Even as a child, there was never a doubt in Travis Bundy’s mind that his future lay in art.

“I’ve been drawing my whole life, from the time I was able to hold a crayon,” said Bundy, an Auburn resident since 2007. “My mother has saved all of the drawings I’ve done. It’s great because you can see the progression.”

Bundy, 33, is an established comic book artist today, with two graphic novels to his credit – his most recent, “Jeff”, and his first work, “Gods of the New Empire”, which was selected for inclusion into the Library of Congress.

Bundy grew up in Spanaway, attending and graduating from Lakes High School in 1996.

As a child, his first drawing inspiration came from television cartoons.

“At first, it was all about finding ways to mimic those styles,” he said. “Those things wouldn’t stand still though, so I couldn’t look at them and break them down though.”

Bundy caught a break when a friend turned him on to a copy of “Wolverine,” a Marvel Comics “X-Men” title.

“I remember getting a copy of ‘Wolverine’ No. 138, when Mark Silvestri was doing it,” he said. “The cover was Wolverine jumping, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s really what I want to learn to do.'”

The exposure began a lifelong love affair with the X-Men for Bundy.

“They just have such a plethora of beautifully drawn characters,” he said.

He soon began delving deeper into the comic book genre, finding inspiration and enjoyment in some of the more adult titles like “Sandman” and “Hellblazer”, both published on DC’s Vertigo Comics.

In middle school, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place for Bundy as an aspiring artist, when a chance selection at a video store exposed him to Japanese anime.

“When I rented ‘Akira’ it blew my mind,” he said. “The art in ‘Akira,’ the backgrounds are very detailed. The characters are not though. The characters are very simple. (Artist) Katsuhiro Otomo, his style isn’t the kiddie anime style with big eyes, the girly soft style like Pokemon you see now. His style is very realistic. I realized that was a bridge to get from the sketches I was doing to what I wanted to do.”

Bundy attended Western Washington University and graduated in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in illustration and graphic design.

While working as a photography assistant at Amazon.com, Bundy managed to find time to complete his first graphic novel, the teen super hero team saga “Gods of the New Empire,” a whopping 200-page book.

“It was a starting point and something I could send to people to prove that this was something I was determined to do,” Bundy said. “It took me five years to finish, mostly because I had a serious “Grand Theft Auto” addiction at the time. I could probably have had that thing finished in two years.”

After applying for a copyright for “Gods of the New Empire”, Bundy said he was shocked by a request from the Library of Congress to add the book to its graphic novel archive.

“I got an email from the Library of Congress asking for more information,” he said. “I didn’t really know what was going on. And I read it, I read it again. Then I printed it and took it in to my manager at work and said, ‘Does this really say what I think it says? Are they asking for my book for the Library of Congress?’ And she said yeah.”

After Amazon, Bundy moved on to KDL, a skylight and railing manufacturer in Kent, where he began working on his second graphic novel “Jeff.”

“They (KDL) have been really, really supportive of my art,” he said. “In fact, the new book Jeff is actually based on a guy I work with. Jeff is actually a real guy. The villain in the book is loosely based on our boss, the owner of our company. She loves it, she thinks it’s great. And a couple other characters in there are based on people I work with. There is a lot of work angst in there.”

“It’s the story of a normal guy, not really a loser, just kind of a loner,” Bundy said. “Every once in awhile, he’ll get a really bad stomach ache and get transferred off to another dimension called the realm. He’ll wake up there with horns on his hat, gauntlets on his arm and a giant ax stuck in the ground. And there is always an objective, like he has to save a princess from a dragon or he has to kill a horde of giant bees. He doesn’t know why it’s happening, he doesn’t know if its real or if he’s just going crazy.”

Bundy stays busy with Creator’s Edge Press, a publishing company he founded with a group of like-minded comic book aficionados, including former Auburnite Chuck Messinger.

“I’m the art director and submissions director for the company,” he said. “We really just do it for the love of the comics. We’re that stepping stone for somebody who has a really great book but has no idea what to do with it. We’re trying to build a network of retailers, stores and distributors to get them out.”

For more information on Travis Bundy and Creator’s Edge Press, visit www.creatorsedgepress.com.