Introductions are like first dates—only without the sloppy goodnight kiss. But here goes for those of you who’ve never heard of me: I’m a former newspaper reporter and columnist who never got over his love of comics. So one day I stopped being a low-paid journalist and became a low-paid comic book writer. I’ve been writing Disney comics since 1988. (Yes, I’m old enough to be your father’s older, better-looking brother.) I’ve also written for Viz (Ultra Maniac); Marvel (Marvel Romance Redux) and others. Oddest gig? I worked on the Eek! The Cat comic book series.

But most people know me these days for Last Kiss. The idea for the series began way back in 1987 when I bought the publishing rights to an old romance comic book series, First Kiss. Charlton Comics was going out of business and I picked up the First Kiss series (and others later on) cheap with the vague idea that I might re-write some of the dialog and put the old art to new use.

I’ve been doing that steadily since 2000—first as a comic strip in the pages of Comics Buyer’s Guide (where it still appears), then in a comic book series, various lines of merchandise, newspapers and, of course, the web.

I’ve lived forever (my entire life!) in Seattle. I currently have one daughter. One cat. And (I’m pretty sure) only one wife.