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In a Nutshell
Raised on a steady diet of Muppets, newspaper comics and classic television (which, thirty years ago, was just called "television"), my taste for pop culture developed early on. For no specific reason, I took to drawing at age two, and evidently was pretty good at it. Two years later, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be a cartoonist when I grew up. Working towards that goal, I won awards in grade school for my art, corresponded with my idol, Jim Henson, and began getting some positive attention for my work. High school held similar successes, ushering me into my earliest forays in freelance commercial art and professional caricaturing, and garnishing me even more attention and awards.
In college I saw my comics published for the first time in my school paper (the Delta Collegiate, which ran my "Highschool: Part II", "Cartoon Ruckus" and "Chicken Strips" comics for five years).
After I transferred to Central Michigan University I got further experience in cartooning with the publication of two new comics in my school paper (CMLife, which ran my "Mother's Goofs" and "Waste Products of a Warped Vision" comics for three and a half years). It was also at CMU that I met the love of my life, Laura Tanner, who, for the first time ever, gave me something to cherish that I didn't create on a sheet of paper.
In 2006, I dusted off Dead Duck, a character I'd created when I was fifteen, and began to create my first graphic novel featuring him and his sidekick, Zombie Chick. "Dead Duck" was published by Ape Entertainment in December 2009 and was a big success.
In 2008 I was inducted as a member of The National Cartoonists Society, an honor which I still enjoy today.
These days I'm a happily successful cartoonist living in Ann Arbor, MI with his true love, his life's passion, and a cat named Goonie.
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