Francesco Marciuliano

New Yorker Francesco Marciuliano attended Duke University, where he graduated in 1989 with a major in English Literature and a minor panic attack.

He began his career as a copywriter at The New York Times. It is there that he began his storied copywriting career, which included stints with Random House, Scholastic, Disney Publications, Readers Digest, Harvard Business Review and The Economist. He eventually landed the position of Copy Supervisor at BusinessWeek Magazineto the apparent shock of every single person he knew.

All the while Francesco never gave up on his childhood dream of one day doing a syndicated comic strip – a dream that finally came true the day King Features' editor-in-chief called him up and said with great fanfare, "We just received your latest submission. I'm afraid we can't publish it." What began as a seemingly cruel conversation concluded with an incredible job offer to assume writing responsibilities for the beloved Sally Forth. And the rest, as they say, is a historical footnote.

Check out Francesco's website at http://www.drinkatwork.com, that offers weekly career advice for the professionally disinclined.

Craig MacIntosh

Craig MacIntosh, artist of the daily comic strip Sally Forth, was born in California in 1943. Since he grew up in a military family, he lived from coast to coast around the United States until his family finally settled in Hawaii. He attended the University of Illinois, where he graduated with a Fine Arts degree in 1966.

Drafted into the military that same year, MacIntosh served three years in the Army and spent his final year in Vietnam. He got his first editorial cartooning job with the Journal Herald newspaper in Dayton, Ohio, where he worked from 1970 to 1075. MacIntosh then worked for the Minneapolis Star from 1975 until 1981 when it merged with the Minneapolis Tribune. He continued editorial cartooning and illustration with the Minneapolis Star Tribune until 1992.

While at the Star Tribune, MacIntosh began a partnership with Steve Sack, an editorial cartoonist, on the children's feature Professor Doodles, which began in 1986 and is still syndicated by Tribune Media Services. In 1991 Greg Howard, Sally Forth's creator, asked MacIntosh to become the artist for the strip. He quit his newspaper job in 1992 to work full-time on Sally Forth and Professor Doodles.

He has illustrated several books and is the author of two books about the historical buildings of Dayton, Ohio and Minneapolis, Minn.

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  Sally Forth

  Sally juggles the daily challenges of excelling at her middle-management career, keeping her marriage intact, and finding enough quality time to raise her child. She only suffers an occasional twinge of guilt that she's not quite the mother and wife her traditional upbringing tells her she ought to be. But somehow, through it all, she manages to keep her sanity and her sense of humor!

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  Ted

  Ted is sensitive and supportive. Like many husbands, he's an inveterate control freak with the TV-remote, a trait indicative, perhaps, of his continuing struggle to figure out his role in this modern world of the two-career family! While he keeps his wife and daughter in shape with the perfect blend of dry, witty barbs and loving, good-natured humor, he keeps himself balanced with his basketball in hand.

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  Hilary

  A very precocious 10-year-old, Hilary is just old enough to goad her parents, and smart enough not to suffer any dire repercussions from her smart-aleck remarks. She plays soccer, softball and the piano (under duress). Like many kids, she might have a blue carpet underneath all the stuff in her room.

• Ralph

  Sally's somewhat grumpy boss. Ralph is the primary reason Sally's "in" box is always full - and why her office invariably comes home with her.

• Marcie

  Sally's secretary and her salvation at the office organization game. Marcie also manages to make Sally a bit envious at times by reminding her of what it was like to be single.

• Alice

  Like Sally, Alice is a middle manager, and although she works for a different boss, she and Sally have many common areas for commiseration. Alice is divorced and the mother of two boys.