Here's a true story :
I was born in 1969, in 1977 2000ad - a British boys comic began. Not expected to last the year, the publishers using the hatch/match/despatch model (HATCH: create a new comic title and an excited audience looking for issue #1. MATCH: Merge a successful title with a less successful title, joining the audience together - usually heralded with the phrase "EXCITING NEWS CHUMS!" and, finally, DESPATCH: Shut down publication of the lesser title, saving money)
Issue 2 of 2000AD featured the introduction of the character "Judge Dredd". Designed as an anti hero, Dredd, unintionally, turned out to have a vast appeal to the kids who read it.
I was one of them.
When I was 14 years old I loved comics and computers but, comics were derided and computers looked like it could lead to a day job (in fact, I started working in computers at 14).
In 2000, when I turned 30 and 2000AD, unbelievably still in print, was finally catching up with itself, having realised that all I ever wanted to do with my life was to draw comics, I pushed.
One year later I was drawing Judge Dredd.
I've now been drawing comics, and Judge Dredd as a professional comic artist for over a decade. Dreams can come true. Though, sometimes, you have to play the long game.
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Belfast, Northern Ireland