Born and raised in Painted Post, N.Y., John McPherson first began drawing cartoons at age 5, on the dining room wall. Discouraged by the poor reviews these early cartoons received (and the fact that he was grounded for the next 13 years), McPherson decided to put his cartooning career on hold, and went on to become a design engineer.

He again took up cartooning and discovered that his drawings looked much the same as they did twenty years earlier. Although people laughed a lot at McPherson's engineering drawings, they laughed even harder at his cartoons, and in 1990 he made the totally irresponsible decision to leave his engineering job and leap blindly into the terrifying world of full-time free-lancing.

Since that time, McPherson has published numerous collections of his cartoons as well as page-a-day calendars. He has also illustrated several books and continues to work for magazines.