About

Hello!

My name is Max Riffner, and welcome to my website. I have recently relaunched my site after being on hiatus for a few years. I started blogging in 2000 to document my journey creating my first graphic novel, Golden Boy, and then kept writing about comics, design, and the web: my core passions.

I will be filling out my blog with more posts shortly, but that’s a good place to start to see what I’m currently thinking about. I’ll be writing about those aforementioned core passions, specifically, I’m in a place now where I have many techniques on how to meet deadlines, how to approach large projects, and how storytelling affects everything no matter the medium.

About Max Riffner

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a cartoonist, and thankfully I got that opportunity in high school working on the school newspaper. This is also where I started to see parallels with graphic design, so I served double duties as a cartoonist and designer on the newspaper. I won the Nebraska State High School Journalism Award for Best Cartoonist in 1995.

I started working as a professional web designer in 1996 while studying graphic design in college. After graduating in 1999, I kept working as a web designer for several firms while working on comics at night. I became obsessed with web standards, and converted Oriental Trading Company’s large e-commerce website to a standards based design in 2003.

My mini-comic, Quick Step, won the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics in 2007. In the following years, I started my webcomic Drunk Elephant Comics. I also started to work with writer Kevin Church on Lydia and Signs and Meanings, which meant I always had two webcomics going at one time, all the while working my way up from a web designer to an interactive director for several advertising and marketing agencies.

In 2011, I decided to take a break from design to study at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. I graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts in Cartooning from that institution in 2013. I’m now working as the Creative Director for Hurrdat back in my home town of Omaha, Nebraska.

My comics have been published by Fantagraphics, Spongebob Comics, Monkeybrain, Activate, and Markosia, along with self-publishing mini-comics and webcomics for the last 14 years. My design and illustration clients include Storage.com, Storz Brewery, Slate, Oriental Trading Company, College World Series, Borsheims, and the US Army.

Thanks for reading!

Max Riffner

Interviews, Reviews & Podcasts

December 7, 2014
Two Headed Nerd Podcast #188: Peter Pan’s Pants
Interview following the release of The Crippler’s Son.

November 21, 2013
High-Low: Thirty Days of CCS
Review of The Crippler’s Son and Democracy Doomsday by talented critic Rob Clough.

June 7, 2007
Sequential Tart: Quick Steps
I spoke with Adrienne Rappaport about winning the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics for my comic Quick Step.

March 14, 2005
Digital Strips Podcast
Quick review of my first graphic novel Golden Boy.

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