How far back did you come up with your favorite idea for a piece of art, and how long has that germ of an idea remained with you?
For me, I originally came up with Super Guy back in seventh grade. I remember it vividly. I was the child who begged for a new drawing book probably every week. My mother was no doubt sick of buying paper. But, she did give in and usually got me a portable sketch book whenever she took me to the grocery store.
I still have all of those drawing books, and in them I created my own world. It wasn’t a secret that I was bullied a lot as a child. I was scrawny, incredibly short compared to my classmates, and I was always absorbed in a book.
Originally the villain came to me first. Bill Flagrant – or the drawing that would become him, was drawn on the back side of a page in my latest drawing book. He was called “Dr. F” back then, which thankfully I abandoned later on.
If you have a villain, you need a hero to fight him. So, I came up with Super Guy.
This picture isn’t the very first one I did of Super Guy, and his muscles are a bit DBZ, but it is one of my favorites from back then. As you can see, I kept his visor for Super Charged and Super Vision. There was also always his pulse blasts and of course the flying. I always thought that flying would be the most fun superpower to have.
I hope you get a kick out of that old drawing. Super Guy hasn’t let go of me since I drew him back in middle school, and I never would have predicted that he would be fighting the villains even today in my imagination.
Franklin Kendrick 