Well, for starters, I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. That's right, I'm a Southern boy at heart. Pretty much grew up in the suburbs, into whatever geeky thing my friends were into. Science Team, Scholar's Bowl, Literary Magazine (Art Editor), that sort of thing. Star Wars movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark, REM, U2, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Knight Rider, AirWolf, Saturday morning cartoons, Walt Simonson's Thor, Bob Layton's Iron Man and Byrne & Claremont's X-Men. I survived the '70s, but I grew up in the '80s.

After high school, I spent a lot of time in Athens, Georgia. Most of my friends started school there while I took a year off - I had been going to school my whole life and I was going to take a break, dammit. Anyway, I visited them often, getting into the Athens music scene. The first real live music show I ever saw was the Dead Milkmen at the Uptown Lounge. My first words in the door were, "So. This is a dive." To this day, the Uptown was one of the ugliest places to see live music I've ever been to. Turned out to be pretty exemplary of that unique Athens live music venue charm.

One of the great things about the music scene there was the band flyers. Athens is a college town (University of Georgia - Go Dawgs!) so there's no end to the number of places to staple things up so people see them. My friends and I would actually scour the campus and downtown collecting the best ones. Sort of my first foray into researching graphic design, you might say. I also did my first cartoons and designs here, for a fraternity house, promoting some party or another, and a set of logos for Wuxtry Comics (which they rejected). Athens gets into you, if you let it. The fact that I did eventually go to school at the University is almost beside the point.

After school, I mostly worked (I say mostly, because I did a great deal of Not Working as well), slowly developing computer skills and some design sense. I've been self-employed since 1994, and doing graphic production and design professionally since 1997, when I moved to Los Angeles.

The first few LA years were spent doing production for Peter Green Design. They run a very professional organization, and I cannot overstate how valuable my experience there was. I learned more practical, real-world techniques and skills there than most people learn in four years of college.

After a while, I started getting my own little jobs - brochures, cards, mailers, that sort of thing. Eventually I was so busy with my own work, I was just renting space at PGD. After a while, some quick math pointed out the fact that I could spend that money on a larger apartment and have a home office. After about a year of putting up with Hollywood (no parking, no space, bad smell, bad neighborhood) I moved out to Glendale (back to the suburbs), where I had trees and my own parking space.

So now I find myself back in Atlanta, mostly (I still find myself travelling back to LA more frequently than I would have expected). I have a place intown, near Piedmont Park, and I spend a lot of time in Virginia-Highland (if you narrow down the places that serve coffee and have free wireless Internet access, I'm pretty easy to find).

-Allen

CONTACT

The best way to reach me is by email, so here ya go:

scruffy at livinglightning dot com

Sorry for the unlinked email, but due to the proliferation of spam I'm having to take a precaution or two. I hope you understand. If you retype it, just check your spelling — for some reason people tend to put an "e" in lightning.

Also, if you're on Myspace, I'm at www.myspace.com/charlesallenharris.

Thanks!

LEGAL

This website and all content is Copyright © 2002-2006 Living Lightning Enterprises, Inc., and Charles Allen Harris. All Rights Reserved. Characters not owned by me are Copyright and/or TM by their respective owners.

Unauthorized duplication or distribution by any means of any of the content contained herein is prohibited without express written consent from the respective copyright holders.

Note: All of the artwork images have watermarks for added protection and tracking capability.

AND ASIDE FROM ALL THAT, DON'T STEAL ART.

Seriously, if you want to use some of mine, ask first. Chances are we can work something out, even if it's just credit and a link back to my site. If there is commercial intent, then a licensing fee can be arranged.

This includes copying the work and claiming it as your own original work. Nothing infuriates an artist more.