Frog Wife is a three color risograph 16-page comic, signed/numbered edition of 375 (for the first printing), printed by Colour Code Printing, and self-published. Similar to his graphic novel series, the cult hits Mean Girls Club and Mean Girls Club: Pink Dawn, Frog Wife is another branch into visual narrative storytelling that grew from Heshka’s painting background.
Frog Wife was originally a small painting which he then turned into a hand-painted comic one-pager, which was never intended for print, but rather designed as an art piece. Heshka ended up liking the concept so much that he turned it into soon-to-be-released comic book which is now coming to fruition.
Heshka shares: “I describe Frog Wife as ‘an eco-romance of the apocalypse.’ Like Mean Girls Club, it focuses on stereotype bending characters, but has an element of ‘end of the world’ layered into it, wrapped in a vintage style of art and writing. But within the story line there is duality of life BEFORE and AFTER a global calamity, and what that looks like (treated somewhat lightly in this comic book).”
Heshka’s artistic production is undeniably influenced by the stylistic expression of the pulp magazines and B movies that have always fascinated him. He shares, “I have been drawing since I was a kid, and many of the themes have remained constant – giant animals and insects, superheroes, epic battles, monsters. I also watch loads of movies, so I subconsciously think cinematically sometimes while painting and creating. I sort of drift off and begin to imagine images as scenes in a lost film.”
This Saturday (8/10) marks the opening of Heshka‘s biggest art exhibition to date, entitled FREEKS, being hosted at Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery through September 14th.Celebrating weirdos, misfits, oddballs, and nonconformists everywhere, of every size and category, inside and out, the opening of FREEKS will feature a wide range of work from Heshka’s unexpected alternate universe. At the opening, fans will be able to purchase a new Frog Wife silkscreen print (by Pressure Printing) and Frog Wife oil portrait, plus the complete comic book art from his Mean Girls Club: Pink Dawn graphic novel, marking the first time the artist has made his original comic book artwork available for purchase. Click here for more info FREEKS.
About Ryan Heshka:
Ryan Heshka was born in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, and grew up in Winnipeg. To pass the long prairie winters, much of his childhood was spent drawing, building cardboard cities, making super 8mm films, and daydreaming. Very early on, he developed an affinity for old, outdated imagery and media, such as golden age comics, pulp magazines, package design, music, movies, and animation. This affection for the old, while simultaneously exploring contemporary tone and spirit, gives Heshka’s work its distant yet familiar ambience.
Formally trained in interior design, he is self-taught as an artist and illustrator. Heshka’s personal artwork has been featured on the cover and interiors of BLAB! magazine and numerous art publications around the globe, and has been exhibited in galleries across North America and Europe. His illustration work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Playboy, Esquire, the New York Times, and the New Yorker; plus he’s had two children’s books published by Henry Holt and Company (New York). More recently, the cult hits Mean Girls Club and Mean Girls Club: Pink Dawn(published by Nobrow; UK) have marked his entry into comics. A “Mean Girls Club” clothing line by VIXEN (by Micheline Pitt; Los Angeles, CA) was launched in early 2019, as well as a clothing line collaboration between Heshka and Son of the Cheese (Japan). Fatales: The Art of Ryan Heshka (published by Cernunnos) was released in 2017 and marks the artist’s first monograph.
Heshka lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada with his wife Marinda and daughter Roxy.