Member Information

Full Name

Mark Mekkes

Where Am I?

Davenport Florida

Biography

Mark Mekkes was born and raised in the small town of Grandville Michigan. Having drawn on every scrap of paper he could find, he went off to study art. Unfortunately, the college he ended up at had a less than satisfactory art department. So instead, he ended up with a Theater major.

Fortunately Mark was able to use his theatrical education to earn an internship at the McCarter Theater on the grounds of Princeton University. From there he was able to maintain a steady string of theatrical jobs ranging from Off-Broadway, Regional, Children's and Dinner theater. However, the continuing uncertainty of theater work continued to draw him back to his original artistic desires.

So eventually, Mark enrolled in the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota Florida. Earning a degree in Illustration, Mark hit the road to find a new career using his newfound training. And ended up working once again in professional theater.

Frustrated at not using his skill, Mark decided to pull out some of his favorite old characters and redevelop them. This was when he came up with, what he thought, was an incredibly original idea - produce his comics on the internet! It was only after he had introduced Zortic as a webcomic that Mark realized that his idea wasn't that original.

Zortic quickly joined the newly developed Keenspace website (now Comic Genesis) and eventually made the jump to Keenspot. In 2004, Mark joined with Tiffany Ross to create Abby's Agency, also on Keenspot.

In addition to his comic endeavors, Mark was also responsible for helping create and develop the Web Cartoonists Choice Awards. He has acted as the Planning Committee Chairman since it's creation in 2000.

Zortic's first print volume debuted in 2005.

Webcomic URL

http://www.zortic.com

History

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Member for

5 years 43 weeks

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