In August 2001, Danny Horn connected a few wires, turned the crank, and flipped the oversized lever to jumpstart ToughPigs.com, the Muppet fan site with an honest voice. Now, ten years (and over 1,300 articles) later, the website is still going strong, having gone through many changes, but still keeping with the same level of integrity, humor, and Muppetationalism. Or, depending on your point of view, the lack thereof.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be celebrating this momentous occasion with lots of fun articles, retrospectives, and quite possibly a few surprises.
The first of which is this article that you’re reading right now. (Yep, we can see you. Get over it.) Art has always been a strong point for ToughPigs, starting with the now-classic designs from Chris “Smig” Smigliano (who drew all of the illustrations on our header and sidebars), and continuing through both the fan art world as well as the professional comic book and Sesame Street storybook artists we’ve spotlighted on our site.
We reached out to all of the artists we’ve ever worked with, as well as some who haven’t yet received spotlights here, and they graciously offered to create original works of art to help us commemorate 10 years of ToughPigs.
So without further ado, enjoy this star-studded intro to ToughPigs’ big 10th anniversary bash! And as always, click on the images to see them larger than life!
Sesame Street illustrator Joe Mathieu (official site)
Noah Ginex (official site)
Mike Boon (official site)
(Note that all of the images used in the collage were found on ToughPigs.com. Nice touch, Mike!!)
Marianne Murphy (official site)
Jamie Carroll (official site)
(Note: This design is available for purchase on a t-shirt!)
Kenny Durkin (official website)
David Rosenberg (DeviantArt page)
Cameron Garrity and Matt Krygier
Julia Lepetit (official site)
Kim McFarland (DeviantArt page)
Peter Savieri (official site)
(Note: Full painting coming soon!)
Sesame Street illustrator Evan Cheng (official site)
(Note: This design is available for purchase on a t-shirt!)
Sesame Street illustrator Tom Leigh (Muppet Wiki article)
Muppet and Fraggle cover artist David Petersen (official site)
Fraggle Rock comic book illustrator Chandra Free (official site)
Andreas Qassim (official site)
Wilson Swain (official site)
Muppet comic book illustrator Amy Mebberson (official site)
Chris “Smig” Smigliano (official site)
Many thanks to all of the artists who participated in this article, as well as the ones who wanted to but didn’t have the time.
Click here to celebrate art history on the ToughPigs forum!
by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com
