The Short Version...

I'm a 33-year old American living in Paris, France. I'm a freelance web designer/developer, illustrator, graphic designer, pixel artist, et cetera. I also draw comics and play music. I'm always interested in picking up new freelance projects; please check out my Hiring Me page. Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com any time and/or download my résumé (in PDF format). 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.

Location — I live in Paris, France. I grew up in New Jersey, moved to Philadelphia in my twenties, and then moved to France in 2005. I'm currently living at the edge of the Marais, in the 3rd arrondissement. I go back to the States pretty frequently for work and to visit my friends and family.

Work — I'm a freelancer and I work on a lot of different kinds of projects. 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. I'm always interested in picking up new freelance projects; please check out my Hiring Me page, download my résumé, and feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com any time.

Comics — I started self-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 few 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. Nowadays I mostly just play my acoustic guitar in my bedroom every night, but I dream about starting a band one of these days. My favorite musicians include Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, The Pogues, Johnny Cash, PJ Harvey, David Bowie, The Cure, Marilyn Manson, Rasputina, 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. My time is split between working for my freelance clients, pursuing my own creative endeavors, enjoying life in Paris, and traveling and seeing as much of the world as possible. I believe in enjoying the finer things, being surrounded by beauty, finding pleasure in hard work as much as in leisure, and appreciating life in general; I never let myself forget for a moment that I am very, very lucky to have the life that I have. I like to think I've earned it, but I've also simply been in the right place at the right time, many times.

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 exploring my own weird fashion sense, and I go shopping way 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 go running all the time even though I hate it. 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.

Other places to find me — Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Naymz | PixelJoint

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: Josh Berk, 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, Toxic Sonic, Courtney Traub, Lord Whimsy, Carly White, RJ White; I could go on all day.