If you’ve lived in Northwest Arkansas in the last decade, you’ve probably seen the artwork of Chad Maupin.
From his series of illustrated maps in the Fayetteville Visitor Center to the sci-fi inspired cans of Fossil Cove beer, Maupin’s style is instantly recognizable. His website, Big Bot Design, is full of client reviews praising his ability to boldly combine graphic design and pop culture to create unique and entertaining stories about the diverse brands he creates artwork for. His clients praise his dedication to doing his job well and his unwavering work ethic.
A committed artist to many, Maupin has drawn inspiration from loss, trauma and healing and uses what he calls his “third act” to create art that is personal and sparks conversation.
CALIFORNIA CHILD
Art has always been Maupin’s passion.
“I’ve been really focused on art my whole life, even as a toddler,” he said. “Even as a young child, I had a keen eye for which artists I thought were good and which I didn’t, and I had certain opinions about them.”
Science fiction only fueled his artistic drive. He remembers when Star Wars came out and he told his father he had to see the movie while they were in Citrus Heights, California – a suburb of Sacramento not far from Lucasfilms. There he would ride his bike until the street lights came on and read Mad magazine and comics until the wee hours of the morning. On weekends he would visit the redwoods or the beach or hang out by the family pool.
From the outside, his life at home seemed idyllic, but his family’s life was anything but.
His father and mother did not get along, and Maupin remembers internalizing many of their problems.
“I don’t think my parents would have stayed together long if I hadn’t shown up,” he said. “As you get older and realize the dysfunction of the household, you’re more aware of it and react to it. I was a very nervous, very sensitive child. I was very aware of my parents’ feelings and felt very responsible for their feelings.”
When he was 12 years old, his father told him that they were going on vacation to Arkansas to visit family without his mother. But the move to the small community of Cleveland, Arkansas was permanent.
Later, his father moved his mother to Arkansas, but after six bad months, it was Chad who drove his mother back to California. He said he was only 13 at the time.
“It was just a really wild, abusive environment,” Maupin said.
He felt that his mother did not want him and that he was a confidant and not a son to his father.
“He had no friends. He lived in isolation. He had a lot of serious problems that were piling up, and so it created this really weird dynamic where I was kind of raising myself,” Maupin said. “Life got really scary and weird overnight, and I had to grow up fast, and I don’t know why, but I’m grateful that I didn’t give up as a kid because I kept working on art.”
Maupin continued to focus on art and began helping pay the bills as soon as he was old enough to drive.
LIVING IN ARKANSAS
“I grew up very strangely and I didn’t realize how strange it was until I grew up, like most people, and started dealing with my own issues, going to therapy and really trying to be more objective,” he said.
As an adult, he tried to return to California, but eventually moved back to Arkansas to save money and escape the broken family situation on the West Coast. He met his wife, Rhonda, in Arkansas, and by the age of 21 he was married and a stepfather. He signed a lease on a house in Morrilton and worked steadily as a graphic designer until he landed at B Unlimited, which brought him to Fayetteville in 2007.
After a chance encounter with the late artist Linda Sheets at an art gallery, he knew he wanted to move to Fayetteville.
“I met her and thought she was cool. So I got in the car with my wife and said, ‘Maybe I could have a friend like that when we move here.'”
Now he says he is fortunate to be part of a large community of creative people who have supported him throughout his career.
Loss, illness
Just a few days after Father’s Day 2018, Maupin’s father died. His mother followed him on Father’s Day 2019. Then, shortly after, he lost two close friends – including Sheets, with whom he had a close friendship.
The losses changed his view of art and life in general.
“When you’re with someone who’s getting older and dying, all the superficial thoughts and the facade that society puts over us are stripped away and you’re just a human being who has to come to terms with the truth about yourself.”
Of all the people who died in that short period of time, only Sheets felt a sense of peace at the end because she did not subvert herself, pursue her own truths and spend her life feeling constricted, he said.
“It’s become a really important focus of my life and it’s an important thing from a purely creative perspective,” Maupin said.
As Maupin prepared to work on his own zine and other personal projects, his health began to deteriorate, causing him to lose concentration and become unable to breathe.
