The Short Version...

I'm a 32-year old American living in Paris, France. I'm a freelance web designer/developer, illustrator, graphic designer, et cetera. I also draw comics and play music. I'm always interested in picking up new freelance projects, so please feel free to contact me any time. My e-mail address is manning@manningkrull.com. I invite you to check out my blog if you'd like to know what sort of trouble I'm currently getting myself into.

The Long-ish Version...

First appearance — I was born in New Jersey in 1975, about a week before Halloween.

My name — Manning was my maternal grandfather's name, and I found out a few years ago it means "son of the hero" in Old English. Leonard was my dad's first name. Krull is truly an American name; it was shortened from Krulikowski (not sure about the spelling there) when my dad's parents came to the US from Poland in the 1920s. I like my name a lot.

Location — I grew up in New Jersey and moved to Philadelphia in my twenties, and nowadays I live in Paris, France. I first moved to France back in March 2005, spent a year and a half here, and then moved back to the States for most of a year; New York for six months and then Philly for a few more. I returned to Paris in September 2007, and I hope to stay here for a long time. I'm currently living in the neighborhood of Pigalle (in the 18th arrondissement), a couple streets away from the Moulin Rouge.

Work — It's always kind of hard to explain to people what I do for a living exactly. I'm a freelancer, and I do lots of different kinds of projects involving art stuff and computer stuff. I mostly design and build websites, and I also do a lot of illustration work. I sometimes do graphic design projects, Flash animation, pixel art and video game design, et cetera. I taught myself how to do all of this stuff, and I'm mighty proud of that.

Comics — I started sef-publishing my comic books under the name Jerkbox Studios in the late 90s with my friend Eric Zino, and I've worked on a bunch of other comics projects since then, both in print and online, including the annual Boo! Halloween Stories anthology with my friend Calamity Jon Morris. I had my first professionally published work in the States in 2006 in an anthology called True Porn, Volume 2. I'm currently working on writing a new series of comics about my life in Paris and my travels throughout Europe, and a publisher in Paris is now in the process of translating all my old Jerkbox Studios comics for publication in France.

Travel — I got started with travel pretty late in life, but I'm trying to make up for lost time. I've visited about twenty European countries in the last couple years. I take a lot of pictures when I'm traveling and I try to post detailed photo albums of all my trips, but I'm not a real photographer or anything; these are just snapshots. Some of my favorite places I've visited are Sarajevo (Bosnia), Budapest (Hungary), and all over the Transylvanian countryside in Romania. Visiting the ruins of Vlad the Impaler's castle in the middle of nowhere is probably my favorite travel memory so far. It's certainly the one that gets me the most e-mails from weird goth kids.

Music — I've been playing music for most of my life, starting with the cello at age ten, and then in highschool I taught myself the bass, guitar, a little drums, some piano, et cetera. I also really like singing (badly), and I have a banjo I can just barely play. I'm a pretty good xylophone player, if you can believe that. Recently, after a several years of not doing anything serious with music I'm suddenly in the process of writing a lot of songs for a new project with my roommate Alexis playing drums. I'm really excited about this thing; I haven't been in a band in a long time. We should probably think of a name.

My favorite musicians include Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, The Pogues, Johnny Cash, PJ Harvey, David Bowie, Rasputina, The Cure, Marilyn Manson, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, Edith Piaf, Hank Williams, Django Reinhardt, Stray Cats, Indochine, Talking Heads, et cetera, et cetera.

Life — I try to maintain a balance in my life between working very hard when I must and enjoying a very leisurely lifestyle when I can; I'm lucky enough to have a life where I can roll out of bed at one or two in the afternoon, start communicating with my clients who're six hours behind in the States, work a little, play guitar a little, draw a little, and then get dressed up and wander around Paris all night long. I live in an amazing apartment (by way of example, my homepage photo with Bambi was taken in our bathroom) with amazing roommates in an amazing neighborhood; the Sexodrome is right across the street, and I can see the Eiffel Tower from my front balcony and the Basilique de Sacré Coeur from the window of my delightful pink bedroom. I believe in enjoying the finer things, pursuing pleasure, and being surrounded by beauty at all times. I never let myself forget for a moment that I am very, very lucky.

Interests — I am primarily very interested in werewolves and skeletons and Draculas and dinosaurs and all that really scary stuff; I'm a huge fan of cemeteries and Halloween and ghost stories and monster movies and the like. Apart from my monster obsession, I also really enjoy chopping firewood and doing crossword puzzles. I'm very much addicted to clothes, and I go shopping much too often. I love the beach but I don't really like letting the sand or the ocean or the sun actually touch me. I love hiking and camping but I don't love wearing clothes that are suitable for hiking and camping. I mentally collect coincidences; one time in a hostel in Transylvania I met a Canadian women who, it turned out, used to live in my apartment in Paris — scary!

Fun facts — (Okay, they're not actually that fun.) I haven't owned a pair of blue jeans in about fifteen years. In highschool I played the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance. The only hair color I've never had is brown. I once met Elvis Costello and asked him if he wanted to be in my band (note: I did not even have a band at the time). I can juggle a little bit, but I usually only do it when I'm drunk. My favorite foods are sushi and pumpkin pie, but probably not together. I have never made a New Year's resolution. I am taken, if you must know.

My blog — Most of the exciting stuff that happens in my life gets posted in my LiveJournal. Sometimes I pretend in my head that my blog is called Hot Diggity Blog!, but it's not really.

E-mail — I enjoy e-mail, as you can see below. You can write me at manning@manningkrull.com. I would love to hear from you. Probably.

Friends — Some brilliant and creative people whom I greatly admire and am very fortunate to call my friends are listed here in extremely diplomatic alphabetical order: JR Blackwell, Steve Cleff, Aaron Cromie, The Dead Sexy Inc., Flashpoint Theatre Company, Alexis Gaffuri, K. Thor Jensen, Ladyfingers, Valerie Loveland, Calamity Jon Morris, Kevin L. O'Mara, Leonard Pierce, Courtney Traub, Lord Whimsy, Carly White, RJ White, I could go on all day.