"I think being a military brat is one of the strangest and most interesting ways to spend an American childhood."
                       - Pat Conroy, introduction, Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress by Mary Edwards Wertsch (1991)
                                (Used with permission of the publisher, Brightwell Publishing)

The Fort Knox comic strip by Paul Jon chronicles the life of a military family: Dad, Major Joe Knox; Mom, Jane Knox; and their two boys, Donald and Wesley. The family has picked up and moved — again — thousands of miles from family and friends to take up residence at Joe's new assignment at Fort Lincoln. Donald and Wesley have moved before, but that doesn't make it any easier on them. They must face down new bullies, master a new school system and new teachers, and navigate a new community. Added to these pressures is the distance the move puts between them and their beloved grandmother, who's a known troublemaker if not a known felon (yet). On top of all that, there's the strain that military life puts on their parents' otherwise happy marriage.

Fort Knox cartoonist Paul Jon is, of course, a military brat himself. "The downside was that every time we moved, I gained a new bully. Eventually, I had to give them numbers to keep track," he jokes. "In many ways, they were like terrifying personal trainers: Thanks to all the running away I did, I was able to overcome my childhood asthma."

"Since 2005, Paul Jon has been developing Fort Knox and tapping the well of his childhood experiences — the frustrations and embarrassments and angst — the way Charles M. Schulz tapped his own childhood for 50 years," says Washington Post Writers Group Comics Editor Amy Lago. "Four years of cartooning no doubt has been cheaper for Paul Jon than four years of therapy. The Writers Group is pleased that the cartooning, at least, is beginning to pay off." Fort Knox will be distributed by the Writers Group starting Oct. 5 and will be available both daily and Sunday.

Paul Jon is the son of an Army colonel whose tours of duty included Fort Leavenworth, Fort Jackson and Fort Knox, and who, every morning, liked to say to his fellow soldiers, "It's a great day to be in the Army." Paul Jon understands his dad's attitude, and feels that being a military brat "made me understand the sacrifices that military families make for our country, and also made me a better person for having to deal with new people all the time." Luckily for Paul Jon, he had an eccentric red-haired brother and his trusty inhaler to keep him company through each change in location.

In addition to his daily and Sunday Fort Knox duties, Paul Jon runs the creative services department of a software company, and his artwork has appeared in newspapers, magazines and online publications across the country. He earned his B.A. in journalism from the University of South Carolina. He is married and has two beautiful goldfish.