Who the Hell does this guy think he is? part 2 Erie's public high school, Tech Memorial, actually encouraged me to be creative and artistic, and for that I am eternally grateful. After 10 years of being the outcast, the mutant, I was suddenly thrust into a whole room full of mutants. Finding others as "weird" as me was a great relief. In this art class, under Roy Ahlgren, I met REAL friends, and had memorable experiences. Which I will not detail here, as it would bore you silly and be an act of pure vanity, but you'll find some pictures in the photo gallery By the end of high school I was a thoroughly malcontented and angst-ridden teen. Had I entered society at this point, there might still have been hope, but I chose instead to enroll in a cheesy art school. I don't know if it was naivete or plain bad judgment that landed me at the incredibly useless and awful Ivy School Of Professional Art in Pittsburgh. I had great times, met great people, forged lifetime friendships, but neglected to get an education or acquire job-worthy skills. Two years of pissing my money into Moe Kirshenbaums pot, and I was back in Erie, stocking shelves at Kmart. Not long after, I spoke to my good friend Bruce Felgar, who had escaped Erie for Houston,Texas. A week later I was living there. I've been here ever since, working and making friends and enemies, and doing what I can with my art "education". Houston, as they say has been Berry Berry Good to me. Or at least it feels that way coming from Erie, where I was generally considered an unfortunate mishap of genetics. It has offered me consistent employment, arts and entertainment, sunshine, no snow, and some of the best fireworks shows in the world. And of course here I had opportunities for my comic book work that were not in Erie. It was here that I met Anthony and Ken, who would push me screaming into the world of self publishing. Thanks to their enthusiasm, efforts and cash, my first nationally distributed comic was published, Spaced. And so began my roller coaster adventure in alternative comics. During my decade of moderate success, I was lucky enough to meet, and sometimes work with the some of the most gifted creators in humorous adventure comics, whose names I will not be vain enough to drop here. Publishers, too; I was proud to be published by Fantagraphics and delighted to have Eclipse welcome me into their family. It was a decade-plus of incredible fun, hard work, wild partying, ink-stained fingers and great satisfaction. If I had a time machine I'd go back there right now. All good things come to an end, though, and when the speculator-driven market imploded, I found no outlet for my work, at least none worth pursuing - at $25 a page, I made about $4 an hour. At the same time my "regular" job had introduced me to computers and a whole new way of being creative. That and my landing of more artistic job lessened the blow of the death of my dream of becoming a popular cartoonist. Regrets? A few. I look back on it as a great thing I once did, and have little sadness about how it all worked out. And hey, whaddya know - those computers are now making it possible for me to "publish" my work again. The past few years I've been coasting along, just being me and enjoying my friends, house and cats. That pretty much brings us up to date, and what do you know, when I look over my life to date it seems pretty tolerable. Hunh. Life is good. But don't quote me.

A Brief Overview of My Published Works The details are in the comics pages of this site. This is just a handy-dandy reference page when you decide you must try to find and buy everything I ever did. You won't be able to; I'm purposely leaving the worst crap out. Not that this is great crap to begin with... 1979 BE-BE COMICS #1 My first all-by-me comic book, generously published by the Pittsburgh Comic Book Club. Features the lurid story of The Avenging Clown. 1981 PAPER CUTS #1 Art Direction and several stories for Anthony Smith's lamented anthology. Early appearance of Crazy Bob, only appearance of "Daddy, I Want More Flako Bits" 1981-1987 SPACED #1-13 Illustrator/co-author/publisher of all thirteen issues of sarcastic science fiction adventure. (#1-4 published in cooperation with Ken Donnel and Anthony Smith, #8-13 through Eclipse Comics) SPACED also appeared in CEREBUS #66 & #67 and PLASTRON CAFE #3 & #4 from Mirage 1985-1991 CRITTERS (LIONHEART) Serialized in 8-page chapters, as part of Fantagraphics' CRITTERS anthology, in issues #4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17,18, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 35, 36, 37, and as complete 24-page stories in issues #43 and #46. LIONHEART has also appeared in USAGI YOJIMBO #12, 23 (with Stan Sakai) 25 (with John P. Morgan), #35 and 36, and in color in Mirage's USAGI YOJIMBO #15,16 1992 ZU 10-page funny animal short for Mu Press, Floppity Goes Berserk (a personal favorite). 1992/1993 CRAZY BOB Two complete issues of depressing humor from Blackbird Press, also featuring the frightening adventures of Ed The Grocer. 2000 STAZERLAND ANNEX The very website you are reading now!