He studied at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, at the encouragement of his high-school art teacher, Dan Baughman, helping to pay for it by working as a janitor at Disneyland. While still a student he illustrated for alternative newspapers, "L.A. Weekly", "L.A. Reader" and for the punk magazine "No Mag". He also illustrated album covers for Oingo Boingo, "Good For Your Soul" and The Dickies "Stukas Over Disneyland". He graduated from Art Center in 1983 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration and moved to New York City where he freelance illustrated for various publications including "TIME", "Mother Jones", "Ms.", "Sports Illustrated", "The New York Times", "Newsweek", "Rolling Stone", "The Progressive", "The Atlantic", "The Boston Globe", "Sesame Street Magazine", and others.