Hutch Owen was originally self-published by Hart (funded with money from a 1993 Xeric Foundation grant) through Canadian publisher Black Eye Productions. Later editions, as well as later books in the series, have been published by Top Shelf Productions. Time magazine has called Hutch Owen "A devastating satire [which] feels like a scalding hot poker cauterizing the open wound of American corporate and consumer culture."

Hutch Owen has also been distributed as daily webcomic strips, and Hart is also the former editor of and a current contributor to serializer.com. One of the original comics on serializer was Trunktown, a Hutch Owen spin-off drawn by Hart and written by Shaenon Garrity. His current serializer comic is the strip version of Hutch Owen, which also runs in newspapers in New York and Boston.

Tom Hart is also an experienced teacher, having taught for more than six years at New York's School of Visual Arts, Parsons, the Education Alliance, Young Audiences, numerous places across the country and all over New York City.

Hart is married to fellow cartoonist Leela Corman.