The Chad Frye - Illustration GuyI sometimes wonder what it would be like if aliens invaded the old west of America. Yeah, yeah, I know there was a movie called Cowboys & Aliens which was a fascinating version of how things could have gone, but I require just a little bit more silly in something like that. Silly as in, “What would a gunfight look like where one is armed with four arms?”
Perhaps this is how it would have gone down, by way of ink and gouache on tan paper…
This little guy may seem like a Romeo at first glance, but he was actually created on a sympathy card for someone who lost a loved one that was very much into monsters. So while many of these creatures can be silly and intended for vapid entertainment, once in a while a monster can reach out to say, “I’m sorry.”
Here it is, the first post of 2017’s MONSTER MONTH!!! For the first monster of the month, I thought I’d post one that was actually published this past year!
I was asked by Frank Pauer, the editor of the University of Dayton Magazine, to reimagine the university’s mascot in a sci-fi way. Frank asked a number of artists to do their own versions based on different themes, but sci-fi was definitely up my alley. Any excuse to include a monster, right?!
So, created entirely in Photoshop utilizing my handy dandy Cintiq monitor, here is my Dayton Flyer attempting to deliver a basketball against an opponent who couldn’t care less about fouling.
Sometimes I really don’t know why certain ideas pop into my head. It can be completely empty one minute, then BAM! A completely random thought quickly inspires a completely silly drawing. Thus was the case this past weekend.
Without provocation, somehow my mind zeroed in on Charles Lindbergh’s historic first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, then in an instant, I wondered what an old man might feel about this event today had he been a child at the time. Then this drawing came to mind. Really, these thoughts all took place in a matter of seconds not having seen anything about Lindbergh. It was totally random.
Of course, if one were to do the math, this guy would be REALLY old. Lindbergh’s flight was in 1927, so if this guy was alive and remembered it – let’s say he was five years old back then. That would make this chair jumper 95 today. More power to him.
Anyway, I grabbed my trusty tan paper sketchbook, and this scene came forth.
I woke up this morning oblivious to the fact that today is a milestone in the life of cartoonist Sergio Aragonès. Today is his 80th birthday!!! I read about it online. The reason for not realizing that today Sergio is 80 is because he seems like a man twenty years younger creating wonderful whimsical drawings more common for a man fifty years younger!!!!
Sergio is a cartoonists cartoonist. He’s the guy we all would like to be professionally speaking – prolific and hilarious. I also like to think of him as the Hemingway of cartoonists. He is a man who has lived a life of adventure around the world. He has the BEST stories of where he has been, and what has happened in those locales. They are absolutely amazing (and have cropped up in his comics from time to time). “The world’s most interesting man” is an amateur compared to Sergio.
I first met Sergio at a National Cartoonists Society gathering in New York City in 1996. The next year I moved to California where seeing Sergio became a regular thing, and a friendship ensued. I became involved with a Los Angeles based professional cartoonist organization called the Comic Art Professional Society, otherwise known as CAPS. Sergio was one of its co-founders and biggest cheerleader.
Ten years ago, CAPS established The Sergio Award, unbeknownst to Sergio himself. The first recipient at a banquet was Sergio’s fellow MAD Magazine artist Jack Davis. After Jack was given an award, CAPS gave one to Sergio as well. All the artists in the room were aware there would be two awards that night except for Sergio. We all had drawn tribute art to Sergio that was published in a second secret program book that was handed out when the award was being presented. Below is the piece I did for Sergio featuring his popular comic book characters Groo the Wanderer and his dog Rufferto.
The very next year after that banquet, it was the 25th anniversary of the Groo the Wanderer comic book. While drawn by Sergio, it is written by one of CAPS’ other co-founders Mark Evanier. The gang at CAPS each drew their own version of Groo which was put together in a big jam drawing and was published in the pages of San Diego Comic Con’s program book that year. Some of the folks who contributed their own version of Groo included illustrator William Stout, Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker, Momma comic strip artist Mell Lazarus, current MAD Magazine editor Bill Morrison, Mulan director Tony Bancroft, children’s book illustrator Mark Fearing, Usagi Yojimbo comic book artist Stan Sakai, and comic book legend Dan Spiegle to name a few.
Of course, I contributed one to the above composition. Can you find it in the crowd?
About a week ago, I went to lunch with my pal and Disney animator Kevin MacLean over at the oldest Bob’s Big Boy in the country located in the Toluca Lake section of Burbank, CA. Now, there’s no real point to this tale in specifically mentioning Bob’s other than it is part of the drawing, because this could have happened anywhere.
Kevin and I were returning to his car in the parking lot, and sitting on a park bench in front of the car with his back to us was a man who was wearing a strange headband with a cloth draped down the back of his head, and he was reading a newspaper and talking to himself. Kevin said, “I think he’s wearing a dress.” So, we backed out, and drove around to the exit where we had a clear view of him. Sure enough, he was sitting there nonchalantly reading the paper wearing a low-cut dress in Bob’s parking lot.
Later, when I got home, that image was still mulling around in my mind, so I let it spill forth onto some paper, the results of which you now see before you. Sometimes real life is stranger than anything one could imagine.
You aren’t going to believe this, but Kevin and I were over in Hollywood this past weekend, and we saw the SAME GUY there again, passing us in a crosswalk. Kevin said, “Are you sure that’s the same guy?” I said, “I’d know that dress anywhere!”
The other day when wondering what I could sketch, it dawned on me that I hadn’t done a caricature in a while. Disney’s Moana was on my brain, and the voice of Maui, Dwayne Johnson, popped into my head as a possible subject. He’s got those great big muscles that most fellas don’t have, and such a gregarious personality. It was quickly decided that I should flex my own seldom-used caricature muscles to work out a drawing.
So, here is Dwayne Johnson with his own tribal tattoo converted to represent Maui and Moana. I noticed that Dwayne has a bull tattoo on his other arm, so I Disneyfied that one, too, by making it a tattoo of Ferdinand the bull from one of my favorite old Disney shorts.
If you would like to see the original rough sketch I did of Dwayne for this final drawing, come follow me on Facebook! It has been posted there as an exclusive. Just CLICK HERE to go to the page!
Each summer I spend some time in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. One of my favorite restaurants is Tale of the Whale in Nags Head where owners Dan, Kathy, & Carole Bibey always welcome us with open arms. Two weeks ago I dropped in and gave them this drawing that they are now using as a coloring sheet to occupy their youngest patrons.
I hadn’t inked something on paper in a while, so I had to brush off the dust from my – um – brush, and supplement it with some of my pens. Always nerve racking drawing traditionally with a medium so permanent as ink after getting used to an undo button on the computer. Thankfully, white gouache still works to cover the few mistakes made.
So, if you happen to find yourself in good ol’ Nags Head, NC, be sure to drop in Tale of the Whale for an exquisite seafood dinner on the waterfront. I’m partial to the shrimp & grits or Pasta Nova – grilled salmon served over pasta covered in a sun dried tomato & lump crab sauce.
And even if you think you are too big to use crayons, feel free to ask for a coloring sheet.