Michael Allen Austin:

Would love to tell you something like. . . I go out when the moon is full for a dinner of spicy food. Afterwards, I return home, lay my head down on a special pillow filled with exotic goose down and then let ideas come through surreal dreams. But, unfortunately, for me there isn’t anything that specific or unique.

My inspiration comes from the things closest to me like my friends, family, even the furniture in my house. For example, the train, the Sagebrush Flyer in Railroad John and the Red Rock Run, was composed out of parts of furniture in my home.

I combined those ideas with photos of an old train nicknamed the Gophers, Frogs and Alligators line, which ran where in the area where I grew up. Also, my great grandfather, who actually worked for a railroad, was the basis for the Railroad John character.