Alrighty, it's been two weeks on this one, and still no answer to my quandry.
/usr/bin/ld: /usr/local/lib/libpng.a(png.o) illegal reference to symbol: _crc32 defined in indirectly referenced dynamic library /usr/lib/libz.1.1.3.dylib
I'm thinking that maybe I don't have zlib installed correctly, however both libpng and libjpeg installed fine.
If someone can help me out, much appreciation.