Al Columbia is an American cartoonist, illustrator, writer, photographer, musician, and filmmaker. He started his career in comics at the age of nineteen, when he was hired to assist Bill Sienkiewicz. Together, they created 'Big Numbers'. In 1992, however, the pressure of continuing this real-world, realistically painted comics series became too much for him. Al Columbia vanished, destroying the fourth issue of 'Big Numbers' he was working on, and nothing was heard from him until 1994. He then made 'The Biologic Show', published by Fantagraphics, in which he broke away from the realistic, Sienkiewicz-inspired style, developing a more grotesque, caricatural style of his own.
