Marc Rosenthal is an acclaimed designer and sequential artist, the author and illustrator of Phooey! (a Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of the Year), and the illustrator of Yo, Aesop! (written by his brother, Paul Rosenthal), The Runaway Beard , The Absentminded Fellow , and Dig! In 2001, The New Yorker's Art Spiegelman asked Mr. Rosenthal to try his hand at comics, and the result was published in Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids . Mr. Rosenthal lives in the Berkshires with his wife, Eileen, his son, Willem, and Pete the Cat. He is also a fan of pirates and sometimes speaks like them.