The Later Years

I know, the characters I am painting are gross, scary and dark. But I am not a crazy person. I have two lovely cats (okay, may be semi-crazy), and I like to think I’m an okay guy.

But the reason I am drawing these are for an upcoming book of mine and my friend Alex Konstad, called Popped Culture. It will be childhood characters, re-imagined through the twisted culture of Hollywood and its corruptive ways.

Kermit sat at a diner alone, poking a floating fly in his stale coffee. He looked around, the diner absent aside from the hostess. She knew him, but wasn’t fond, often annoyed by his insecure-comments and strange behavior. See, Kermit wasn’t the amphibian he once was, as times had changed, and some stars faded away.

Having lost his job once years ago, Kermit pined for another big-break.

Pine smiles, spinning the briefcase to Kermit. “Well, we want to try and take the Muppets down a more adult road…we’re thinking darker films. More Rated R stuff. Ya’ know? This is big money, Kermit. Larger audience.”

Kermit looks into the briefcase. There’s a contract, with a pen awaiting Kermit’s penmanship. Kermit looks up, his hand hovering over the pen. He hesitates, thinking back to the darker days. The days of no food. The days of begging for money. The things he had to do.