I'm a Boulder Colorado-based  cartoonist 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 outlets, (the pre-school newspaper was the back of a spare Pampers.)

Later, at the University of Illinois, while studying Biology, I worked part-time at the student newspaper as a cartoonist, columnist and editor.

After graduation, I was hired by a large corporation near Chicago, to create artwork and humor for fairly boring presentations for firms like General Motors and Boeing Avation. In my spare time, I created political cartoons for a group of Midwestern papers.

After two years, I quit my corporate job and moved to Colorado, to ski and to create a comic strip. The former takes little effort, making it a perfect counter to the latter, which is a pursuit with notoriously low odds of success. (The largest syndicate, King Features, received over 6,000 submissions a year, and chose one or two of them.) I thoroughly failed to beat those odds for a while.

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

I developed, wrote, and drew comics for several years - and having them also published in the Boulder and Denver papers allowed my neighbors to think I was more than "that grinning idiot". (I became the idiot with the same name as the the cretin on the comics page.) The timing was awful however, as newspapers had begun to languish. Over 2,000 papers closed, and even in those that remained, the number of comics pages were cut in half, (eliminating half of the cartoonists)...particularly affecting the new folks like me.

With a family, I took a part time job managing a B&B, and also began illustrating books and taking on corporate commissions. The latter pursuits grew beyond my expectations, so I quit the B&B, and withdrew entirely from newspapers, (which are now sadly on life-support.)

Shift to today: I get to make people laugh for a living, often with the help of an assistant. (On some occasions, I also enjoy sleeping.) It's more fun than I could have imagined, and I feel blessed.

My clients range from startups to more seasoned firms like Bayer, Cisco Systems, Coca Cola, Fidelity, Google, Intel, McDonalds, Ralph Lauren and Time Warner.

I've had the good luck to illustrate books published by Penguin/Random House, MacMillan, Pearson, Harvard Business Review Press, Prentice Hall, McGraw-Hill,  and Wiley, including some bestsellers. I enjoy working with authors, whether they have a publisher, or if they are taking their books directly to market.

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 and board now, so there is a 120 volt "incentive" not to do so. (Technology has come a long way.)

My Process

The best cartoons and illustrations are more than just funny artwork. It's usually the written idea that makes you laugh first. So, I like to start with ideas.

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 some humor writing.

Next, I'll send first drafts for your approval, and make any needed revisions. When that looks good to you, I'll create finished artwork.

I have an agent who helps to procure some of my clients, but if you found me here, feel free to contact me directly.

95% of my clients are outside of my home state of Colorado...and several regular clients are in Europe...so I can create something for you, no matter where you are.

I'm often scheduled a week or two ahead, but I'm happy to discuss your ideas and needs now.

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Partial Client List (alphabetical):
 

Akamai, American Red Cross, Arista Records, Armour, The Atlantic Magazine,  AT Internet-France, Ball Horticultural, Bayer Pharmaceutical, BBB, (national office), Blackrock Funds, Boeing, Boars Head, Breck's Bulbs - Holland, Burpee Seeds, CapGemini - Paris, France, Coca Cola, Cold Stone Creamery, Cisco Systems, 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, Merck Pharmaceutical, Merk Investments, NBC News, Northwestern Mutual, Pelican Books, Penguin Books, Pepsi, Prentice Hall/Pearson Press, Ralph Lauren, Inc., Random House Books, Roche Pharmaceutical, Smithfield, Spyder Ski 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 Books, Zscaler Inc.

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