It all began on the long drive across the state ...

After my father retired from the Marine Corps, my family moved from the east coast of North Carolina. It was the kind of move we had made many times before, except this time it was permanent.

The moving truck was packed and on its way, so we filled our family car to bursting and began the long drive across the state of North Carolina.

Being the bored teenager that I was (and having finished all three of the books I had packed far too early), I opened my writing notebook to doodle. It was a cheap composition notebook and I only had a mechanical pencil and a red pen with me, so I did not expect the entertainment to last long.

First, I drew as square. Then, I gave the square some legs. While I was at it, I added some arms. I debated giving the square a face before deciding that it needed a proper head. Without thinking, I had just created ... Box Kid.

I stared at him for a few moments before feeling that shooting giddiness of a new story. This doodle wasn't hard to draw -- in fact, he only took me about five seconds to create.

But who was he? What was his name? What did he do? And most importantly, why was his body shaped like a square?

Naturally, I did what every good writer does in the heat of inspiration.

I turned to my sister and told her about him.

"I want to write a story about this kid. Maybe even make a graphic novel," I said, providing no further explanation.

(Thankfully, my sister has lived with me her entire life, so she is familiar with my random outbursts of creativity.)

"The only thing is, I don't know who's the bad guy," I told her.

Without skipping a beat, she replied, "Well, maybe the moving boxes -- you know, the big wardrobe boxes that they hang up our clothes in? -- are actually monsters in disguise."

She was a genius. So I whipped open the notebook to a new page and began ...

THE EPIC ADVENTURES OF BOX KID

Box Kid may seem like an ordinary child, but when the large moving boxes in his house reveal themselves as MONSTERS, he must arm himself with his trusty red crayon and his sidekick, Sir Nimbles, in order to protect his mother from certain DOOM ...