From idea to reality

One of the greatest things that can happen to an artist, is seeing your work brought to life. It happened to me a couple of times, mostly by the hands of the brilliant Jeff Gord.

I had invented the contraption above, in the Brick cover, some thirty years ago, and I had used it several times, in comics and in single pics. I call it the Frog bench, for obvious reasons. 

Now I had met Jeff once, as he and his wife came to visit me, some twenty years ago. He had seen a bit of my work and liked it, and I was of course familiar with his work, which is awesome. (Go check it out on House of Gord) It was a nice afternoon, we chatted a bit, and in the end, nothing really came of it.

Years passed by, and there was no more contact. Until a couple of years ago, when he suddenly mailed, to ask if he could make the frog bench for real. Needless to say I was over the moon! Apart from that I also was curious if it even could be done. Every time I drew the thing, I had a nagging feeling that it was just my artistic license that made it work, and that a real woman could not be contorted in that way.

And sure enough (Jeff kept me up to date about the developments with mails and pics), early on he hit a snag. I had already given up on the process, but as I told him so, he mailed back: "Ah, yea of little faith|"

He was not to be denied. After a few weeks, new pictures started to come in, and he actually had done it! It was incredible, and at first I couldn't even figure out how he had managed it. But then I saw the clever cut away piece which allowed for her bottom to sink a few inches, solving the problem. Since then, he has used the thing in a couple of video's, and I think it looks great!

Sadly, Jeff passed away a couple of years ago, a great, great loss. But his site is still up, so we can still enjoy his magnificent work today!

Coco