Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the young Mark Zingarelli showed great promise at an early age and was accepted into the prestigious Pittsburgh Paint-By-Number Academy. By 1968 the young Zingarelli had also graduated (with honors) from the Pleasant Hill (Ohio) Cartoonist Exchange...a mail order cartooning school of high caliber. A brief stint at a professional art school and four lost years at the University of Pittsburgh only delayed the inevitable: a successful career in cartooning and illustration for editorial clients like The New Yorker, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Time, Newsweek and a host of other publications along with book illustration for publishers; Farra Straus & Giroux, Simon & Schuster, Penguin USA, Harcourt Brace and Little & Brown.