About Chad
In childhood, Chad would often incorporate himself into his drawings – an astronaut, a castaway or a (12 year old) Ferrari driving, special agent. Fast forward decades later, he started a comic strip, again with himself as the central character.
“A very long time ago, freelancing and working fulltime, I figured a good way to get more exposure was to submit a comic strip to U of C’s newspaper. The Gauntlet, which had a comics section at the time, was distributed just about everywhere.”
The Thinking Man’s Idiocies would become a regular installment in the University of Calgary’s, The Gauntlet for 5 years.
“I wasn’t a student, but sometimes it felt like I was – I was on campus every week. The staff there at the time was really great, even letting me help out from time to time. Which eventually lead to doing drawings for the Frosh Week supplement and the accompanying Frosh Week t-shirt.”
Previously, there had only been two other Thinking Man’s Idiocies t-shirt designs.
Chad’s Universe
Shortly after the brief stint at the U of C, artwork traded for a domain name as well as website hosting, led to the creation of chadsuniverse.com.
“I did artwork for a print shop and was paid in business cards, with ‘Chad’s Universe’ on them, so I applied the name to the website. I actually didn’t even have a computer of my own at the time. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a potential global audience.”
2 years later and with a computer of his own, chadsuniverse.com was up and running. The website becoming the permanent home of The Thinking Man’s Idiocies comic strip …as well as various samples of art projects, illustrations and The Red Binder Collection.
Red Binder Collection
“In 1988 I purchased a regular, red, soft binder to draw and journal in.”
Many pages have circulated through that red binder. Everything from silly doodles to finished illustrations began to accumulate into an immense collection of work.
“I’ve managed to keep drawings from when I was a toddler. With The Red Binder Collection, its’s a great example of a growing skill… or maybe not, maybe it’s just silly – keeping every little single doodle and rough sketch. But without meaning to, it became a thing, a huge thing, a body of work that I think, may be interesting to some.
Drawing Table
The drawing table that appears in The Thinking Man’s Idiocies comic strip, is the same in real life Chad still uses today.
“I’ve had that table for so long! It was gifted to me by an art mentor when I was in my early teens. It’s still in good shape and I’ve managed to keep it with me move after move, after move.”
Over decades, many companions have used the drawing table to ‘supervise’, while Chad worked on various projects.
