About Us
Vernon Smith hates it when people refer to themselves in the third person. He believes it is a transparent attempt at professionalism that merely serves to drive more distance between creator and reader.
I was born and raised in New Orleans and have been drawing comics for as long as I can recall. My first published work was a comic book called One Boat that I wrote and drew when I was 7 years old. In high school I developed a comic book called The Protectorate and filled up about 5 notebooks and sketchbooks with plotlines, fully written stories, and layout illustrations. I later renamed the series to Port Authority and tried putting it out in my first newbie attempt at self-publishing...boy did I learn a lot! After the Port Authority attempt, I dropped out of the comics scene for a couple of years until a certain wombat cowboy pulled me back in.
Though I'm a Fine Arts major (in the area of Digital Media) from the University Of New Orleans, most of my training really comes from years of self-discipline and personal observation, and the drive to push myself to make the type of comics I'd actually like to read.
Karen Chen was raised in Taipei and grew up reading comic books as well (though hers were more Chinese and Japanese whereas mine were mostly American). She came to the U.S. in 2000 and we've known each other pretty much since that time. Although we had mutual attractions for each other, we never started dating until early 2007. Now we're engaged and happier than ever.
Karen's first published work in the field of comics is The Adventures Of Dexter Breakfast: Season Two where she joined as letterer and shader for the book. Behind the scenes she performs administrative duties such as organizing appearances for conventions and signings, merchandise development, and making sure I go to sleep. She's also really cute and has an awesome butt.