Dave Coverly admits there is no overriding theme, no tidy little philosophy that precisely describes what "Speed Bump" is about. "Basically," he says, "if life were a movie, these would be the outtakes."

These "outtakes" now appear in over 200 newspapers internationally, including the Washington Post, Toronto Globe & Mail, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Indianapolis Star, Cleveland Plain Dealer, New Orleans Times-Picayune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Vancouver Sun, Baltimore Sun, and Arizona Republic. In May 2000, the first "Speed Bump" book was published, Speed Bump: A Collection of Cartoon Skidmarks (Andrews McMeel). More recent books include Speed Bump: Cartoons for Idea People (2004, ECW Press), which was named Humor Book of the Year by Foreword Magazine, and Just One %$#@ Speed Bump After Another… (2005, ECW Press). In addition, American Greetings has carried a best-selling line of "Speed Bump" calendars and greeting cards, which won a "Retail Excellence" award in 2000.

Coverly grew up in Plainwell, Michigan, and began taking cartooning seriously in 1986 as an undergraduate student at Eastern Michigan University, where he penned a comic panel called "Freen" for the school newspaper. He also studied in England during this time, and returned to EMU to receive his bachelor's degree in both philosophy and imaginative writing in 1987. He continued his cartooning in graduate school at Indiana University, where his panel won numerous national awards; he was graduated from IU with a master's in creative writing in 1992.

While taking some time off from graduate school, Coverly was an editorial cartoonist for the Battle Creek Enquirer. In 1990, he returned to Indiana and became the editorial cartoonist for The Herald-Times in Bloomington. His work became regularly reprinted in such publications as Esquire, Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times, and USA Today. In 1994, Creators Syndicate picked up his untitled cartoon panel, helped choose the name "Speed Bump," and a year later, it was running in nearly 100 papers. Coverly left The Herald-Times in 1995 to concentrate on his syndicated work.

In 1995 and in 2003, "Speed Bump" was given the Best in Newspaper Panels award by the National Cartoonists Society, an honor for which it was also nominated again in 1997, 2001, and 2002. In 1998, the same organization gave him another award for Best Greeting Cards, which were nominated again in 1999. In both 2004 and 2005, Coverly was nominated by the NCS for the prestigious Reuben Award, given to the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

In addition to his syndicated work, Coverly is also a regular contributing artist to both of PETA’s magazines, Animal Times and Grrr! for kids.

Coverly works out of an attic studio in Ann Arbor, Mich. He is married to Chris, and they have two daughters, Alayna and Simone.