Orner began creating The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green in 1989, when he was working as a political cartoonist for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. The strip debuted in 1990 in Bay Windows, a Boston LGBT newspaper.
In 1989, Orner began working on The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green while holding a position as a political cartoonist at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. The comic strip first appeared in 1990 in Bay Windows, a prominent publication catering to Boston's LGBT community.