Mike Dringenberg is of German heritage but was born in Laon, France, and lives in Portland, Oregon. His comics career started during his college years in the mid-80s, working for Vortex, Eclipse, and other indie publishers of the period. Among his early works were Alien Worlds, Enchanter, Total Eclipse, Kelvin Mace, Shock the Monkey and the TMNT parody, Adolescent Radioactive Blackbelt Hamsters.

Dringenberg is best known however, for his work with Neil Gaiman on the DC/Vertigo series, The Sandman. He initially provided inks for penciller, Sam Kieth, but switched to pencilling when Kieth left after the fifth issue believing that his style wasn’t a good match for Gaiman’s storytelling. Dringenberg became the visual creator of the Endless characters, Death, Despair, Destruction, Delirium, and Desire. Death was inspired by a dancer Mike knew named Cinnamon, whom he met at a club in Salt Lake City. His work appears in the collections Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll’s House, and Season of Mists.

He also illustrated the DC series Doom Patrol written by Grant Morrison and co-created the character, Flex Mentallo. Additionally, his work has appeared and on the fantasy card games, Magic: The Gathering and Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. Currently, Dringenberg designs CD covers as well as book jackets, notably for Charles DeLint, Kij Johnson, and various Tolkien editions.