"countless sunday afternoons were spent sitting next to that squeaky old spinner rack of comics in my grandmother's candy store. i loved the stories, but it was the art that stuck with me. armed with well-worn issues of character guides like "who's who in the dc universe"and "the official handbook of the marvel universe", it was sometime around sixth grade when i started to take drawing seriously. multiple trapper keepers full of my own character designs would follow. an 11"x17" drawing pad and a pencil were staples of my high school existence. a few thousand drawings (give or take) later, my own style started to emerge.
in 1992, i took my love of mcfarlane, ditko, and kirby to kutztown university where i quickly added bass, glaser, and tschichold to a growing list of influences. concentrating in both graphic design and illustration, i found myself inspired by typography and i committed to making it an integral part of my work.
now, nearly 20 years later, i relish the opportunity to mesh my passion for design and love of illustration for clients like disney, marvel, the beatles and target.
i feel like a kid in a candy store."
- Tom Whalen
