Cory Thomas: 'Watch Your Head'

Let's get this out there right now -- Cory Thomas is smarter than you. The creator of "Watch Your Head," Thomas, 31, is working on his master's thesis, the subject of which is nearly ungraspable for the ordinary brain: "the simulation of wake vortices in air flow during an air drop."

So we had to ask. What is an engineer doing with a comic strip?

"The better question probably is, 'what is an artist doing studying mechanical engineering?'" Thomas says, laughing.

Originally from Trinidad, Thomas moved to America to enroll at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he has an undergraduate degree and needs only to finish his thesis to complete a master's. (In case you're curious, that thesis uses simulations to study air disturbances around a plane after it drops parachuted cargo.)

But he's been drawing since he could hold a pencil, and he used that talent to draw a comic strip for the Howard student newspaper. That work morphed into "Watch Your Head," which began appearing nationally earlier this year.

The strip revolves around a crew of students at the fictional Oliver Otis University, a historically black school. The lead character is Cory (who looks remarkably like his creator), a nerdy type who rooms with Jason, a guy who looks like an extra in a Petey Pablo video.

Whereas Cory keeps a collection of action figures in the dorm room, Jason once kept a vicious dog. The strip also features a best friend, a white student and a beautiful woman for Cory to crush on.

Although the artist and the main character share features and a first name, Thomas says the Cory in the paper and the Cory who draws him are two different people.

"Cory isn't really me. He's kind of an exaggerated version of me," he says from his home just outside of Washington. "He's a lot nerdier, a lot wimpier."

So you're not a wimp?

"I mean, not as much as him," Thomas says, laughing.

With "Boondocks" leaving the comics pages, Thomas knows that some could see his strip and assume it to be a no-fuss replacement. But there are differences between the two, particularly in plot lines. "Boondocks," he says, was a message-driven strip. "Watch Your Head" is driven more by the characters. And although he touches on social issues, it's in a more subtle way than in "Boondocks."

"My job, first and foremost," he says, "is to be funny."