What is ZombiePetz and why did you create it?

Zombiepetz is a company I started a little over a year ago with the sole purpose to just bring people fun zombie related merchandise. The first convention I did was the 2011 Boston comiccon and I went there with a handful of "zombie family stickers" (I'm staking the claim on those, I never saw them till I did them and now a ton of companies have them) ;) and 5 different shirts. It was such a hit that I couldn't believe how well it went. I honestly expected to barely make our money back and that would be it, experiment attempted now back to work at the graphic design studio. Needless to say it took off and my love of all things zombie has blown up! Now we offer everything from posters, prints, stickers, shirts, jewelry, custom illustrations, buttons etc. (soon hopefully vinyl toys).      

Whose artwork do you relate to most? Who inspires you? 

Some of the artists I relate the most to are artists like Skottie Young, Jon Sommariva, Sean "Cheeks" Galloway, Humberto Ramos and Greg Capullo. Greg Capullo has been one of my all time favorites for years...he draws superheroes the way superheroes should look! As for the other artists, there style is a bit more on the "less realistic" side. Artists like Skottie Young and Jon Sommariva have shown me that you don't have to draw every line perfect and every character doesn’t have to be perfectly anatomically correct...which is something I didn't know when I was 16-18 and trying to break into the industry. I thought everything had to look like Jim Lee or Art Adams drew it...perfect! Needless to say I got very discouraged and kind of drifted around the art world for years! Doing everything from architecture to advertising to tattoo design, until I found my nitch!  

Where do you see your artwork taking you? Has you artwork introduced you to any celebrities?? 

I hope my art takes me all over the world, right now I'm getting to travel around to almost any convention that's within a few states away from NY. I would love to do some work in San Diego or even in England! I'm hoping within the next 2 years it will be big enough to quit the day job and do this for a living. As for getting to meet "celebrities" at the very first convention in Boston I got to meet one of my idols Greg Capullo! At the end of the day him and his wife stopped by my booth and took pictures and actually bought my artwork. The fact that someone I've idolized for so long actually complimented my work and bought it is what made me go home and pour myself into this! He is the reason I kept at! Thank you Greg Capullo. I've been very lucky meeting artists and celebrities over the last year, I've gotten to meet and talk to Addy Miller from season one of the Walking Dead (Lil zombie girl) one of the nicest people I've ever met! I also met Norman Reedus from the walking Dead! Another awesome guy! I've managed to meet a lot of my heroes as far as artists go, Skottie Young, Eric Canete, Humberto Ramos, James O'barr , Greg Capullo, Jim Lee, Greg Titus, Jon Sommariva and many others. I hope to keep adding to the list as the year goes on...especially at the next con in Baltimore and then NYCC and Chiller Theater in NJ in October.  

What is your artistic medium of choice? Why that medium?  

my medium of choice is simple...I'm a pen and pencil kind of guy. I'm a firm believer in the old school style of drawing. Don't get me wrong I love computer enhanced stuff but I personally love working straight on the paper...and I think the people I do the sketches for at the conventions feel the same. There's just something about getting something hand drawn and seeing the little imperfections in it. Maybe I'm nuts but I love to study and look over all the sketches I've managed to get from my favorite artists and see how they did what they did. I like to think that people feel the same about my stuff.    

You artwork reminds of the Ed Roth's Rat Fink character, any correlation?

As for my stuff having a kind of "Rat Fink" feel that's a huge compliment! I love his work, and ironically I was in the classic/hot rod car show world for awhile, traveling around to shows and drawing people's cars in that same style...that might be where I picked that up from.