Rad Sechrist was mentored by the late Sam Singer, an old Disney animator who went on to produce television cartoons. After high school, he went to UC Santa Barbara where he graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree.
While he was there, he worked at the college newspaper, the Daily Nexus, producing one to three illustrations a day. After graduating in 2004, he went on to be a freelance cartoonist. He has since been published in Flight Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (upcoming). He is currently working on Barnes and Nobles' upcoming classic comic series, specifically Tom Sawyer.
AnimationMentor.com: How did you get involved with Flight?
We were just a bunch of friends that all got together and decided to compile some short stories for fun. It slowly grew into its own thing, and Image Comics published the first two volumes. We never imagined for it to be the project that it is now, and we always try to keep the focus on having our readers enjoy the stories. Be on the lookout for the third volume being published by Random House coming in 2006!
AnimationMentor.com: Can you tell us about Flight?
In the comics industry, the writing and the illustration tends to be done by separate people. The idea behind Flight was to have the artists write their own stories. This is also a good place for people to test the waters for story ideas they have, before trying to launch into their own series.
AnimationMentor.com: How did you get into Animation?
I had a lot of animation books growing up, and I loved the focus on form. I would practice for hours growing up, trying to replicate the style of the Disney animators. You can't cheat, and it forces you to really understand what you're drawing.
You can get more info about Flight
here.
You can see and learn more about Rad Sechrist
here.