The origin of dead//life is long and complex. Well, not really, but I don't want to trivialize what I do here by simply saying that the idea popped into my head one day. Which it didn't. Well, not exactly.

Anyways, sometime in October of 1992, I decided I that the comics in the University paper were really cool, and I wanted to do one. The problem was that I had no idea WHAT I was going to do, just that I knew I wanted to do one. I started off with a fish that swam around in space and made a bunch of Star Trek jokes. Seriously! That would've gone over really well. Then I came up with a student-turned-superhero, but I didn't like the style of drawing I was using, so I put off doing anything until I could think of something better.

Then came the summer of 1995. I spent a lot of time playing a miniature wargame called Warhammer 40K, and I did a lot of sketches of my characters for the game, and realized "Here's something I could do for a comic!" A sci-fi adventure, filled with violence, bloodshed and action! Not bad, all things considered. So I went to the paper, pitched the idea (which was received half-heartedly), and started to draw. Hence the concept for dead//life (originally called Deathworld) was born.

However, I quickly learned that violence and gore alone doesn't make a good comic. Some of my peers were not very forgiving of the fact that I was just starting out and had no real idea what I was doing. They said I needed to be funny, and have something to draw readers back every week. So, not wanting to turn down this advice, I started with the wackiness. And what do you know? It worked.

Along the way, I found out some interesting things:

First of all, way back in the sixties, Harry Harrison (author of the Stainless Steel Rat) did a series called Deathworld. I was shocked and dismayed at the discovery! I soon figured out that the original incarnation of the wargame that I used to play was, in part, based upon these very novels (which in turn were adapted into comic books in the 80's). What a turn of events! I sometimes wonder what Mr. Harrison would think of my silly little comic? I still to this day have not read his written work. I did find this advertisement for it, and was struck once again by coincidences. An early sketch I did had the same sort of skull fading into the background, and a well-built blonde leading lady? A striking similarity to Alison, my first female character. I guess it goes to show that no good idea is ever truly original. Of course, having a comic with the same name did lead to some minor difficulties, but I decided not to let it bother me.

Secondly, I found out that with little to no effort, I could put out a decent comic simply by listening to my friends' ideas. At the very least, they enjoyed it, so I went with it. Some people out there are even stranger than I am, and have a better sense of humor than I do. Without them, about half of the jokes I've done would be non-existent. Friends are a wonderful resource I wouldn't want to be without. So, I certainly would like to thank all the people out there who have helped me, posed for me, drawn artwork, and given me feedback.

Then came December 1997, and I decided to put the comic on the Internet. Why did that happen? Well, I took a cue from my buddy Adam Thrasher (who drew an awesome comic called Space Moose), and set up a website so that others around the world could - maybe - enjoy my work. It started off as pretty much a blatant copy of his website, right down to the small details. But I figured that wasn't too fair to him, so once I got some time (and web-authoring experience), I sat down and redesigned it. I currently work on it far too much, (in fact, i believe it's now on it's ninth iteration or thereabouts) but I figure it's a labour of love, so I shouldn't be too hard on myself.