MATT ZALEN "Back 2 Basics" is a comic strip about a quirky American family whose daily interactions demonstrate just how funny ordinary life can be.

Created by Matt Zalen, the strip was born out of his own experiences, and on many levels mirrors his path to becoming a cartoonist.

Zalen had always dreamed of being a cartoonist and spent most of his professional life trying to find the perfect job which would permit him to realize that dream while paying him for something else. He found, however, that most jobs were not like that; and so he bounced from career to career, working as a teacher, school administrator, tour organizer, academic researcher, and a soldier in an artillery unit before finally becoming an editor and journalist at the Jerusalem Post.

The Post offered him a chance to develop creatively by constantly exposing him to news events from around the world, and by fostering a general understanding that life is insane. Backed by this principle, and drawing from his own professional journey, he developed the family of "Back 2 Basics."

First published in 2008, "Back 2 Basics" now appears weekly in over 30 newspapers in seven states.