I grew up in Platteville, a small town in southwestern Wisconsin, and except for two years in Washington DC right after college, I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life. Madison has been my home for the last 20 years.

My first serious foray into the arts was in theater. I acted all through high school and then majored in theater at Lawrence, a small liberal arts college in Appleton. Apart from some short stories imitating H.P. Lovecraft, playwriting was my first literary interest.

After a brief stint in grad school, I worked a number of jobs as a projectionist, theater manager, mortgage loan closer and in newspaper advertising sales. Then, when my wife and I had kids, I became a stay at home dad. Now I work as the archivist for the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.

Before having kids, I worked with a small theater company, First Banana Productions, in Madison. We were a small company, and I wore a lot of hats including scene designer, director, actor and writer. Though I took some art classes in college and high school, and though my dad is an artist who has given me invaluable advice, my approach to comics has mainly been shaped by my theater experiences. I think of each story as a little play that takes place on a paper stage.