Luke Swan was born in Utsunomia, Japan in 1980. He bounced back and forth between Japan and the U.S. during childhood until he settled to Seattle in 2000 to attend art school. After a short stint working in advertising, he moved back to Japan to pursue a career as an animator, where he created the internationally popular Mr. Lineman, as well as having his animations featured on Sesame Street. A Surfing accident at the age of 10 left him with a fear of the ocean. 20 years later he sought to conquer that fear and now is an avid surfer. He started writing Surfer Joe in 2016 in an attempt to express the experience of surfing, and how it relates to pursuing goals in our day to day lives. He currently lives in Sendai, Japan.