Brian Biggs was recently nominated as a subject for our Phillyist VIP column, and was referred to as a "comic book artist and children's book illustrator extraordinaire." After viewing his website MrBiggs.com and seeing the interesting artwork that he provided for the recent Philadelphia Book Festival, we snatched him up as a candidate for ArtIST instead.

When we contacted him, here's what he had to say about himself:

I am an illustrator, primarily of works for children, including kids' books, toys, games, and other such things. I often wonder if the main reason for this is because I myself have not managed to move beyond adolescence, or whether it's because I have two kids, currently 9 and 7 years old, who act as my main inspiration, critics, and editors and who seem to like the stuff I make. In any case, what works, works.

I'm currently working on several children's books, some of which were written by me, some by others, and I recently created the poster and illustration work for the Philadelphia Book Festival. I have a studio in Center City, but I also keep a small work room at my house in Roxborough for the client-less work like my dabblings in video and animation, and I have a toybox full of electronic music gear there as well so I can satisfy my inner DJ. You can see a lot of what I make at MrBiggs.com.

To see more of his work, click on the extended entry below.

Artwork provided by the artist.