Happy New Year Everyone!

Uncle Scrooge #16 Dec-Feb 1957—back cover

It seems appropriate to begin this pictorial autobiography on the first day of the new year, with the first ten cent comic book I ever bought off a spinner, drawn by the good duck artist—Carl Barks. It's sort of my 'old number one dime', the 'spark plug of all of McDuck's vast fortune.' The comic is a bit worn, but has survived decades of the ebb and flow of my collection of pictorial treasures.

I intend to share many of my treasures in the months to come, some not terribly rare, but terribly meaningful to me. I would like to zoom in on details along the way and share what has inspired me in my career as an artist. And I would like to examine the value of pictorial images, not in terms of money, but in degrees of imagination.

I refer to myself as a pictorialist, not just in my set of skills, but in my lifelong appreciation of the skills and talents of artists, illustrators, cartoonists, sculptors, photographers, typographers, and graphic designers. I'd like to share that appreciation with anyone who stumbles into my little world.

It's a good little world!