My name is George Gant. I am the creator of Beware of Toddler, a comic strip about a Black father trying to survive being a stay-at-home parent to his wild two-year-old daughter.
Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I always wanted to draw cartoons. Instead of going outside with my siblings, I stayed inside reading comic strips and drawing cartoon characters. In elementary school, I drew cartoons every chance I could get. In high school, I drew editorial cartoons for the school’s newspaper, even winning four awards over three years. After high school, I focused on college and work and stepped away from comics and cartoons for a while. That was until I discovered webcomics.
With the rise of online comic strips in the early-to-mid 2000s, it became fairly easy for anyone to create and distribute their comics. While I began my comics journey drawing school newspaper comics, it was here that I began to hone my craft. A lifelong gamer, I used my love for video games as the backdrop for my first webcomic, The Reset Button. Two years later, I created On the Grind, a webcomic that pokes fun at the food service industry loosely based on my experiences working as a barista. On the Grind ran for several years with two book collections published.
A year before I published the first On the Grind collection, I became a father for the first time. As I worked in a chain restaurant and knew we’d spend as much money on daycare as I made in the restaurant, I made a conscious decision to quit my day job and become a stay-at-home parent. I had a couple of freelance projects in the pipeline, so I felt fairly confident. I also began toying with the idea of rebooting The Reset Button. This iteration would be more family-friendly, as my taste in humor shifted a bit after growing a bit older and becoming a parent. The new iteration of Reset ran for a few years, with one book collection published not long after the birth of my second child. Once again, I planned another iteration of The Reset Button, this time as a long-form comic book series. Little did I know, a random game of hide-and-seek with my daughter would change everything.
Birth of the Toddler
About a week or two before my youngest child’s second birthday, I decided to play a little game with her. Without warning, I hid in a closet, waiting for my daughter to try to find me. At the very least, I’d have a few minutes to breathe while she looked. Instead of her looking for me and getting upset like I assumed all toddlers would do, she found me immediately. It wasn’t even a struggle; she made a bee-line straight for the closet I was hiding in. I found the experience so funny that it led me to draw a comic about it. This comic would eventually become the first Beware of Toddler comic strip.
Because we live in an era of sharing any and everything on social media, my first course of action after creating this comic was to post it on Facebook. I was curious and wanted to know if anyone would enjoy a comic like this. A parenting comic that appealed to both parents and kids alike felt unique to me. Besides, my previous comics were not particularly popular.
To my surprise, the feedback was very positive. I wasn’t expecting any negative feedback as much as I didn’t expect any feedback at all. So, naturally, I drew another Beware of the Toddler comic.
Even more people enjoyed reading the next one. I continued telling stories about this rambunctious toddler and her exasperated dad without question.
Awards
Over a short amount of time, Beware of Toddler, this webcomic loosely based on my personal experiences as a stay-at-home parent, had amassed quite a few fans on social media. Eventually, I built a webpage for Toddler while also mirroring the comics to Webtoon. This would help the comic grow exponentially.
In Toddler’s second year, I thought it would be fun to submit the comic for award consideration. It was fairly popular and the feedback had been nothing but positive. Not expecting much, Beware of Toddler ended up being nominated for three Glyph Awards, a Ringo Award, and a Webtoon Canvas Award for the comics published during its first year.
While it didn’t win any, it did win a couple of smaller industry-based awards. That next year, Beware of Toddler would go on to win a Glyph Award for Rising Star.
Toddlerhood and Comics Kingdom
People began to request a published book collection for Beware of Toddler. It took a while to make it happen, but in late 2021 ToddlerHood! A Beware of Toddler Collection, a printed book collection of the first 100 Beware of Toddler comics, was not only announced but fully funded on Kickstarter. The book itself has been received positively.
Recently, it was announced that Beware of Toddler would become a part of King Features Syndicate, with new comics coming to the Comics Kingdom platform. The comic launches on Father’s Day, with brand new comics to be released every Wednesday.
Stories about parenthood are common, but stories about Black fatherhood? Not so much. Though there are some notable ones, like Hair Love, Black fatherhood is a theme that I feel is still pretty rare. I’m happy my toddler inspired me to use my talents to amplify the love Black fathers have for their children.
____
If you’re interested in sharing your opinion on any cultural, political or personal topic, create an account and check out our how-to post to learn more.
