Introduction
Brett Koth (born January 25, 1960) is an American cartoonist best known as a co-creator of the comic strip Mr. Potato Head and U.S. Acres. He also worked on Garfield with Jim Davis.
Early life and education
Koth was born on January 25, 1960, in Long Beach, California.
He grew up reading comics and when he was 6, he told his parents that he was going to be a cartoonist someday.
In his twenties, he began his first work as a caricature artist for theme parks in Southern California. In 1980-1983, he attended California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, California, and graduated with a BFA degree in Character Animation.
Career
Koth started his career working for studios such as Sullivan Bluth Studios, Filmation, Marvel, and Disney.
While working at Disney in 1986, he overheard a conversation that Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, was looking for an art assistant for his new comic strip, U.S. Acres. Koth sent in his portfolio and was hired by Davis.
In 2000-2003, Koth and Jim Davis published Mr. Potato Head comic strip based on a toy by the same name (invented by George Lerner). Originally featured in the book Mr. Potato Head: Unplugged for the toy's 50th anniversary and the UComics website, the strip was not popular due to the popularity of the newspaper dying out.
Aside from U.S. Acres and Mr. Potato Head Koth has written for the Bugs Bunny comic strip, the Looney Tunes comic book, and other Warner-Bros. projects. Apart from comics, Koth has designed multiple other things such as calendars, greeting cards, fun books, menus, logo art, promotional concepts and arts, imagineering and has designed characters and presentation artwork for proposed animated series for Film Roman and Nickelodeon Studios.
Since March 1st, 2010, Koth has been writing and drawing his own comic strip, Diamond Lil, published by GoComics. The comic is about the life of Lillian Bilious, "a feisty 75-year-old widow" in the fictional town of Turkey Knuckle, Indiana.
Television
In 1988, Koth worked as a storyboard artist on 9 episodes of the first season of the CBS TV animation series Garfield and Friends. The Garfield character was voiced by Lorenzo Music.
In 1993-1994, he served as an assistant storyboard artist on six episodes of the television animation series Rocko's Modern Life.
Personal life
Koth is married to his wife Mona; they have a son, Henry. The family resides in Lexington, Virginia.