Phelan Morkel

Phelan Thomas Morkel (born October 25, 1975) is an American cartoonist, filmmaker, actor, animator, writer, singer and musician best known for creating Mole Miner, Morten, Living on an Edge and Cirque Funtastique, co-creating Trisha's Way, Wonderbeaver, Dan & Marilyn, We're the Investigators and The Morkels, and co-developing The Yuyu Show.

Morkel has performed as a bluesman at the and. He has released several studio albums of contemporary blues music and blues rock, beginning with Plymouth Rock (2009). Morkel has received four Grammy Award nominations for his music, and the single "Yarmouth" from his album Straightforward (2011) spent several weeks on the Billboard Mainstream Rock and Adult Contemporary charts.

Early life and education
Phelan Thomas Morkel was born on October 25, 1975 at Burbank Hospital in. He is the son of Nicholas H. Morkel (born August 16, 1931), a cartoonist of German, Irish and Afrikaner descent and Cassandra Morkel (née Bergamo; May 2, 1930 – February 11, 2014), a therapist of Italian and Spanish descent. His mother, born in, immigrated to at the age of 10. His uncle-in-law is the Bostonian writer Charles Simonsen (born August 5, 1925). Phelan Morkel has a younger sister, Julianne Shannon "Julie" Morkel (born August 21, 1978) who is a writer, producer and actress; and a younger brother named Jason Peter Morkel (born February 1, 1980) who is an actor; his siblings have worked on a number of Phelan's shows, including several Morkel & Associates productions. His cousin, Justin Felix Morkel (born June 4, 1978), is a filmmaker.

Morkel's parents careers had a great effect on his and his siblings' upbringing. Phelan in particular wanted to be a cartoonist like his father. His parents wanted their children to have a positive outlook on life, and believed that involvement in the community would help with their future life. Morkel and his siblings were members of and other youth organizations.

Morkel attended in Fitchburg.

Early comics
Morkel began drawing comics at a young age.

Darren the Mole Miner
In 1993, Morkel's comic strip Darren the Mole Miner debuted in the school paper at Montachusett Vocational Technical School. He later submitted it to a "young comic artists" competition in Sketches magazine, where it earned the attention of many in the comic strip world.

After being featured in Sketches, the comic strip quickly gained national attention for its teaching of geology and the history of mining. By 1995, Morkel had signed a deal with Publishers' Syndicate to syndicate the strip to newspapers and signed a deal with to release collections of the comic. The first collection, Hey, It's Me, Darren!, made Morkel one of the youngest authors to have a title debut on the.

Other ventures
The Morkel siblings own three radio stations in - WPJJ, WPJJ-FM and WCBR-FM.

Musical style
Morkel has a tenor voice. He is a guitarist and singer who studied under blues guitarist/singer Johnny Sanders and jazz guitarist Tom Boatwright (the latter of which has also acted as a composer for some of Phelan's television projects). In 2010, Morkel performed at the and the El Kadsre City International Bluesfest. His music is predominantly blues rock, blues, roots rock, Americana and hard rock. He also uses musical comedy in his shows and movies.

In 2019, introduced a signature model for Morkel, the Fender Phelan Morkel Signature Stratocaster.

Influences
Morkel has stated his influences as a cartoonist include, , , , and , as well as his father Nicholas; while his musical influences include , , , , , , , ,  and.

Relationships and friendships
Morkel married cartoonist Gabrielle Babbington in August 2010 at in,. The officiant of the ceremony was professional wrestler. The couple split their time between and,. They own a diner in Westminster named Phelan and Gabby's, which opened in 2015 and is housed in a restored barrel-roof unit that had previously been sited in. They also own a vacation home in.

Morkel is friends with voice actors David A. James and Tagi Miori, fellow comic artists Monica J. Burroughs and Cesar Mantz, and comedian Josh McQueen.

Beliefs and activism
Morkel is a devout progressive Christian, having been raised within the. He has shown support for the LGBTQ+ community, and has encouraged other Christians to be more inclusive towards those in the community. In 2008, Morkel co-founded the Modern Life Church in Boston, a progressive Christian church and ministry, with Pastor Vahan Avedisian. When his brother Jason drew criticism from conservatives in 2016 for admitting to being an atheist, Phelan defended him, saying "He is entitled to his own belief in whether or not God exists, and I respect that."

Morkel has described himself as "mostly ". He endorsed in the  and  and Lori Youngblood in the ; in the general elections, he voted for  in 2016 and  in 2020. He also endorsed in the,  in the  and s,  in the  and  in the.

Family
His mother Cassandra died on February 11, 2014 due to complications from a botched liver transplant. She was 83 years old.

Morkel had planned to attend the show at The Station nightclub in  on February 20, 2003, but had to leave during the opening act to pick up a friend. When they came back,. Ironically, his uncle Charles Simonsen, at 16 years of age, had survived the 1942.

Interests
In addition to his love for music, Morkel has also expressed a love of the bands,  and , and has collaborated with members of those three groups. He is also a fan of OneVision, who provided the theme for his show Living on an Edge, and has occasionally performed live with them.

Morkel is aware of many of his works' followings within the, jokingly once stating that "the only reason anthropomorphic characters are more common than ever in modern animation is because of furries", along with noting the fact his wife has a background in the fandom. He has occasionally appeared at furry conventions, wearing a fursuit of the mole representation of himself that has occasionally appeared in his works.

Discography

 * Plymouth Rock (2009)
 * Straightforward (2011)
 * Blues Christmas (2013)
 * Wild Guitar (2015)
 * Cape Cod Blues (2017)
 * Westminster (2019)
 * Singing About Love and Other Subjects (2022)