Golf Comic Born Out of Dark Times

Rick Newell launched the syndication of his golf comic strip called Life in the Trap in January 2005. Thanks to golf publications around the world it has now grown to over 2 million readers per month. Born out of some of the darkest times in his life, Newell now gets to bring joy to frustrated golfers everywhere through Life in the Trap.

A few years ago Newell was working the graveyard shift at a big computer company and he started to battle insomnia. "Crazy hours, a stressful job, and some girl problems started to rob me of a lot of sleep." says Newell. "Eventually, I had a serious meltdown."

For over six months both sleep and reason visited him less and less.  "Imagine how bad you feel after missing just one night's sleep.", says Newell.  At the lowest point, Newell says he even thought about ending his own life.  "I literally felt like I was losing my mind."

However, the girl eventually left, he was moved off the graveyard shift, and sleep slowly started to return.  "Ironically, as my body began to sleep, I realized that my soul had already been asleep for years." says Newell. "I had been ignoring the little things that made me feel alive." So Newell started to ask himself a simple question: "What makes me feel awake?"

One thing that sprang to mind was a golf comic strip he had fooled around with after college. "I remembered loving the comic, but could not think of a good reason why I had stopped working on it." explains Newell. So he dusted of his old sketch books, made his own website (www.lifeinthetrap.com), and eventually began to approach golf publications around the world.

After a fragile beginning, Life in the Trap now helps bring life and hope back into Newell's life. Pursuing what makes him and others feel 'awake' has become one of his life mottos. Sleep has once again become Newell's close friend and millions of golfers are now laughing at Life in the Trap.

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If you would like more information about Rick Newell's story, or to schedule an interview, please call him at (206) 949-7444 or email him at rick@lifeinthetrap.com.

No, I don't like country music or NASCAR... just the hat.