David Zapanta was only nineteen when he graduated magna cum laude from the prestigious Depression Institute of Norway.  Two years later, he went on to become the Depression Laureate of New Jersey.

In the early 90s, under the auspices of Screaming Rice Press, he created and published the comic book HAIRBAT, about a man who gets a large, talking bat permanently ensnarled in his hair.

In 2005, Mr. Zapanta became an intern at The Melancholy Company.  He quickly established himself as the "Maven of Malaise" and became the company's go-to artist. Sequestered in a cramped cubicle on the Melancholy Company campus, he has been toiling away in near obscurity ever since.

The company is currently headquartered in a small, dun-colored New England town where "despair has its own zip code."

Mr. Zapanta can be reached via email at melancholymail@gmail.com.