Brian Crane was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, but grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He began drawing at an early age, according to accounts by his mother, and hoped to grow up to be a comic strip artist. But as he got older he didn’t think he had the writing talent or sense of humor to be able to come up with material for a daily comic strip, so he became an graphic designer and art director instead, working for publishing companies, art studios and advertising agencies.

Along the way he graduated with a BA degree from Brigham Young University in 1973, married his college sweetheart, Diana Long, and they had seven children. When he got near the age of forty he began reminiscing about his childhood dream of doing a newspaper comic strip, so he created “Pickles,” a strip about an elderly couple and their daughter, grandson and pets.

It became syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group in 1990, and today appears in around 800 newspapers around the world. In 2001 it was awarded the prize for Best Comic Strip by the National Cartoonist Society. In 2005 and 2011 he was a nominee for Cartoonist of the Year by the same group.

Crane creates “Pickles” from a small studio in his home in Sparks, NV. His daughter Emily colors the daily and Sunday strips for him. Brian and his wife Diana recently celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary and are looking forward to the birth of their 11th grandchild in January.

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