious now).
Guess I had other moments that helped to keep my interest alive though, like Mulan came for me in a age when I think kids start losing interest in drawing, but then I watched it and became obsessed with drawing horses. lol A few years later I'd get interested in anime and manga all over again and from there my interest for art and culture just grew overall.

I read lots of things and listen to music, when i listen to music i can think of a situation and then think of characters. Its weird, i know, but it works for me.

I was kind of a late bloomer. I got into art around middleschool. Late nights I would doodle looneytoon characters and graffiti designs as a stress reliever from school stuff.

Around 5th grade one of my classmates showed everyone a drawing of Shadow the Hedgehog he "drew". Now he may or may not have traced it, and I didn't realize that until years later when I had been drawing trying to reach the level I thought he was on, but yeah. That's what really kicked off me drawing.