When We Were Young
Don’t you love looking back at your past work and realizing how crappy you were? It reminds you of how much you’ve grown. Its also a reminder of how much more growth you have ahead of yourself. That’s because back then, we thought we were actually good. I even remember in high school thinking that I could become a professional designer right away and skip college. Looking back now, oh my goodness! I am so thankful I went to college because it taught me if nothing else to not stretch type. Holy bastardization Batman!
I have this display that my mom gave me one Christmas full of some drawings I did when I was like in the 5th grade. The drawings contain super hero versions of myself and friends. We literally had hexagon ankles, waists the smaller than our heads, and knees that bent in a way not physically possible. Our eyes came straight out of an Egyptian hieroglyphic and our necks were like those of a gazelle. Every day I see those drawings and laugh at how bad I was. Yes, I understand that I was 10 when I drew them but still—they were really bad.
As for super hero concepts, as a kid I would usually take a cartoon like Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Night Rider, Voltron, Beetler Borgs, and many more and than convert them a bit to be my own. At one time, humanoid animals were really big with TV shows like Street Sharks and Extreme Dinosaurs coming out. So of course, I came up with a super hero that was half animal—a lizard. I picked a lizard because living in Nevada, there were lizards everywhere and I of course fell in love with them.
That’s how Mondo Gecko was born. To rhyme with “Mondo” (a word I really liked for some reason) I made the lizard a gecko (also not having a clue what the difference was). Of course with a name like “Mondo,” he also had to be a chill dude who wore Hawaiian board shorts. Then I gave him super speed because
- lizards were fast little buggers when you tried to catch them and
- I was really into Sonic the Hedgehog and the Flash at the time
(I had a lot of phases)
I finally made him go up against a mad scientist that was half fly and created my story. Its wasn’t any good but it might have been better than Goldenrod, Shadow Skull, the Bananist, Bug Patrol, Rocky the earthbender, and Hydro Wing.
Perhaps your 10-year-old drawings were not incorrect, but more abstract and expressionist. Picasso’s people are not very anatomically correct. Besides, I love your drawings and your imagination skills. Maybe in 30 years, when you become a famous graphic designer you will have a museum of your work. In the history and evolution section, the Bananist and Hydro Wing will be up on the wall for all to see!