Like many other people, Kirk was born in a hospital. He didn't change his name to J. Kirk Richards until he found out there was an artist in Texas pretending to have his same name. (You can see that other artist by clicking here. . .)

Like many other people, Kirk liked to draw when he was young. He remembers drawing monsters, warriors, and warriors killing monsters. (You can see some of his early monster drawings by clicking here.)

In eighth grade, Kirk wrote and illustrated his first non-black-and-white book. His mom saw the book and thought maybe Kirk would actually do something cool with his life. (You can see illustrations from that book by clicking here.)

So Kirk went to art school--or rather he went to school and studied art. (Lest you writers out there scoff, he studied a little bit of writing as well.) You can see his oil paintings by clicking here.