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1988
My first exposure to the comic book industry was as an intern at Marvel in the summer of 1988. My brother, a then-editor at Epic, hooked me up with this summer job that consisted of occasionally making copies for people, but mostly wandering around making myself a nuisance by not minding my own business. And during the rare moments I was not doing either, I was getting into arguments with my fellow intern, a guy whose name escapes me but whose two defining characteristics (in my mind anyway) were that he was totally deaf and he spent his days drawing Sal Buscema's rendition of the Hulk. Our relationship was stormy and (mercifully) short-lived. For those of you unfamiliar with the hearing impaired, let me just say that it is not easy to argue with a deaf person when you don't know sign language (speaking louder doesn't help).
Anyway, At the end of the summer I slipped away quietly into the night. For some reason, I wasn' offered a job at the end of my internship. I can only assume it had something to do with the fact that (according to my brother) "no one liked me." I choose to believe that it was because I stood out against the tyranny of interns, enacted as by former-interns-turned-employees who treated interns like shit in some bizarre hazing ritual that I wanted no part of. It must have been that, and not the fact that i was an annoying 18 year old who refused to mind his own business. Right?
1994-1995
Fast forward to the summer of 1994 and Santa Monica, California. After a six year hiatus from comics, I moved to California to work for my brother and his coloring company, Electric Crayon. In my year and a half there, I learned how to color and met many interesting personalities (shout out to Andrew Hinnebusch and Derek Bellman). I also met the illustrious Richard Starkings and earned his respect (his own admission) by telling him off and calling him a "baby". In an bizarre disagreement regarding the disposal of Hot Dog on a Stick Lemonade drinking cups in the bathroom trash can.
Eventually my brother sold his portion of Electric Crayon to a partner who shall remain nameless, but will always be remembered (by me) as the man who coined the phrase "We're trying to build a business." This is only funny in the context of a life spent sinking one business after another into bankruptcy. The last time i saw him was in 1996 and I'm not sure if he has successfully built a business yet.
After my brother left, I did a brief tour of duty as the "Art Director" (term used loosely) of EC's merry band of misfits. I stayed long enough to know that I was not interested in building any businesses with the man in charge.
Oh yeah, while at EC we worked on Uncanny X-Men, the intitial run on Generation X, The Simpsons, Batman vs Spawn, The Invisibles, Age of Apocolypse, and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember.
1996-1997
I abandoned ship at Electric Crayon in January, and embarked upon an impressive two year stint as a color guide artist for Marvel. I did marker guides (at that time Marvel hadn't yet gotten the hang of the colorist as computer separator concept) for Ghost Rider, Marvel 2099, Marvel Fanfare, and a few other comics destined for cancellation. Oh yeah, I also did an issue of Akira.
I also continued to do computer coloring for my brother.
1998-1999
As freelancer, I met and formed a lasting friendship with fellow comic guys Karl Alstaetter and Rober Napton. They needed a full time colorist for their independent comic, Deity, and I was happy to oblige them. During those carefree days we managed to put out few comics here and there (in between playing basketball and going to the movies) including three separate Deity mini series, Catseye and Saint Angel.
Hyperwerks partnered up with Rob Liefeld and Awesome Entertainment for a time in 1998 (before we hooked up with Image Central), so I colored a bunch of stuff for them too, including Fighting American, RE:GEX, Six String Samurai, and Menace (which never saw print because Dan Fraga didn't like my pages-- shame on your shitty taste, Dan). I also found time to work with my homies at Top Cow and join their softball team. We sucked, but the practices were as fun as fun gets. I worked on stuff like Darkness, Tomb Raider, and Medievel Witchblade.
1999-2000
I continued to freelance for Karl at Hyperwerks AND got myself a job (shout out to Marc Siry) managing the production of toy catalogs for a start-up online toy dot.com business. Of course the company crashed and burned (no, the guy from Electric Crayon was not involved) but I got steady paychecks from them for almost a year.
2000-2002
I temped at Mattel Toys for a few months, working in the Games and Puzzles division. I did production and design for the Harry Potter toy line. I also finished up a lot of work for people who were on vacation or fired.
Towards the end of 2001, I relocated to Phoenix with my family (heck, no, it's not permanent). And as it just so happened, HiFi Color Design had moved from KC to fifteen minutes from my mother's house 6 months earlier. So I hooked up with those guys and that's where I am today... working on everything from X-Men and Thunderbolts to GI JOE and Birds of Prey.
Anyway, that's ... yawn... my professional biography.
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I bet I think this song is about me...
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