Today, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's creation, "Rat Fink," is an icon of early '60s counter-culture art. For many of us men running the rapids of puberty in 1963, the image of the creepy, sleazeball rat became a visual anthem to our illusory coolness.

I myself drew the hip rodent — much to my parents' chagrin — on every grocery bag schoolbook cover I produced in the eighth grade. But this was the extent of my comic-book art career.

And so it is with many young people who trace and copy comic books but never take it any further.

Not so with Ryan Ottley, a young illustrator who truly brings to life the muscular mutants and misfits, and the sleek and sinewy superheroes in the "Invincible" comic books.

"This is what I always dreamed of," Ottley told the Deseret Morning News. "I wanted to draw comics, and here I am."

Born in Portland, Ore., in 1975, Ottley was raised in the Taylorsville/Bennion area and has drawn for as long as he can remember.

"I didn't have many social things to attend to," he said, "so I sat in my room and filled up sketchbooks."

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Deciding he wanted a career in art, Ottley began to study anatomy, perspective and portraiture books on his own. At age 15, his cousin introduced him to comic books.

"They seriously impressed me," Ottley said. "There was so much movement in them, the flow from panel to panel. They blew my mind."

His favorite comics were "Spider-Man," "X-Men" and the "Hulk." Today his preferred reading is "Shaolin Cowboy," "Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.," "Hellboy," "The Walking Dead" and "Supermarket."

"I especially love creator-owned books, where they have total freedom to create whatever they'd like instead of using those same old characters from Marvel over and over."

Arthur Adams, Dave Johnson and Geoff Darrow are Ottley's favorite comic-book artists; they mix "the realistic with the cartoony," he said, "and I also strive for that in my art."

Before breaking into the comic-book illustration business, Ottley worked at several part-time jobs. "I used to work at a place painting Ben Franklin busts," he said. He also worked in the Beneficial Life tower, pulling staples and microfilming insurance papers.