Sarah’s Scribbles creator Sarah Andersen reflects on over a decade of webcomics success

If you’ve been active at all on major social media platforms in the past several years, there is a more than likely chance that you’ve seen the work of New York Times bestselling cartoonist Sarah Andersen. After launching the webcomics series Sarah’s Scribbles in 2011, the regularly updated slice-of-life comedy strip has become a bonafide viral phenomenon, earning millions of readers worldwide through numerous online platforms, including Tapas and Andersen’s own website. Sarah’s Scribbles is a semi-autobiographical look at the trials and tribulations of millennial adulthood, contending with the challenge of keeping it together with the expectations of modern society through the eyes of her black-haired, expressive protagonist.

In addition to Sarah’s Scribbles, Andersen published the widely well-received horror romance webcomic Fangs, drawing from her deep of the vampire sub-genre as a vampire finds love with a werewolf. Andersen’s love of the macabre and paranormal has also branched into the popular webcomic series Cryptid Club, which covers all manner of monsters with Andersen’s signature sense of humor. And Sarah’s Scribbles remains a constant presence, with four print collections of the series, a fifth on the way, and a whole wave of merchandise while the series itself continues to be updated by new strips written and illustrated by Andersen.

In an exclusive interview with Popverse, Sarah Andersen reflects on her long, rewarding career in webcomics, shares the origins and inspirations behind her popular comic titles, and weighs in on the impact of artificial intelligence and text-to-image generators on the comics industry as a whole.

Popverse: You’ve been doing Sarah’s Scribbles since you were in college. What keeps it creatively fulfilling for you to keep coming back and doing more?

Sarah Andersen: I think life keeps changing. There’s always something to talk about and write about. I think the early Sarah’s Scribbles are so different from the ones that appear today. For example, today I write more about stuff like turning 30 and writing about generational differences. Back then, I was writing about things like missing my alarm clock and not taking care of myself properly. I feel like it has the potential to be a lifelong thing because there’s always something to say.

I’ve spoken to Meredith Gran about Octopus Pie and she referred to that story as a portrait of her 20s. Was there ever a thought to stop Sarah’s Scribbles as you got close to 30?

I think there were more thoughts and continuing thoughts that I want to work on different things while keeping Sarah’s Scribbles alive. In my late 20s, I wrote two new series, Fangs and Cryptid Club. I think seeing that I could write something new and have it received well changed my trajectory. In the future, I think there’ll probably be a lot