My name is Andy Smith. I am a 26-year-old graphic designer and free-lance cartoonist.

The strip featured on this site is titled Art the Frog after the central character. The leading characters are amphibians: Art the Frog, Bump the Bullfrog, and Chub the Toad. It's hard to say which came first, my comic strip about frogs, or my fascination with frogs in general. I believe it was the strip that inspired my love affair with frogs. Currently I own one frog, a White's Treefrog named Zach. I've had about 10 frogs all in all. No, none of them were ever named Art.

Experience

My work in the field of comic strips (if it can be called a field) has been most prominently featured in The Diamondback, the student newspaper at the University of Maryland. I published a daily Art the Frog strip (five strips a week) in 2001. At the time I believe the estimated readership was above 70,000. I have archived all those strips on this website, and archives can also be viewed at www.diamondbackonline.com.

A single panel cartoon/illustration was published in The Citizen - city paper in Christchurch, NZ, in 2001.

From 1996 to 1998 I worked as a storyboard artist and character animator for Deerwood Studios
(now First Pacific, New Zealand). I did two-dimensional cell animation (pencils, lighttables, etc)
while working on commercials, the introduction segment of an animated television show, and
other projects.

Currently I am employed full time as a graphic designer for 270net Technologies. I have held this
position since 2002.

Free-lance work has included animation, greeting cards, t-shirt designs, caricatures, logo designs and
mascots.

Education

AA General Studies - Montgomery County Community College, Maryland
BA Communication Studies - University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

~Andy Smith