For Mark Isham, cartooning is not just mindless doodling — it is his way of keeping a journal. The UI adjunct lecturer has kept a daily comic of his life, drawing one a day, since Jan. 17, 2007.

“It’s a way of reflecting,” he said.

Isham teaches a team writing class at the UI, incorporating comics by having his students draw and then reflect on their experiences and what they have learned.

The comics that he draws of his daily life are not what he considers finished drawings.

“I just go ahead and draw,” Isham said as he flipped through a binder in which he keeps his comics. “It’s just a way of thinking about what happened each day.”

Isham selects one event from his day to draw about. His philosophy is “first thought, best thought.”

Some of his drawings deal with teaching, andothers involve his friends and family. Isham has built up a cast of characters that appear regularly in daily comics. These include people such as his wife, kids, and his cat. He said his cast appears not necessarily how they look but just how he draws them. Isham doesn’t focus much on the quality of his art but more on the meaning behind it.

Isham has never done any type of professional art work and does not even consider himself to be an artist. But others disagree.

“Mark is very humble about what he does and always says, ‘Well, I can’t draw,’ but I think his work is amazing,” said Rachel Williams, a UI art instructor.

Williams will head the UI faculty workshop “Drawn into Learning” with Isham Tuesday. Together, they plan to teach other instructors on campus about the use of comics and cartoons in helping students understand course material.

“Mark has been an amazing person with which to collaborate,” Williams said. “He has really added to my ideas related to comics in the classroom, and I think his story is inspirational.”

Although some of Isham’s cartoons have been used in the UI Center for Teaching, he doesn’t plan to take his comics any further than for personal reflection.

“I do make cards for people for birthdays,” he said. “I send them to my relatives, too. For example, to my brother for his birthday. But I don’t know where I want to go beyond that.”

Isham refers to his comics as a way of keeping a diary, especially for when he is traveling. He has a cartoon for each day he was in Spain and from when he took his youngest child to Costa Rica, his son’s native land.

“It was a nice way to record his adventures,” Isham said. There is a comic of him and his son waiting all night for the plane and one of his son saying, “I’m home” after arriving in Costa Rica.

Isham believes comics and cartoons are an open art to everyone, not just artists.

“I’m not really an artist,” he said. “I know I can’t make things look like they look. That’s why I’ve always thought everyone can draw. You just have to find a style that is comfortable for you.”