A few moons ago, the late Mrs. June Drinkwater gave birth to a little fuzzy pink thing she named Mike on a big island called New Zealand. Dwelling on such an island and having also spent a few of my younger impressionable years in the islands of Fiji, I basically grew up in, on and under the water and thus the sea is responsible for my inspiration and interest in all things weird, wobbly and wonderful.

I’ve been drawing since I was ankle high to a hoary marmot yet I always envisaged growing up to be a lighthouse keeper or a tug boat captain. When I accidentally landed a cartoon job whilst still at school, a career and lifestyle was born. At seventeen, I was employed to write and draw a full page comic strip every month for New Zealand Surfing magazine which I did for 3 years. During that time, as word spread that I was new and available to the creative community, I built my first clientele and embarked on a career as a freelance cartoonist and illustrator.

At twenty, I became awfully curious as to how animation was done so I attended an interview for an animation production and unexpectedly ended up getting a job as an animator with Warner Brothers. I rabbited myself silly on WB’s Tiny Toons television show for 3 years. Then came Taz and Animaniacs for WB followed by a Disney contract that propelled me into several shows including Darkwing Duck, Duck Daze and Goof Troop. After 5 or so years of television series work I teamed up with a handful of talented animation colleagues and set out to produce animated television commercials.

I eventually returned to full-time freelance cartooning and illustration which is where I am now but I am still heavily involved with animation. To date, I have worked on 40 Television commercials, 10 animated television shows and 7 short films. I have also illustrated over 30 books and provided graphics for numerous magazines, greeting cards, newspapers, advertising campaigns and websites. Last year I wrapped up a 4 year part-time stint teaching cartooning and illustration for the NZ Institute of Business Studies.