A Sketchy Past

I'm a Boulder Colorado-based cartoonist, writer, and illustrator, and began writing and drawing when I was old enough to hold a crayon without also eating it.

This early self-imposed dietary restriction led to work for some school media and newspapers, (the pre-school media outlet was the back of a spare Pampers.) Later, as a student at the University of Illinois, I worked as a cartoonist, columnist, and editor at the Daily Illini newspaper.

After graduation, I was hired as an art director for Ingersoll, a 10,000 employee company near Chicago. I was tasked with creating art and humor for sleep inducing presentations, (to firms like Boeing, Ford, General Motors, and Northrup Grumman.) In my spare time, I also created and sold political cartoons to a group of 30 newspapers.

After two years, I quit my corporate job and moved to Colorado, to ski, and to create a comic strip for syndication. The former takes little effort, making it a perfect counter to the latter, which is a pursuit with incredibly low odds of success. 

"The largest syndicate, King Features in New York City, receives 6,000-8,000 submissions a year, and chooses one. Sometimes they choose none. It is harder than becoming a professional athlete."   - Darby Conley, New York Times

Rejections poured into my mailbox. I kept at it, undaunted. To pay the bills, I moved furniture, worked in roofing, sold HP large format plotters, and modeled ski & snowboard wear for Burton. 

After a few years, I became (only slightly) more respectable when King Features offered me a development contract...and six months afterward, much more so when I met my future wife. (A good year.) Two years later, I signed a contract with Tribune Media to create a second comic strip.

I happily wrote and drew comic strips, and having them also published in the Denver and Boulder newspapers allowed my neighbors to think I was more than "that grinning idiot". (I became the guy with the same name as the the cretin on the comics page.)

Unfortunately, the timing was awful. Newspapers were languishing...over 3,200 major newspapers closed over the next three years. Most of the remaining papers cut their comics pages in half - eliminating half of the cartoonists - particularly affecting new folks, like me.

Contract payments which were great at first, diminished. As one of my colleagues at King Features said, it was like finally getting to pitch in the majors, and being told the stadiums are closing.

My Tribune Media comic was later used to help launch Comics Edge, the first online comics website. But the subscription model never made up for the loss of the newspapers.

With a new family, I took a part-time job. I also began illustrating books and creating humor for corporations. The latter things quickly grew beyond my expectations, so I withdrew from newspapers, (which are now sadly on life-support.)

Shift to today: I get to draw and write, full-time, (and then some). It's more fun than I could have ever imagined.

My corporate clients range from startups to companies like Fidelity Investments, Google, McDonalds, Ralph Lauren, and Time Warner. I've also had the good fortune to illustrate over 40 books - published by Penguin-Random House, MacMillan, Pearson, Harvard Business Review Press, Prentice Hall, & McGraw-Hill, including several New York Times bestsellers.

It may sound like I've grown and evolved, but I haven't really. At times, I'm still mildly tempted to chew/suck on my drawing utensils. But I use a digital drawing pen now, so there is a 120 volt incentive not to do so. (Technology has come a long way.)

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My Creative Process

The best cartoons are more than just art (which is important) - it's the idea that makes you laugh. So, I like to start with ideas, if you need them.

If you already have ideas for cartoons or illustrations, I can create publishing-quality artwork to bring them to life.

If you need help (or are feeling stuck) with concepts or ideas, I can either spray some verbal WD-40 in appropriate areas, or dive in head-first with humor writing.

98% of my clients are outside of my home state of Colorado...so I can create something for you, no matter where you are.

My agent helps to procure some of my clients, but if you found me here, feel free to contact me directly. I'm often scheduled 1-2 weeks ahead, but if you have ideas burning within you to be realized soon, I'm happy to talk with you about them now.

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Partial Client List (Alphabetical):
 

Akamai/AWS, The American Red Cross, Arista Records, Armour Foods, The Atlantic Magazine,  AT Internet-France, Ball Horticultural, Bayer Pharmaceutical, Better Business Bureau, (National office), Blackrock Investments, BMO Harris Bank,  Boeing Aviation, Boars Head Meats, Breck's Bulbs, Burpee Seeds, CapGemini Paris, Coca Cola, Cold Stone Creamery, Cisco Systems, CNBC News, Eckrich Meats, Fidelity Investments, Forbes Magazine, General Motors, Golin Public Relations, Google, Granite Corp., Harvard Business Review Press, Hearst Corporation, Home Depot, Hubspot, Intel Corp., Kroger Foods, McDonald's, Macmillan Books, McGraw-Hill Books, McKesson Healthcare, Merck Pharmaceutical, Merk Investments, NBC's Today Show, Northwestern Mutual, Penguin Books, Pepsi, Prentice Hall/Pearson Press, Popl NYC, Ralph Lauren-Polo, Random House Books, Roche Pharmaceutical, Smithfield, Spyder Sportswear, Stanford Business School,  Steel Case Inc., Steuben Foods, SunTrust Financial, Taco Bell, Time Warner, Towers Watson, Univ. of Colorado, Dartmouth Univ., Univ. of Delaware, Univ. of Southern California, Univ. of Toronto, The Wall Street Journal, Wiley & Sons Publishers, Zoom Info Technologies, Zscaler.

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Feel free to stop by my blog "The Dancing Moose", to see what I've been working on.

Disclaimer: It may be antiquated - it's my last priority when I am under deadlines, or hanging out with family, (or skiing, mountain biking, reading a good book...)