THE WORK
Notable Projects
Over the years I've had the good fortune to work on some projects that, in polite company, I can point to without immediately changing the subject. Here are a few of the bigger ones.
Geek A Week
The premise was simple in that dangerous, "what did I just agree to" kind of way: I would create an original illustrated trading card of a notable geek — writers, scientists, podcasters, game designers, YouTube personalities, you name it — every single week for a year. Then I'd interview them for a companion podcast. Then I'd do it again. And again.
Over five seasons, Geek A Week became one of the most enjoyable things I've ever worked on, partly because the work itself was fun and partly because it gave me an excuse to have actual conversations with people I genuinely admired. The guest list included Wil Wheaton, Kevin Smith, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, MC Frontalot, Veronica Belmont, Tom Merritt, and dozens of others who had collectively shaped what "geek culture" even meant during that window of internet history.
The cards — physical, collectible, illustrated trading cards of internet-famous nerds — were a weird idea that somehow worked. The podcast interviews are still out there if you want to take a deep dive. Seasons One and Five are available in my online store if you'd like something to hold in your hands.
Rifftrax
If you know RiffTrax, you already know why this collaboration made complete sense. If you don't: RiffTrax is the movie-mocking empire built by the core cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 — Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett — who never really stopped making fun of bad films, they just moved the operation online.
Getting to create artwork for RiffTrax was one of those "yes, obviously, immediately" decisions. Their voice is sharp, absurdist, and deeply committed to its own weird sensibility — which happens to be the creative environment where my work tends to thrive. I got to illustrate for people who have professionally spent decades being funnier than everyone else in the room about movies that deserved it.
It was a good fit, is what I'm saying.
MST3K Collaborations
Somewhere along the way I became the unofficial illustrator for the extended Mystery Science Theater 3000 universe, which is not a sentence I expected to type about my own career but here we are and I have zero complaints.
Three books with three members of one of the greatest television comedy casts ever assembled:
Silly Rhymes For Belligerent Children — with Trace Beaulieu (Crow T. Robot, Dr. Clayton Forrester)
Super-Powered Revenge Christmas — with Bill Corbett (Crow T. Robot, Observer)
A Whole Lotta Books — with Frank Conniff (TV's Frank)
The Beaulieu collaboration started the old-fashioned way: Trace literally tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I wanted to make a book together. That's how I like to be recruited. No pitch decks. No cold emails. Just a tap on the shoulder from a guy whose puppet terrorized bad movies for years.
Super-Powered Revenge Christmas — Bill Corbett's graphic novel about classic holiday characters assembling into a superhero team — was the first graphic novel I ever illustrated. It was funded through Kickstarter, which meant a lot of people believed in it before I'd drawn a single page. That's either inspiring or terrifying, and I've decided it was inspiring.
The work with Frank Conniff continued a creative partnership with someone who has one of the sharpest, most particular senses of humor I've encountered. Making books with these people is a privilege. I don't take it lightly.
Munchkin & Steve Jackson Games
Munchkin is one of the best-selling card games on the planet — a satirical dungeon-crawl game with a visual sensibility that rewards artists who can be weird, funny, and just detailed enough to reward a second look. It is, in other words, completely in my wheelhouse.
I've had the opportunity to create Guest Artist Edition artwork for Munchkin through Steve Jackson Games, which means my illustrations have ended up on cards in the hands of players who may or may not know who drew them but have definitely made that specific "oh that's good" face while reading the flavor text.
Working with Steve Jackson Games has also included other titles — game design and illustration work that extends beyond Munchkin into other parts of their catalog. It's the kind of client relationship where "can you draw something for a card game" turns into a longer creative conversation, which is exactly the kind of work I like.
If you own a copy of Munchkin and you've squinted at the artist credits, hi. That was me.
