. .
Drew as Wolverine, Halloween 2005.

I met Drew when he was studying animation at The College for Creative Studies in Detroit, during my first few years of teaching. I was glad to have had the opportunity to work with Drew while he was in school, and equally glad to have had the chance to work with him on a number of projects for Thunderbean Animation when he was out of school .

Drew animated and helped produce 25 Ways to Die, and was the creator of the ever popular “Monkey Bars” scene. He also worked on Flames of Passion, a number of the More stuff we don’t know anything about commercial spots, and several other jobs. It was during these years that I realized what a great guy he was to work with.

In addition to regular projects, Drew would always be the man to call when we’d be in trouble. We’d catch him with an animation emergency just as he’d be leaving to play volleyball. He’d go finish his game, take care of the shot over night, and then usually keep practicing and studying drawing until the sun would come up. He would always be willing to take on a challenge with a smile and an “ok, what do we need to do?” kind of attitude.

My favorite story is when we had to drive to Chicago to shoot 25 Ways on film. We’d already been sleep deprived from trying to meet the animation deadlines, so we were fairly burned out by the time we had to drive to Chicago that winter. Steve Stanchfield, Ashley Long, Drew, and I head out in the morning and arrived there early afternoon. After fourteen hours or so of battling confusing x-sheets and technical difficulties, we had to head home in the middle of the night with only half of the film shot.

Because we were barely awake, it wasn’t until it was too late that we realized we were running out of gas. We were stranded under a bridge in the dead of night, in the middle of nowhere, in the freezing cold. Steve ran off into the darkness in search of a gas station, Ashley Long had to pee under the bridge in sub-zero temperatures, and we had to shoot the rest of the film the following week in a blizzard. Drew never lost his smile the whole time. If you need to pick a good person to have on your team, he’s your man.

In addition to drawing and animating, Drew’s an accomplished film maker. Along with his brother Brett, he's produced both short and feature length films through their company FroBro Films. Titles include Dead Undead, Secrets of Fenville, and Old Bones; and in development they have Dorks and Dice and Deadheads.

Drew is currently working as a character layout artist on Futurama for Rough Draft Studios. Please check out the rest of his samples below, and be sure to click to visit Drew’s portfolio and FroBro Films!

Pencils by Drew, color by his friend Steve.