His father worked at Westinghouse Electric Corporation and moved the family often, to cities like Pittsburgh and Milwaukee.

[4] Burden's best-known creation is the Flaming Carrot which first appeared in 1979 direct market magazine.

Burden's Mystery Men was the subject of a 1999 film adaptation, directed by Kinka Usher and starring Ben Stiller and Geoffrey Rush.

Burden has also produced some prose work, including a short story called "You've Got Your Troubles, I've Got Mine", and an anthology of short stories by various writers, including Stephen King, called Dark Love, from Penguin Books.

Burden also has two 1998 Eisner Award Nominations, for Invincible Man and Flaming Carrot's Greatest Hits Volume Three.