 Shortly after moving to Cleveland, he began illustrating for "American Splendor" in 1985, usually inked by Gary Dumm, and was a regular contributor to Pekar's comics until 1997, illustrating many covers along the way.Zabel also had his work published in anthologies like "Duplex Planet Illustrated", "Negative Burn", and "Real Stuff".Beginning in the 2000s, Zabel turned away from printed comics and begun making online digital comic strips.