Do you think that 28 is too old to try to pursue a career in art on your own terms? I wanted to be a 3D animator for as long as I can remember, but when I got to college I realized that going to college for it wasn't for me. The school and the environment

(cont.) I became inspired again recently and I have been drawing and sketching everyday (for the past two years) as well as learning animation on my own. I am heavily influenced by your webcomic, but I just wanted to know if it was too late to pursue my dream without school and by myself at 28?

I started TJ and Amal at 31, with a weak art education and zero experience in comics, so you can probably guess where I stand on the matter!

I wish our culture didn’t place such heavy emphasis on “making it” in your teens and twenties; that the (justifiable!) attention paid to prodigies wouldn’t set “prodigy” as the norm.  This kind of BS does everyone a disservice.

If you have a dream and the resources/ability to pursue it, there’s no reason to sit it out just because “everyone makes it by 25.” Because everyone DOESN’T make it by 25. Some do, some don’t, whatever.
What’s more, age can bring experience that will inform your work — work you couldn’t have made at 20 or 25 without that experience.

Sometimes when I get discouraged about this stuff, it helps to remember an anecdote I read a few years ago—
A retiree mentions to her friend that she’s considering going back to college and finishing her degree.
"What, at 65?" says her friend, "You’ll be at least 40 years older than everyone else in class!"
To which the lady replies, “oh, so you think I should wait till I’m 70?”

There’s no going backwards.

Good luck!