Someone in Toronto made an Archie-style comic book cover of the Raptors
Chris O'Keefe is a freelance artist and designer based in Toronto, and his latest creation is an Archie-style comic book cover featuring Kyle Lowry and some of his fellow Raptors.
O'Keefe has been a huge Toronto Raptors fan for as long as he can remember, and he also loved Archie comics as a kid — so he said combining the two was an obvious choice.
"I just love making art and am a huge Raptors fan, so I thought it would be fun to make up a comic book-style illustration that featured this unprecedented summer play we're seeing right now, and this was the result," O'Keefe told blogTO.
"I grew up in the 1980s and my house was basically littered with Archie comics, so when I decided to do a cover, I went with nostalgia for my inspiration."
This isn't the first time O'Keefe has created Raptors-related art, but it is his first time doing so in this style.
A couple of years ago, he created sketches of the Raps starting five, and he just recently did a digital painting of Lowry wearing the towel wrap.
"I still have my ticket stub from their second-ever home game at the SkyDome back in '95, and was lucky enough to be able to go to Game 5 of the finals last year," O'Keefe said when talking about his love for the team.
And while the Raptors/Archie project consists of just this single cover so far, O'Keefe says he's hoping to do a series of seven or eight total in order to include the starting five, Nick Nurse and Masai Ujiri, as well as an Ibaka scarf special.
He says he's aiming to get one done roughly every week of the Disney World finals run.
Throughout the span of his career thus far, O'Keefe has done 2D work for video games and animation background art, and he's now starting up in the film and TV industry in art department roles.
But while art has become his job, he says he grew up drawing and writing graffiti, and it will always be his passion first and profession second.
This, along with his love for Toronto's basketball team, is what motivated him to begin this project, and he said the response so far has been more than he could've ever imagined.
"I was actually a little blown away by the positive feedback. It started as a funny idea I had and, you know, I definitely smiled to myself when I finished it last night, pleased with my latest creation," he said.
"But I had no idea how many people would enjoy it on Reddit and Instagram, commenting and saying how they would totally read this if it were an actual comic, or asking if I'm going to make prints available or do more covers," he continued.
"So it's been fun to see how many people I reached with this piece, and it really makes me happy when I can brighten someone's day with my art in some way."
Chris O’Keefe
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