Zen Pencils
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Between 2003 and 2011,[2] Aung Than worked as a full-time graphic designer for two Australian newspapers; Perth's The Sunday Times (Western Australia) and Melbourne's Herald Sun.[3] He was also producing two weekly comic strips on the side; a superhero comedy called Dan and Pete, and a dating comedy called Boys Will Be Boys.[3] Seeking more fulfilling work, he quit his job and sold his house to pursue cartooning full-time.[4]
When asked about the origin of Zen Pencils, Aung Than said, "I was questioning what I was doing. I just kept doing these two little strips in newspapers, which no one was really reading. And my newspaper job was not fulfilling at all ... I was reading a lot of biographies to motivate myself."[5] Aung Than had collected quotes from some of his favorite figures including Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, Carl Sagan and George Carlin, and began adapting them into comic strip form and sharing them online.[5][6]
The webcomic went viral in 2013 after Aung Than posted A Cartoonists' Advice,[7] an adaptation of a college commencement speech[8] by Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. The comic was semi-autobiographical for Aung Than, featuring a man quitting his corporate job to become a cartoonist and stay-at-home dad. Aung Than also mimicked Watterson's iconic drawing style and layout of Calvin and Hobbes[7], his favorite childhood comic.[6] The comic is the most popular of all Zen Pencils strips.[6]
Select comics have been translated by readers[9] into Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Polish, French, Farsi, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu.
Zen Pencils was named one of the internet's top 100 websites by PCMag in 2013.[10]
Aung Than attended the New York Comic Con in 2014 to promote the first two Zen Pencils collections, which he said was "a dream come true."[11] He also visited Mumbai Film and Comics Convention in 2015.[12]
Zen Pencils has been featured in international media including The Washington Post,[13] Huffington Post,[14] Buzzfeed,[15] Slate[16][17] and Gawker.[18]
As of 2018, Zen Pencils is on hiatus as Aung Than is focusing on writing and illustrating children's books.[19]