The story of the Tengu and his charges, the Bird People, takes place in a parallel universe next door to the city of my birth, San Francisco.

I began this project shortly after graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2003.
A trip to the land of the birds, Aotearoa New Zealand, heightened my fascination with ornithology, armchair enthusiast that I am; a subsequent viewing of Sir David Attenborough’s “The Life Of Birds” DVD sealed the deal for me. Two tours of duty as a building engineer at the Steinhart Aquarium in 2008 and 2018 put me in close proximity to a world-class library of avian lore.

Why’s it a “project”?

If I tell the story as planned, three books, each comprising thirteen episodes, will tell the complete story I’ve laid out. May I have the time to complete the series! But I’ll tell as much of it as I can, dear reader, time (and our disturbing political situation) allowing.

Also, my dream is to animate these characters! Job #1, though, is to tell their story in a medium I’ve followed throughout my life: graphic novels, comics, and cartoons.