Dustin Parker's Monster Mania

Over a decade ago, I was a freelance illustrator for Grantland, a now-defunct sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. Working for Grantland was fun because I got paid to draw Kenny Powers, Walter White and Johnny Utah. The downside to working for Grantland was the extremely tight deadlines. It was common to receive an assignment on a Thursday afternoon that was due Friday morning.     When you are working under a super tight deadline, you don’t have time to brainstorm or incubate ideas. You don’t have time to explore or experiment. You don’t have time to make refinements or fix mistakes. You do the best you can with the time you are given.  When It comes to the Monster Mania series, I serve no master, and I have no deadlines. I’m not in a rush to finish a drawing. I’m allowed to enjoy the process. I’m allowed to play and experiment. I’m allowed to explore multiple paths. I’m allowed to have a deeper conversation with the drawing. I can redraw somethin...

The majority of the creatures showcased in the Monster Mania series are creepy crawlies covered with slime and snot and warts. It is super fun to draw gross and disgusting things, but sometimes I like to draw something pretty. Monsters can be pretty too. 

My mother never heard a diarrhea joke she didn’t love. I not only inherited my mother’s love of toilet humor, but I also inherited her gastrointestinal issues. My mother suffered from Crohn's disease for most of her adult life, and I battled Ulcerative Colitis during my teens and early twenties. When you live with the constant threat of explosive diarrhea, you can’t help but develop a dark sense of humor. You can’t take yourself too seriously when you are constantly pooping your pants.   One day this image of a pooping worm popped into my head, and it gave me a chuckle. It’s a ridiculous thing to imagine and a ridiculous thing to draw. Ridiculous things amuse me.  I think my mother would like this drawing. 

This Monster Mania drawing is part of a series within the series that I call “Monster Buddies.” Several Monster Mania drawings feature two monsters. Sometimes a monster needs a buddy.

This Monster Mania drawing is my version of a human fly creature. The drawing is heavily inspired by the Brundlefly from David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” and Baxter Stockman from the original “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” animated series.  Drawing human-animal hybrids is really fun because you can experiment with the human to animal ratio, and get a wide range of results. Do you go heavy on the housefly like Sh*teater from “Minor Threats” or do you go heavy on the human like the Human Fly (Richard Deacon) from Marvel Comics. In this case, I wanted to land somewhere in the middle.  Big googly eyes are a trademark of the Monster Mania series, and I wanted my human fly creature to have compound eyes made up of multiple human eyeballs. I think a big ball of human eyeballs is a cool visual and a fun way to add a human element to the creature design. 

I live in Wichita, Kansas, and this Monster Mania drawing is my attempt at showing my Wichita pride. The Monster’s head is shaped like Kansas and its t-shirt proudly displays the Wichita Flag.  Around 2015, Wichita developed a cult-like obsession with the Wichita flag. This sudden burst of Wichita pride compelled Wichitans to put the flag on everything everywhere all at once. They painted dozens of murals. They got tattoos. They printed the Wichita flag on every coffee mug, t-shirt and tote bag they could find. They put the flag on bumper stickers and license plates and keychains. The Wichita flag became omnipresent.  The Wichita flag is watching me type this right now.   The Wichita flag was officially adopted on Flag Day, June 14, 1937, by Mayor T. Walker Weaver. The flag was designed by Wichita artist Cecil McAlister. ​According to McAlister, he drew inspiration from several sources including traditional symbols from Plains Tribes. McAlister’s design was selected ...

My Bride of Frankenstein is a mix of Cyndi Lauper, Pizzazz from “Jem,” Storm from the X-Men, and Trash from "The Return of the Living Dead.” I wanted her to be a plasma ball of ‘80s glam and attitude. She is super cool and extremely formidable. She could be a singer in a punk band, a professional wrestler or an intergalactic bounty hunter. 

In October 2016, Brad Ruder invited me to be the guest artist for a Print Session at Tilt Union. The Print Sessions were a series of screen printing classes where the students hand-screen-printed artwork created by the guest artist. For my print session, I created illustrations of the Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Monster.  My version of the Bride was heavily influenced by Tim Burton. My Bride is a mix of the Martian Girl, Sally Shock and Emily the Corpse Bride. The colors were inspired by Beetlejuice. I gave my Bride the traditional beehive hairstyle with the white lightning bolt streaks, but I also added a Tim Burton spiral to break up the black space. The hair takes up a third of the image, and I wanted to make that space a little more fun and interesting. I ended up repeating the spiral shapes throughout the drawing. I also made the hair really frazzled like an electrocuted cartoon character. I also added some lightning in the background. The treatment is similar to ...

Between June 2017 and September 2018, I created a series of 12 paintings called the “Crazy Face” series. I would draw or paint mouths, eyes, noses and ears on random scraps of paper and use those images to create mixed media collages of silly faces. The “Crazy Face” paintings were really fun to create.  This Monster Mania drawing is loosely inspired by the “Crazy Face” series.  In September 2018, I hosted my final solo exhibition at CityArts, titled “Mishmash,” which showcased a mix of abstract collage paintings, “Crazy Face” paintings and drawings from the Monster Mania series. I felt “Mishmash” was the perfect way to transition into the next phase of my creative journey.  In October 2018, I “retired” from painting and exhibiting to focus on the Monster Mania series. I had to quit painting cold turkey. I didn’t want to get distracted with side quests that would shift focus away from Monster Mania.  Dustin Parker | Mixed Media On Wood | Crazy Face #1 Dustin Parker | ...