Steve Gritton

Born and raised in Los Angeles. I began drawing birthday cards for my friends when I was 13. It was then that I wanted to become a cartoonist (big fan of Berkely Breathed, but don't tell him, it will go to his head). At one point, I had developed two comic strips, The Moth Man and Cracker Cats which appeared in my college newspaper. After starting and stopping and starting again, finally graduated from California State University of Fullerton with a Bachelors of Fine Art in Illustration. Still had a desire to draw comics, I turned my attention towards children's books. And what better way to do that then by teaching. Found I was good at that as well. So now I'm a teacher.

I came up with the idea for The Trouble with Sisters and Robots after getting a piece of metal in my eye. Apparently, metal will rust in your eye if you leave it for even one day. After having the metal and rust removed, my friends began teasing me (they know I have a good sense of humor, so it was ok) and called me Rusteye. I thought "that would be a great name for a robot." After many versions, including one where Rusteye was an evil robot on a planet full of robots, and dozens of rewrites, The Trouble with Sisters and Robots was born. And if you can believe it, I once had the working title of "Shut up Lizzy!" but that didn't sound to nice.

You can learn more about me at www.stevegritton.com