Animal Man [Member Since: November 21 '07]
I was born in Malden, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston), in 1962. Except for 18 months spent in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania when I was in the sixth grade, I have lived in Maryland (specifically the DC-Metro area) since I was about five years old.
Except for a few temporary absences, I have worked in the animal protection movement since 1989, most recently as an Associate Editor for The Humane Society of the United States (until October 2007). I have been a vegan for all of that time and first became a vegetarian about four years earlier. My wife, Vicki Stevens, and I met working at PETA and were married at Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg, Maryland on April 30, 1994 in a Wiccan handfasting ceremony.* We have five adopted children, all of whom are cats: Brandon, Xena, Nemo, Mina, and Serena (one of our first cats, Cleo, passed away on August 28, 2007).
From January 1999 to September 2006 I served as Director of the Comics for Compassion program of the Doris Day Animal Foundation (DDAF). This program sought to produce and distribute comic books that promoted humane values to children. In 2000 I was credited as "Creative Consultant" on DC Comics' Superman for the Animals (written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Tom Grummet and Dick Giordano) and in 2003 I worked with Marvel Comics on X-Men Unlimited #44, which contained the award-winning story, "Can They Suffer?"(written by Chuck Austen and illustrated by Romano Molenaar and Danny Miki).
In March 2005, my article "Of Mice and Vermin: Animals as Absent Referent in Art Spiegelman's Maus," was published in the International Journal of Comic Art (you can download a PDF of the paper, as it was published, here). In April 2005 I gave a presentation entitled "Images of Liberation: Comics, Cartoons, and Graphics," at the Grassroots Animal Rights Conference in New York City (you can download a PDF of my essay based on this presentation here). I am also working on a book following the 70 year history of comic book superheroes comics to show how their never-ending battle for truth and justice has reflected that of the American people. My list of 10 Best Graphic "Novels" + 1 can be found in Amazon.com's listmania section.
And there you have it: more information about a total stranger than you could ever possibly want to know.
*When the Maryland Department of Natural Resources decided to open this park to deer hunting a few years after we were married there, Vicki and I, along with two others, were arrested for blocking the entrance to the park by chaining ourselves to the front gate. Unfortunately, we were removed by authorities after causing only a slight delay to the opening of deer season. This remains my one and only act of civil disobedience to date.
Except for a few temporary absences, I have worked in the animal protection movement since 1989, most recently as an Associate Editor for The Humane Society of the United States (until October 2007). I have been a vegan for all of that time and first became a vegetarian about four years earlier. My wife, Vicki Stevens, and I met working at PETA and were married at Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg, Maryland on April 30, 1994 in a Wiccan handfasting ceremony.* We have five adopted children, all of whom are cats: Brandon, Xena, Nemo, Mina, and Serena (one of our first cats, Cleo, passed away on August 28, 2007).
From January 1999 to September 2006 I served as Director of the Comics for Compassion program of the Doris Day Animal Foundation (DDAF). This program sought to produce and distribute comic books that promoted humane values to children. In 2000 I was credited as "Creative Consultant" on DC Comics' Superman for the Animals (written by Mark Millar and illustrated by Tom Grummet and Dick Giordano) and in 2003 I worked with Marvel Comics on X-Men Unlimited #44, which contained the award-winning story, "Can They Suffer?"(written by Chuck Austen and illustrated by Romano Molenaar and Danny Miki).
In March 2005, my article "Of Mice and Vermin: Animals as Absent Referent in Art Spiegelman's Maus," was published in the International Journal of Comic Art (you can download a PDF of the paper, as it was published, here). In April 2005 I gave a presentation entitled "Images of Liberation: Comics, Cartoons, and Graphics," at the Grassroots Animal Rights Conference in New York City (you can download a PDF of my essay based on this presentation here). I am also working on a book following the 70 year history of comic book superheroes comics to show how their never-ending battle for truth and justice has reflected that of the American people. My list of 10 Best Graphic "Novels" + 1 can be found in Amazon.com's listmania section.
And there you have it: more information about a total stranger than you could ever possibly want to know.
*When the Maryland Department of Natural Resources decided to open this park to deer hunting a few years after we were married there, Vicki and I, along with two others, were arrested for blocking the entrance to the park by chaining ourselves to the front gate. Unfortunately, we were removed by authorities after causing only a slight delay to the opening of deer season. This remains my one and only act of civil disobedience to date.
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