American cartoonist and illustrator Cedric Hohnstadt had fun writing and illustrating this comic strip for the inside front cover of the April 2021 issue of Spider Magazine. The theme of the issue was the Old West.

When he was a teenager, a New York illustrator moved to Cedric’s sleepy Minnesota town outside Minneapolis. “My art teacher set up a tour of his home studio,” Cedric notes on his official website. “For the first time I realised it was possible to make a living drawing pictures from home. I was hooked.
“I started doing some freelance work while I was still in college and I’ve been self-employed ever since. I’ve worked hard to build a reputation for being professional, reliable, and easy to work with.”
Over the years, Cedric’s work has included helping design toys for Disney, Hasbro, and Chick-Fil-A; illustrating packaging for Cocoa Puffs, Gogurt, Crayola, Hasbro, and Orville Redenbacher; illustrating stories for Scholastic and Highlights! magazine; creating advertising comps for Coca-Cola, Target, and Best Buy; and designing characters for VeggieTales.

In between client projects, he draws webcomics, which have featured on the front pages of Reddit, Imgur, and Bored Panda, although, currently, Sketchbook Silliness is on hold. Cedric is reassess his approach to the form, and has also been focusing on paid work during difficult times caused by the pandemic.

A devout Christian, in 2006, he illustrated a cartoon Gospel tract for the ministry of Living Waters, based on a presentation by evangelist Ray Comfort. To date almost nine million copies have been printed in over twenty languages.

I’m grateful to Cedric for drawing my attention to Spider, which looks superb. Published by Cricket Media out of McLean, Virginia, the magazine contains content uniquely designed for new independent readers aged six to nine.
With pages filled with fun stories, poems, activities and illustrations by famous children’s artists, Spider – available on subscription in the US and Canada – aims to keep young readers engaged and drawn into the fun of reading.
Unfortunately, international subscriptions for Spider and Cricket Media’s other award-winning educational titles aren’t available, but publishers may be interested to know they do license their content. There’s more information here.
• Check out Cedric Hohnstadt’s official website at cedricstudio.com | Facebook | Twitter
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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