About Von Allan
Von Allan
was born in Arnprior, Ontario, Canada, in 1974. When he was
still very young, his parents separated, and he spent the remainder of
his youth split between a troubled mother and a gruff father.
In 1980, he and his mother moved to a working class neighbourhood in
Ottawa. Coping with bullying and harsh teachers, Von
found
refuge in books, comics, science fiction, and wrestling. Like many
others of his generation, Star
Wars and Star
Trek had huge influences on his psyche-- but he
also turned to the caped superheroes of comics for help when the world
seemed a less friendly place. As he grew older and his confidence grew, Von began to seriously consider a creative life-- in 1994, he started outlining several stories that he'd had in his head for years. That same year, he was hired to run Perfect Books, a small independent bookstore in a middle class neighbourhood of Ottawa. Through hard work, and an unerring book-sense, he turned the store into a successful literary destination for the area. It was there that he met his future wife, Moggy, although it took a year for the friendship to evolve into a relationship.
After many years of running the
store, Von began to realize that his
writing had been moved to a backburner-- too much creative energy was
being expended on the customers during the day and there wasn't any
left at night for his own work. After
putting their heads
together, he and Moggy decided that he should pursue his own
work. He scaled back his hours at the bookstore and started looking closely at his journals and story ideas; however, there was a catch. Everything he'd written, every idea and every character, was highly visual. He would have to learn to draw in order to express his creative visions. At first, even drawing a simple circle was tough going-- years passed, pencils snapped, pads of paper were flipped and replaced, paint was bought, and Von gradually got better. And eventually, through hard work and determination, Von got to the point that working in comics became a reality.
Von currently lives in Ottawa, Canada, with his writer/editor geek wife,
Moggy; a
husky dog, Rowen; and two feisty cats, Bonny and
Reilly. Von loves to hear from people who’ve read and (hopefully!) enjoyed his work. Feel free to write him at von (at) vonallan (dot) com. Both Moggy and Von update their blog quite regularly, too.
Von's Twitter Feed
Von Allan
c/o Von Allan Studio
P.O. Box 20520
390 Rideau Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. K1N 1A3
Email: von(at)vonallan(dot)com
Von Allan's art & writing by is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
Based on work at www.vonallan.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.vonallan.com.
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