Marv Pontiff, a self-taught artist, has been drawing and painting as long as he can remember. He retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in 1999 and from his second career as a maritime safety and training consultant in 2020. He has recently launched a new career as a cartoonist and illustrator. His first book SURVIVOR CADET: A Perspective on Attending the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in the 1970s, a biographic memoir, highlights his time as Art Editor for the monthly cadet magazine THE HOWLING GALE, and presents 100s of published and unpublished cartoons and drawings done during 1971-1975 when he attended the service academy. In 2022, he completed his first children's book, I THINK MY TEACHER MAY BE A DIMETRODON about dinosaurs in various occupations, and has just wrapped up work on a special edition softcover THE LITTLE TAN MAN & OTHER SILLY STORIES. The paperback version of his original hardcover, it is filled with silly stories, rhyming words, alliteration, and figures of speech. In 2019, he illustrated the book BENDING TWIGS for authoress Doshia Daniels Burton and published by Trilogy Christian Publishing.