John Marshall (cartoonist)

He was bored during the summer between the fourth and fifth grades and began drawing Peanuts characters on brown paper bags.

[1] Graduating in 1976 from Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, Marshall began as an art director at a Binghamton, New York, advertising agency, eventually making the leap as a freelance illustrator, with a client list that included General Electric, IBM and Golf Digest.

"I floundered for a couple of years," said Marshall, but he found a new direction in 2002 when he got a phone call from King Features to work on Blondie.

To capture the finely polished inking details seen in Blondie, Marshall works on a Wacom tablet linked to his Macintosh.

First he draws a rough, sent to Young for review, and then it's back to the computer for the finished art, delivered electronically to King Features.

[4] Reprints of Marshall's art appear in the book Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul (Health Communications, 2002).

In addition to experimenting with digital photography, he enjoys following his favorite football team, the New York Giants, and creating sports paintings.