Hi! I’m Dave. I’m a creative weirdo who grew up glued to Saturday morning cartoons and the comics page of what we used to call a “newspaper.” I couldn’t get enough Peanuts and Garfield in my early days, and I knew I had to be a part of that world. My cartooning journey started in middle school sketchbooks and even the high school newspaper. I have so many doodles and cartoons from the early 80’s. I promise to put them all on eBay when I’m ridiculously famous.

At Rochester Institute of Technology, I created a comic strip called The Brick Life, and after graduating with a degree in Film, Video & Animation, I was absolutely convinced I’d become the next great syndicated cartoonist. I even came close for a while. My strip Mulberry Place ran for a year in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and I was represented by the short-lived Future Features Syndicate. But after my third attempt at syndication, Galapagos, collected one rejection letter after another, I reluctantly put that dream on the back burner.

I launched ShaveFX, my motion graphics and 3D animation studio, and dove headfirst into improv comedy. Since 1996 I’ve performed, taught, led a theater, co-founded a nonprofit, and used applied improv to help everyone from businesses to dementia caregivers build better communication, confidence, and teamwork. I’m a facilitator and speaker who helps people connect, listen, and support in creative ways that bring laughter and joy into their daily lives. It’s been an amazing journey, and one I’m still happily on.

When life finally gave me room to draw again, I found renewed inspiration through online classes and cartooning communities, attended my first National Cartoonists Society Reubens conference, and realized something important: I don’t need cartooning to become my career. I just need it to be part of my life.

So that brings us here, to MacGuffin Point. It starts with a high stakes story of global significance, and will lead to whimsical explorations of infinite possibilities and what-if’s. It will equally be a place where I can illustrate my thoughts on the human condition or simply play and make puns. And most of all, it provides another much needed outlet to bring some laughs into this crazy world. If one of my comics earns you a smile, or on a really good day, an actual laugh-out-loud, then I’m doing exactly what I wanna do.

Thanks for stopping by and joining me on this adventure. Let’s enjoy this ridiculous and amazing ride together.

Peace & laughter –