Born in New Haven in 1952, Paul Kirchner attended the Cooper Union School of Art with the ambition to eventually draw comic books. He dropped out during his junior year in 1973 when he began getting work in that field, penciling horror stories for DC and working as an assistant to Tex Blaisdell, Ralph Reese, and Wally Wood. Paul wrote and drew the Dope Rider comic for High Times magazine and created the regular feature "the bus" for HEAVY METAL. He collaborated with the Dutch mystery writer Janwillem van de Wetering on the graphic novel MURDER BY REMOTE CONTROL. In the 1980s, Paul began doing more mainstream illustration, much of it comics-related. He did design and packaging work in the toy industry and worked as a freelance storyboard artist in advertising. After his freelance work dried up about ten years ago, he returned to comics, producing new Dope Rider strips for HIGH TIMES and new bus strips for a second collection. The French publisher Editions Tanibis has put out six hardcover collections of Kirchner's work: the bus, THE BUS 2, AWAITING THE COLLAPSE, A FISTFUL OF DELIRIUM, HIERONYMUS & BOSCH, and MURDER BY REMOTE CONTROL, in French and English language editions.
