Influenced by early eighties post punk music, Michael D'Orazio emerged from the late eighties, jumping from one scene to the next trying to get an idea about how he wanted to express
himself. He attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia to learn how to hone is ability to illustrate. His direction took a turn after he graduated, and he began deviating from children's book illustrations to comic styles. He wanted his work to be crazy, and dark unlike most local artists surrounding him in his community.He was alternative, as he put it,
always trying to make excuses why he illustrates the way he does, and especially to people not accepting of his point of view. "I wanted to do something different, rather than coddle the imagination of my audience". Life is too short he thinks to bend over to the people who criticize, cause they probably wouldn't have supported him anyway.