Born in 72, I always had a love for art, especially comics. I knew I wanted to illustrate them at an early age. My first memories are of me, drawing Superman in my special corner every morning on my special pad that was set aside for me by my great-grandmother.

During high school I knew I wanted o draw comics but besides the girls I wasn’t interested in school at all.
Finally during my senior class commencement address, it hit me that I didn’t have school the next day and didn’t have any plans for my life or a way to accomplish my goal of comic illustration.

A few years later I landed a job illustrating a monthly creator owned comic strip for a local upstate NY paper. That really was the beginning of my comic illustration career. The opportunity allowed me to meet a monthly deadline, publish my own work and build an illustration portfolio.

One day that same newspaper editor came back from a Black Business Expo in NYC with some Omega 7 Comics. I was so impressed, even though it wasn’t the first time I‘d seen Black comics by Black creators, these books were still few … very few.

Milestone Media started printing comics and my life changed. Though I bought every issue of Icon, I was still unfamiliar with the remaining Milestone publications. My brother introduced me to the rest of the books one night as we stayed up to read comics. Never in my life had I ever read anything so powerful in a comic book form.

I got a portfolio review by Dennis Cowan and Chris Cross in 95’ and even though I wasn’t hired the critiques allowed me to motivate myself.
Shortly after I interviewed at the Joe Kubert School and was accepted, but later found that I wouldn’t get the financial assistance I needed to attend.
I moved to New York City (Bronx) the same day Tupac died, after battling for some time with my lack of motivation and overflowing passion for art.

The next morning I went to the Milestone Media Office to get a job (one of the best comic companies ever) and I wasn’t taking no for an answer. I left at 5p.m that day after completing the first day of my new internship. I also interned with (one of my dearest friends) Harvey Richards now at DC comics and some met some great friends Jamal Tate (BAM), (who in many areas of art mentored me and challenged me to have develope a critical eye) )Lateef Williams and various other minority editors who taught me a lot about the comic industry from behind the scenes.

For approximately 2 years I worked for Milestone on and off as needed, and through Milestone founders President Derek Dingle, and Vice President Dwayne McDuffie. I later landed with the help of Dingle another internship as an Art intern at Black Enterprise Magazine for the summer of 97’.

After that I worked with Acclaim Comics and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Foundation and the Boy’s Club of NY, only to leave suddenly when I impregnated my fiancée, thus my move to NC.
Moving to Fayetteville was a great move. I was finally able to attend and complete my Associates in Graphic Design from Fayetteville Technical Community College.

Currently I work as a Graphic Illustrator, Webmaster, Opinion Page Editor, Graphic design Layout person and typesetter for an Army newspaper. With lots of support from my wife Sonia, son Solomon and daughter Nyla-Simone, I was able to start a freelance career and launch my website, and am currently publishing a line of creator owned comics and fine art.

I was always the type of person who was intimidated by the unknown and my humble nature was taken advantage of quite often.
I learned to be more aggressive and take advantage of my youth, resources and skills to advance my career and interests.

Resume Summary:
•Computer proficiency in Macintosh and PC, Adobe: Photoshop, Illustrator, Pagemaker, Quark X-Press.

•Working knowledge of Macromedia: Flash, Director, Freehand, Dreamweaver.

•Experience in clientele and employee relations; Office Management/Reception; proven teamwork ability.

CAREER RELATED EXPERIENCE

*Fayetteville Publishing Company (Fayetteville, NC)
Typesetter/Graphic Illustrator: Typeset articles and develop editorial illustrations, responsible for electronic transfer of photos and pages to printer. Organize ad stacks for weekly use. Maintain hard copy archive. Daily correspondence between publisher and Co. briefings. Opinion Page Layout Designer: Develop weekly Dragon Pulse questions, photos, articles and designing graphic layout of page.
Webmaster: weekly updating of articles, photos for Paraglide website.

Projects:
•Organized Newspaper Design Conference for Pentagon Staff for Fort Bragg Public Affair Offices.
•Originated XVIII Airborne Corps. Contingency Corps Poster.
•Designed "Welcome Home Series" of posters for XVIII Airborne Corps.

*Boy’s Club of New York (New York, NY)
Art Instructor: Develop art curriculum and projects for students, mentor for students, assisting with their studies. Meet with parents concerning student progress.

*Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Foundation (New York, NY)
Receptionist: Client/company relations, front desk, assist in various departments as needed.
Finance Office: Assist with finance, payroll, company account maintenance, etc.
Development: Assist with executive and celebrity account maintenance.
Office Manager: Assist as secondary Office Manager in absence of Primary Manager including: reception, inter-office e-mails, inventory maintenance and assistant to instructors during enrollment season.

*Black Enterprise (New York, NY)
Intern (Art Department): Provided support to Executives in many aspects of circulation, production and artistic needs. Assisted in production of magazine in areas of art and promotions. Worked with journalists to help put together Black Enterprise/Pepsi, Golf & Tennis Challenge journals.

*Milestone Media Incorporated (New York, NY)
Intern: Assisted in the production of comic books, trade paper backs, archive editions. Handled heavy workflow reception, faxing and copying correspondence, contracts and new product ideas.

EDUCATION:
Fayetteville Technical Community College, Fayetteville NC
Major: Advertising & Graphic Design
Graduated Spring 2006
REFERENCES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST