Dennis Messner grew up in a rural part of Missouri where he learned such important skills as drawing, singing, and how to field-dress a deer. Dennis has also created cartoon animation projects for companies like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney.

Dennis Messner’s growing list of influences and heroes include: Ernest Shackleton, Woody Guthrie, George Herriman, Charles Adams, E. C. Segar, Otto Messmer, and Charlie the Rooster.

In case you didn’t know, Charlie the Rooster was a rooster from Dennis Messner’s childhood whose last worldly act was to escape from his chicken coop, sneak up behind a man, and bite him hard in the buttock.