Howard spent most of his happy childhood in Florida where he was on the swim team in grade school, and in a rock band in high school. He graduated in 1985 and moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University.
After two years there, he served two years as a missionary for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), after which he returned to school at BYU and decided to move to Provo permanently after graduating and getting married.
He currently works full-time as a cartoonist, writing, drawing, and coloring Schlock Mercenary, as well as doing comics for assorted corporate clients.
In writing this review I have made the mistake of not doing so while the book is fresh in my mind. This is the penultimate volume of the series, and so does a lot of setting up. We have an expedition to make contact with ancient aliens who fled the galaxy, and the gathering of intelligence on the threat from Andromeda, preparing us for the of the end of the story in the next volume.