“By the end of 2022, I was really in trouble,” he said. “I got to the point where I could barely walk down the street without feeling like I was going to pass out.”
His doctors were confused; his blood tests gave no clues as to what was going on.
“In early 2023, I felt like I was really getting worse,” he said. “I was losing weight rapidly. I was having very strange symptoms in my body. And at the end of January last year, I felt like I was dying. And it’s really hard to explain it to anyone, but I could just feel it. Like I was just getting weaker.”
The doctors discovered nonspecific interstitial pneumonia – a chronic lung disease in which inflammation and/or scar tissue forms in the walls of the alveoli.
Through treatment and the administration of oxygen, Maupin has recovered sufficiently to be able to be creative in short bursts.
“I can’t do really professional work all the time because my energy and mental focus fluctuate so much,” he said. “But I realized I had windows of time every day where I could work on something at my own pace.”
He just released the first issue of his fanzine “Rant,” a “Fayetteville Folklore” issue dedicated to quirky and popular resident Chris Selby, aka Chris Clunk, whom Maupin met through mutual friends.
“He was a food delivery guy and kind of an online personality, he was like someone you followed on Facebook and he was funny,” Maupin said. “Then I stopped learning about him and how he was creating unique spaces for people with music and introducing small-town kids to cool, new things they couldn’t otherwise see.”
The two have collaborated extensively over the years — Maupin designed T-shirts based on Selby’s fake campaign for mayor of Fayetteville, for example. Maupin admires Selby’s do-it-yourself spirit, especially as fellow artists complain about being denied grants or competing for social media advertising.
“I think scholarships and stuff like that are wonderful, but I guess maybe that’s because I’m Gen X and grew up with punk and DIY stuff. There’s an element to it that feels like asking for permission,” he said. “If it’s important to you, just do it.”
With that in mind, the first issue of Rant is now available – all about Selby and illustrated by Maupin.
“It’s a tribute to Chris, but also a role model for the way you can impact your community without needing anyone’s permission. You don’t need a lot of money. You just need to get involved and be involved in it and how that builds, how it inspires other people and how it feeds itself.”
The fanzine has also given Maupin purpose as he navigates a frightening part of his own life.
“It made me feel like I was still dealing with the future, that I wasn’t finished yet,” he said. “When my illness was at its worst, I just wanted to be myself again for a while.”
The next issue of Rant will focus on a topic that has captured Maupin’s imagination in the context of American politics over the past decade: cults. It will include comics, illustrations, essays and even interviews.
“I’m really excited to take these things further and take this third act, what I’ve called it, and make the most of it.”
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At a glance
Rant is a fanzine by Fayetteville artist Chad Maupin. The first issue, “Fayetteville Folklore: Chris Clunk,” was available for pre-sale and limited copies are available at Pearl’s Books and Block Street Records. For more information, visit https://www.big-bot.com/
This self-portrait comes from an idea for a comic about Maupin’s lung disease. Since his illness in 2022, Maupin’s work has slowed down, but he still strives to use his time and energy carefully and authentically. (Image courtesy)
Chad Maupin’s self-portrait for his zine series “Rant” shows him in his natural state, focused on drawing. (Image courtesy)
Chris Selby, also known as Chris Clunk, is a local Fayetteville personality who has been active in the Northwest Arkansas arts and music scene for decades. He is the first subject of Chad Maupin’s zine series Rant. The first issue can be ordered from Maupin’s website, big-bot.com. Copies are also available at Pearl’s Books and Block Street Records in Fayetteville. (Image courtesy)
Chris Selby, also known as Chris Clunk, is a local Fayetteville personality who has been active in the Northwest Arkansas arts and music scene for decades. He is the first subject of Chad Maupin’s zine series Rant. The first issue can be ordered on Maupin’s website big-bot.com. (Image courtesy)
Maupin has designed a mascot for his zine series Rant. The first issue was dedicated to Fayetteville personality Chris Selby. The next issue of the zine, Maupin said, will focus on cults, a subject that has always interested him. (Image courtesy)
