Day 2 was to come up with a compelling backstory, the when, where, how and why that got you to where you are today. You were supposed to keep it in bullet points then tell one of those stories as briefly as possible. So far I have failed this challenge as my notes are verging on the chapter of a novel.

It’s been 31 years since my first professional gig in comics, and it’s been a long meandering road of making a living, to trying to break in, to making a living, to self publishing and going in debt, to doing it as a professional hobby, to making a living and back to creatively satisfying side gigs on the side. Now hoping to take another run at making a living at it.

One through line that connects a lot of my story was meeting Barry Blair at a meeting of the Graphic Story Society when I was 14. From hiring me at Aircel at 17, to recommending me to Tom Mason at Malibu Graphics, to hiring me at WaRP to ink and draw ElfQuest® the official page, the entirety of the “Full-time-professional” phase of my comic career was linked by that one chance meeting in grade 9. Hell, even my first attempts at creator owned work in Mythography and the Forbidden Book, including the story I did with Marv Wolfman were connected because he introduced me by email to Michael Cohen.

Chance encounters seem to be my thing.

Almost knocking the plate of ribs out of Mark Wheatley‘s hands in the buffet line of a party at the Laughing Ogre in Columbus Ohio led to a conversation about web comics. Fast forward a year and based on Mark’s recommendation I teamed up with Robert Tinnell to draw the Harvey Award Nominated daily strip The Chelation Kid. A year later Mark hires me to Ink, then draw the daily and also Harvey Award Nominated Mighty Motor Sapiens among other projects.

My inclusion in Comic Book Tattoo was part chance encounter as well, as after a sparsely attended meetup of members of The Engine message board at San Diego Comic Con, I at the last moment and on a whim handed a copy of my latest issue of Wahoo Morris to everyone there including Rantz Hoseley.

Not sure where I am going with this ….

I’m sure some people do their networking with intent and forethought. You can’t (or at least shouldn’t) plan to knock over someones plate of ribs in the hopes of getting work! Seems to be my style though.