Otaku No Gaijin: A Collaborative Comic Tribute to Anime

I recently had the pleasure of taking on a really fun commission for a member of the Utah Salt Flats Racing Assocation depicting a giant chicken holding a protesting Colonel Sanders in its beak chasing various Batmobile-esque Salt Flats racers. The client, who regularly attends these annual events was telling me how theres a statue erected of a chicken holding Colonel Sanders in its beak, and he needs that imagery with the words "World of Speed" in his commission. He showed me pictures of all these different types of drag racers he took out in the Salt Flats. So much retro-futurism sleekness and variation made me think how these were real life Batmobiles. I immediately knew what I wanted to do.

I proposed a composition reminiscent of two things: iconic imagery of Godzilla rampaging across the horizon line as is done in virtually every Godzilla movie, and the poster for the 2008 Death Race remake starring Jason Statham. It made sense to me. I got to work sketching a few ideas and working out what composition would be best. Then started the drawing process on the Bristol board: first laying down pencils then solidifying the "good" lines with the dip pen in Higgins Black Magic Ink (I'm trying to get a social media partnership--but for real I really do like their ink products. Their very reliable readily available at any craft or hobby store and have been around forever). Anyway, most of the drawing was done using watercolor brushes in ink--I used a liner brush and a smaller detail brush. The drawing was delivered yesterday and from what I've heard the buzz around it is very positive. I'll have prints available for preorder in the next few days! Special thanks to Brian for trusting me with his vision on this drawing. And follow the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association on Instagram and Facebook!