I'm camera-shy, so this is the best you're gonna get. In my favorite pose...

Name:  Vincent Suzukawa (a name that seems only marginally less problematic for people to spell than Class Menagerie)

Age:  On the tail-end of Generation X

Height, Weight, Measurements:  Like a god. Unfortunately, the George Burns variety of god...

Area of residence:  Los Angeles, California, USA, and darn proud of it. Which anybody who doesn't live in LA wouldn't understand.

Social Security number:  Well, it's...waitasec, oh no you don't. Good try....

Education:  As a matter of fact, yes, I graduated not long ago from a large four-year California college much like DeMontfort. In fact, if you're familiar with California, you can probably tell what school I went to based on small clues I drop into the strip now and then. Did I enjoy school? Read the strip and you tell me, heh. I can honestly say, however, that my dorm was a bloody bore compared to the one I draw.

Occupation:  Full-time accountant. No kidding, folks. There ARE some accountants out there who have senses of humor, y'know. Specifically, I do business management--handling all nitpicky financial details for clients, ranging from taxes to budgeting to financial planning. 'Course, it's a new job, so I'm still learning...

Artistic influences

I've literally drawn all my life, but for the earlier years it was nothing organice--strictly vehicles, mostly cars. It gave me a decent technical background so I like the chance to draw cars or fine details when I can in the strip, but it's also taking years for me to learn how to be more loose and freehand in my cartooning. Only once I got to high school did I try cartooning.

And my cartooning influences were old school stuff, none of this Cartoon Network craziness! Disney and Looney Tunes, baby, the old theatrical cartoon shorts and the current movies. Undoubtedly you can tell that's where the characters' round goofy eyes come from. Modern stylized animation has its place, but you gotta look to the classics if you want to actually learn how to learn the basics of proper cartooning--stylizing comes later.

Recently, I've had some anime (Japanese animation) exposure (well, that was in a college clube, where it was almost free...it's rather expensive outside of college, unfortunately), which has taught me a lot about how to creative expressive characters--the eyes are the main focus, and everything else comes second. Plus anime helped me learn more about caricaturing the female figure. For those of you interested in the subject, I personally recommend Ranma 1/2, Nadia/Secret of Blue Water, Here Is Greenwood (if you thought MY dorm is weird...), little-known action comedy KO Seiki Beast, any incarnation of Tenchi Muyo, and anything with Hideo Miyazaki's name on it. Those are mostly older, but again it's been awhile since I've been in my college club.

Hobbies

Drawing. And between my job, my strip, and hanging out with friends, it doesn't leave much else. I spend a lot of money on the music I like, but that's about it. If I can ever get this strip syndicated despite the laughable odds against it, I'm set.

Thank-yous

Well, there wasn't really any place else to put these, but they need to be said. Thanks to Ed K. & Chris Z. for being previewers and beta-testers, for giving advice, suggestions, and thumbs up/down when needed ;-)...to Ryan S., one of the few people who can stomach my long-winded ramblings about every aspect of comic strips (since he's just as long-winded ;-)...to my roommate John, one heck of an artist who was actually an inspiration to me years before I met him in person...to John A, one of those people kicking my butt to actually get me drawing during those difficult times so many years back ...to Mark & Jen, my only audience for the strip when I first started it in college (please tell me you don't still have those horridly-drawn things, do you? ;-)...and to everyone else who has ever written me regarding this strip; I would have had a hard time keeping it going in the early stages with everyone's support. And this doesn't include all the other non-comic strip help and support I've gotten from those above, but the Barney-ish group hugs can come later ;-)

Email: You can email me at ClassMG@ay-oh-el-dotcom (And yes, the address has been encoded to prevent email address farming. You'll have to change the address appropriately within the To: field of your email client.)

If I have to give out any more information, I'll need to file some restraining orders first. Hope this settles any stereotypes people might have about cartoonists all being weird. Waitasec, there's two ways that can be interpreted ...