This has been a looooong time coming. In fairy tale jargon one could say, “Once upon a time…”

Since 2003, I have dipped my toes in comics by contributing to Slam Bang The Comic Anthology for my friend Allen Freeman. As I was just starting to illustrate children’s books, I became interested in illustrating a fairy tale story.

Allen suggested Chris and almost immediately he cracked out this comic script. Unfortunately, when I got this in 2005ish, I also got caught in a wave of book deadlines that lasted years. I was able to do 4 pages of the 10 page story and then it came to a halt. Occasionally, Chris would write a nice email asking if I was ever going to finish… In intervening years, Allen had themes for each issue that this story never seemed to fit into or I was completely slammed.

When I started Pop Smoothie, I decided to make this my own personal Mad Magazine. In recent issues of Slam Bang, I had done mashups and humorous comics I enjoyed so much, that it seemed like a perfect way to start my web comic.

The Fairy Godfather completely fit the creative brief so perfectly, it was as if Chris was psychic. The only snag was the art I did in 2006 did not seem to fit with how my comic work has developed.

Redrawing these pages really has made me appreciate how funny the writing is. I love this first installment.

(After this series is finished, I will show the original 4 pages, maybe…)