Dean Edmund Haspiel (born May 31, 1967 in New York City) is an American comic book artist, writer, and playwright. He is known for creating Billy Dogma, The Red Hook, and for his collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar on his American Splendor series as well as the graphic novel The Quitter, and for his collaborations with Jonathan Ames on The Alcoholic and HBO's Bored to Death. He has been nominated for numerous Eisner Awards, and won a 2010 Emmy Award for TV design work. Early life Haspiel grew up on Manhattan's Upper West Side and attended The High School of Music & Art/Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, graduating in 1985. In the mid-1980s, Haspiel worked at Upstart Associates (a shared studio space on West 29th Street in New York City) as an assistant for Howard Chaykin on American Flagg! and for Walter Simonson on Thor; he also worked (at a different studio) as an assistant for Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin. Later, Haspiel attended the State University of New York at Purchase, first majoring in illustration and eventually switching to film. Career In 1987, while still an undergraduate, Haspiel inaugurated his professional comics career when he co-created The Verdict with Martin Powell. Haspiel went on to co-create the two-man comics anthology Keyhole with cartoonist Josh Neufeld (a fellow graduate of LaGuardia High School). Haspiel's "last romantic anti-hero" Billy Dogma made his comic book debut in Keyhole, and has appeared in a number of comics and graphic novels since then, published by Top Shelf Productions and Alternative Comics. Recent works starring Billy Dogma include Brawl, a "creature romance double feature" mini-series with Michel Fiffe for Image Comics; and "Sex Planet," a Billy Dogma interlude for Popgun volume 2 (also published by Image). Haspiel was a long-time collaborator with Harvey Pekar on American Splendor. The culmination of their work together was the 104-page nonfiction graphic novel The Quitter, published by Vertigo in 2005. In 2006 Haspiel spearheaded the foundation of ACT-I-VATE, a webcomics collective which featured the works of founding members Haspiel, Dan Goldman, Nick Bertozzi, Michel Fiffe, Leland Purvis, Nikki Cook, Tim Hamilton, and Josh Neufeld. (In 2009, IDW Publishing published the ACT-I-VATE Primer, which featured an original Haspiel story as well as work by other members of the collective.) In fall 2008, Vertigo released the original graphic novel The Alcoholic, written by Jonathan Ames and drawn by