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 media outlet was the back of a spare Pampers.)

Later, at the University of Illinois, while majoring in Bio-chemistry and Political Science, I was a cartoonist, columnist and editor at the student newspaper.

After graduation, I went to work for the aerospace and engineering division of a 9,000 employee company near Chicago, creating art and humor for sleep-inducing presentations to firms like  Boeing, General Motors, and Northrup Grumman. In my spare time, I created political cartoons for a group of 30 newspapers in the Midwest.

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

 "The 3 largest syndicates, King Features, UFS, and Universal, receive 6,000-8,000 submissions a year, and choose one of those. Sometimes they choose none. It is harder than becoming a professional athelete."  -  Cartoonist Darby Conley, from a NY Times interview.

The difference is that all pro athletes retire after 10-15 years; comic strip cartoonists usually don't retire. Many draw their comic strips their entire lives...and even after the creators pass away, many comics remain, with reruns, or hired artists to continue them. (Some comics, like Garfield,  Peanuts or Blondie are over 75-100 years old.) Very few spots open up.

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 later, I signed a contract with Tribune Media to create a second comic strip.

I 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 guy". (I became the guy with the same name as the the cretin on the comics page.) Unfortunately, the timing was terrible, as newspapers were languishing. Over 2,000 papers shut down in the next two years. Most of the remaining newspapers cut the number of comics pages - by 50% on average - eliminating half of the cartoonists...particularly affecting the new folks like me.

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

Shift to today: I get to draw and write humor for some fantastic venues - full time, and then some. (With the help of an assistant now, I sometimes manage to sleep.) It's more fun than I could have ever imagined.

My advertising and corporate clients range from unlnown startups, to familiar companies like Bayer, Coca Cola, Fidelity, Google, Intel, McDonalds, Ralph Lauren and Time Warner. 

I've also had the good fortune to create illustration and humor for books published by Penguin/Random House, MacMillan, Pearson, Harvard Business Review Press, Prentice Hall, McGraw-Hill, and Wiley, including some 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 Process

The best cartoons are more than just funny artwork. It's usually the written idea that makes you laugh - and the artwork that seals it. 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.

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

I have an agent who helps to procure some of my clients, but if you found me here, feel free to contact me directly. I am fairly selective, and choose projects which I feel are a good fit, and for which think I can do excellent work. 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 Chicago, CapGemini Paris, Coca Cola, Cold Stone Creamery, Cisco Systems, Dartmouth Univ., 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 Pharmaceutical, Merck Pharmaceutical, Merk Investments, NBC News, Northwestern Mutual, Pelican Books, Penguin Books, Pepsi, Prentice Hall/Pearson Press, Popl, Ralph Lauren Corp., 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, Univ. of Delaware, Univ. of Southern California, Univ. of Toronto, The Wall Street Journal, Wiley & Sons Publishers, ZoomInfo Technologies, Zscaler.

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Feel free to stop by my blog to see what I've been working on.

Disclaimer: It may be antiquated. It's my last priority when I am under deadlines,

(or possibly skiing with my family, mountain biking, rock climbing, reading...)