96733-1_RAA_MrMorris-SemesterTest_TEXT_R1_PROOF

Mr. Morris: Semester Test copyright © 2017 Rick Brooks Rick Brooks Books PO Box 28075 San Antonio, TX 78228 www.mrmorriscomic.com ISBN: 978-‐0-‐692-‐93573-‐6

For Monica, Nikki, and Adi

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be two things when I grew up – a cartoonist and a teacher. I know -‐ pretty dorky. So I studied art education in college, and as a consequence I’ve spent most days of my adult life in a room filled with middle school children. That may sound like a horrible fate to many of you, but I’ve honestly felt lucky. No two days are the same, and there’s never a dull moment. On second thought, there were a few dull moments – faculty meetings. That’s where the cartooning part comes in. I began entertaining myself during meetings by drawing cartoons of my mischievous students. That’s really the origin story of Mr. Morris. Eventually I created some characters, sketched up a couple of strips, and began posting them online. After a few months, I got the idea to refine the comic strips and try getting them syndicated. Five years later, Mr. Morris appears in several weekly newspapers (Note to younger readers – Newspapers are those big paper things that you might have seen your grandparents reading while they drink their morning coffee.) and in three small comic book collections. With this volume, I’m putting everything between two covers. So I spend my days with school children, and I draw a comic strip for newspapers. Who’s luckier than me? Nobody I know. Rick Brooks

Here’s one of the earliest Mr. Morris drawings.

Here are some Mr. Morris comic strips from the early webcomic days.

Just in case you’re an obsessive-‐compulsive completist like me, the next few pages contain all the covers from the Mr. Morris comic books because you need everything!

Rick Brooks is a public school teacher and cartoonist. His comic strip Mr. Morris has been syndicated to weekly newspapers for five years and appears online at mrmorriscomic.com. Brooks lives in San Antonio with his wife and their two daughters.

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