Mike Witmer's first cartooning job was drawing caricatures of his neighborhood friends, for which he received rave reviews and a fat lip. He attended the Pennsylvania School of Art and Design as a Commercial Arts major for two years, then realized he was bored and broke. Naturally, he enlisted. During his ten years with the Air Force he contributed illustrations to Air Force magazines and publications, both stateside and in Europe, and created a few "editorial strips".

In March 2004, he began developing the daily comic strip which became 44 UNION AVENUE, basing it loosely on his own family and childhood. The feature was quickly picked up by the local newspaper, and subsequently migrated to other papers and publications, including an online run at Comicssherpa.com. In 2006 the feature was was syndicated by Gocomics.com. In the summer of that year he responded to a compelling impulse to launch into new, more densely populated comic strip territory, and in July of that year PINKERTON was launched.

Mike lives in Lancaster County, PA, with his wife, two daughters, four dogs (yes, one is 44's Jack), and a bunch of dirty cats. And maybe a buffalo.