How a Marvel Comics artist from Houston sketched out his destiny

HOUSTON – Anyone who ever doodled in class or could write poetry in class certainly entertained the thought of making a career out of it, but not too many could say they actually made it happen. How many of them are also our neighbors?

Introducing Chris Foreman, a sketch artist for Marvel Comics and a Channelview native showed us a giant frame full of different drawings in 20 individual squares he called “trading cards.” These are sketches he makes for fans when he attends conventions. One frame had “Sonic the Hedgehog,” another had Link from “Legend of Zelda,” and my personal favorite was Homer Simpson as “Mr. Sparkle.”

Me and my producer friends Sabiha Mahmood, and photojournalist Roger Franco stared in awe at each of these photos because each one was more detailed and intriguing than the other. Then, their jaws dropped from the floor when Chris revealed these trading cards were actually “warm-up sketches.”

“How long does it take you to just draw one?” Roger asked.

“This will be the part that will piss you off the most,” Chris said. “About an hour.”

I always knew I wanted to be a writer, but never knew how it would actually pan out. In other words, I wasn’t sure what kind of writer I wanted to be or what that would look like. Growing up, there weren’t a lot of writers I knew– or journalists – so it was hard to see how that was possible.

I met Chris Foreman at Nostalgia Con in Houston back in December. I was shocked in two ways because, on the one hand, I was speaking with someone who could literally say they were an artist for one of the most legendary comic publishers in the world. And on the other, someone like me, who made his dream come true that many others might not have thought was possible.

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How did it happen? The writer in me could say “a drawing” but the truth of the matter was more complicated. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and overcoming self-doubt. The latter is something I was shocked to find out Chris still struggles with, despite drawing professionally for Marvel Comics since 2009.

But in true comic book fashion, I needed to find out Chris’ origin story and it started the way you might think: with a drawing

“Oddly enough, the first thing I drew, and my parents still have it in a box somewhere, I drew a picture of Aquaman,” he told me. “Can you believe that?”

As we walked past an array of comic books at Space Cadet Collection Collection [sic] in Shenandoah, Chris grabbed a copy of “X-Men: Age of Apocalypse,” noting how it was one of the most influential comics he read as a kid.

“Just the combination of, like, coming of age and you’re a young teenager, and a lot of the stories from the X-Men revolve around people who are different and coming into their own in society, not accepting them, and of course, as a teenager, we all go through that where we’re changing and we feel like we’re just different and we’re not understood,” Chris explained.

It was around his teenage years in high school, that Chris believed maybe there might be a future in doing what he loved.

“In high school when I started to take my art a little more seriously, there was another kid there – I can’t remember his name, but we were kind of like the kids who could draw,” he said. “There was almost like this unspoken competition where we were like, trying to be the one that everybody went through to get their artwork… that was when I realized I wanted to make it what I was going to do.”

And of course, there would be people who doubted him, but Chris always maintained a level of optimism. One might even call that his superpower because of how much he believed in himself.

“I think society tells a lot of people that they can’t because there’s a defeatist – in my opinion — there’s a defeatist attitude that is ingrained in us by what we see online, we see on TV, we hear from people who are close to us that they want to succeed, but just society says it’s too hard, it’s too much,” he admitted. “But it’s like if you feel like ‘I have a calling man,’ Go for it. I mean, like, in my opinion, we only get one turn around the planet, you know what I mean?”

The more work Chris put into his art, the more he was able to feel secure in his work, and his parents certainly noticed his ambition matched his energy output.

“I think any parent worth their salt is going to worry about you, and there were definitely concerns about my financial question about what this means for my future and stuff like that,” he said. “And I’m glad they felt that way, but it was like, okay, I appreciate that, but like, ‘I’m going to try…’ I’d rather try this and fail and know that I tried.”

Chris is proud to say he’s been a professional sketch artist for Marvel Comics since 2009, but still makes an appearance at different conventions where he makes sketches based on “trading cards” on the side, and does commission artwork upon request.

There was another moment of surprise when my producer Sabiha asked Chris another question about where he learned to draw.

“Where’d you go to school to do this, or is this self-taught?”

“You’ll be even more upset,” Chris replied. “It’s mostly self-taught.”

We jokingly decided to end the interview right there, but that’s when he was quick to remind us how there were certain things he needed to learn that not only come from experience but from perspective. In other words, not just anyone can do this if they don’t understand the gravity that comes with how a sketch can become art.

“Granted, I was always top tier in school and class…to where I would be learning perspective— the boring ****— if you will,” he reassured. “Like you can’t draw Spider-Man up above the buildings if you don’t know the perspective, right? My buildings won’t be convincing if the lines don’t converge… that’s the kind of stuff I learned and still learning; honestly, just you have to, all that stuff is harmonious to create an image.”

In other words, there’s more to what Chris does than simply drawing superheroes or cartoon characters. And these are skills he’s acquired and continues to do so, which is why it couldn’t be reduced to something like a “hobby.” But even in his years of dedication, Chris admits how “imposter syndrome” – that feeling of whether or not you deserve or earned what you’ve worked so hard to achieve.

“I do have imposter syndrome all the time,” he said. “I feel like if I ever stop having that, it would feel like I was forgetting what brought me to the dance. You know what I mean? I would feel like I know it all, or I feel like I’ve accomplished everything I can accomplish. And as an artist, there’s no such thing.”

Even now, as a father of a 2-year-old, Chris is fortunate that he gets to spend as much time with his daughter because he works from home. Still, the negative thoughts can make their unwanted way into his mind and he does his best to push them out.

“Those people don’t realize the sacrifices you have to make to get to that point,” he said. “They don’t realize that you’re a stay-at-home dad, but it feels like you’re again— this is the worst way for me to explain it, I feel like I’m 2000 miles away, and she’s right there.”

“I work from home, so I care for her during the day, and top of doing this, she’s in her bedroom, we got the camera monitor on her, she’s got her needs met and that bedroom is like 30ft away from my office, but it might as well be 2000 miles away,” Chris continued. “It feels like I’m not as present as I need to be, but I am. I know I am, but maybe that’s the imposter syndrome I deal with.”

But it’s the love Chris has for his craft and his family; namely his wife and daughter, which one could even argue are his muse. Either way, there comes a time in everyone’s life when we want to figure out what “legacy” we leave behind in this world, and for Chris, it’s spreading positivity: one drawing at a time.