Gerhard was born on April 14, 1959 in Edmonton, and started his association with Dave Sim's Cerebus with issue #65 (August 1984), and continued through its conclusion with #300 in March, 2004. The series was written by Dave Sim, who also drew the foreground figures, and had worked on the self-published series largely solo for the first 64 issues. Gerhard jokingly described his job saying that he "draws tables and chairs behind an aardvark".[citation needed] He is also fond of photography (some later issues of the comic book have covers based on his scenic photos) and sailing.[citation needed]