When my employer of 13 years downsized in 2004, I had my first taste of that all-too-familiar American experience: hand-delivery of a personalized pink slip. The exhilarating feeling of being free at last was quickly tempered by the somewhat depressing feeling of being broke.

My former company focused on engineering and the sciences. But in my off hours and downtime, I liked to work on humorous illustrations, something that I’d done in my spare time since childhood. So when the corporate axe fell, the time was right. I set to work on my lifelong dream, a comic strip of my own. And what better name for the strip than Pink Slip, in wry commemoration of my layoff,

In time the Lowell Sun, the largest newspaper in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts, started running Pink Slip on the comics page. That was in February 2005.  Pink Slip has appeared both daily and on Sundays, and at the moment it’s a staple of the Sun’s Sunday color section.

The Merrimack Valley has seen its share of economic ups and downs. It offers a wealth of script ideas, and the editor of the Sun urged me to give the strip a local flavor.  I enthusiastically agreed.  After a few shots across the bow, the readers seemed to like the novelty of a comic strip featuring sites, people and events from around town. My friends sometimes cringe when they recognize their likenesses in the paper. But they're afraid to say anything, lest they become a regular butt of jokes as in future strips.

My wife and I have had the great pleasure of raising three daughters - I'm told that getting gray hair is a sign of maturity. Along with being a family man, I’m an avid reader of current events, history, and business. This has helped immensely in my work. It has also really surprised my mother, who wasn't convinced I could even read.

For some time now, I've also created editorial cartoons for the weekly Merrimack Journal, located right in my hometown of Dracut, Mass.  In June 2009, I decided to go national, offering these single-panel political and social commentaries to other papers, publication groups, and online news services.

It’s a gross understatement to say that the competition among nationally recognized editorial cartoonists is fierce.  But I waded in anyway. At times it seems like a swamp filled with Pulitzer Prize-winning crocodiles who are wondering what you’re doing in their habitat.

But I've managed to survive. And the kudos and messages of encouragement – from both ends of the political spectrum, for that matter – have been terrific.

My work can currently be viewed by a nationwide audience in a number of print and online news services. “The Conroy Cartoon” has even made it into the international market a few times, in World News Report and U.S. Politics Today.  You can find plenty of examples here on my web site.

I've also been a guest on a few TV and radio shows.  I'm a little disappointed that no hosts have ever asked me to sing, but I guess they don’t want to put their show in conflict with American Idol.