Nobody can say it needs to see detailed line drawings Monster Inc.He’s Mike Wazowski with the muscles of a world-class powerlifter and a chin so chiseled it could cut a diamond, but that hasn’t stopped millions of people from wanting it.
Sam Barquin is a student and artist who made a name for himself online by redrawing popular cartoon characters as swollen gym rats. Over time, he masters the not-so-subtle craft of viral meme art. On platforms like TikTok, this simple trick has taken him far, with a single video amassing more than 30 million views 33.6 million views. Polygon spoke to him about what brought him to this particular corner of the internet and what it’s been like to draw in the same style for so long. According to the artist, he slowly found his niche by adapting it to new and old trends.
“I would definitely describe my account as kind of meme-like, you know, like meme art, and I just draw certain cartoon characters in different ways,” Barquin said in a call. “If someone asks me, I say, ‘I only draw cartoon characters right now, but they look good.’ And that usually doesn’t lead to them asking too many questions.”
Hard to describe, Barquin’s art is instantly recognizable to those who study the vernacular and imagery of online humor. Each video plays out more or less the same, starting with some hand-drawn pen and ink drawings. As the recording progresses, we see a few snippets that feel like reading a very short comic. Regardless of the premise or character of each story, each video culminates in the reveal of a redesign of the characters, depicting them with chiseled facial features and an overly toned physique.
For example, a video with characters Avatar: The Last Airbender shows a scenario where Sokka and Katara discover Aang in the iceberg. Afterwards, Sokka asks Aang what he has been doing for 100 years. In response, Barquin’s art shows Aang doing everything he could while remaining frozen. He meowed and as a result, the once round child emerged from the ice with a redefined jaw and transformed GigaChad Face.
The part isn’t just inspired by the comedy of seeing a baby-faced character in a new light; It is heavily influenced by internet comedy and trends. Barquin told Polygon that the origins of this particular joke date back to a 2022 TikTok trend in which artists drew fictional characters being robbed after being rejected by a romantic interest, and his work often uses popular internet slang.
For example, “meowing” refers to a tongue exercise popular on platforms like TikTok that is said to help develop a more defined and masculine jawline, and therefore the prominent cheekbones we see in every video. The word “mog” is more vague, but can be used for anyone who looks fitter and better than you in a photo. (So if you outshine someone else in a photo, you’d be the mog.) The general reference set makes sense considering these clips were inspired by the larger “looksmaxing” trend, where people try to look their best Optimizing appearance requires a lot of exercise and other lifestyle choices.
“I would like to say that November 2023 saw the arrival of the lookmaxing trend. Since I already had experience drawing people like that, I thought: Maybe I could try drawing her again. But this time with defined cheekbones and stuff,” he said. “I made a few videos and they seemed to work really well. So I started doing more with different characters to see what I could do with them.”
The creator has been drawing similar artwork and sharing videos for over two years and shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, he seems content with creating this kind of art for now.
“I would have thought it would get boring by now, but I kind of realized that every YouTuber has to have their own niche,” Barquin said. According to the artist, he had previously dabbled in other types of content but had difficulty finding a consistent video format. “When I started making these drawings, I just enjoyed doing them. I thought they were really fun to draw, firstly, and secondly, they seem to perform well. And people kind of followed me in that way. And so I just decided to keep going with it,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have plans to take his work in a new direction in the future. Barquin and two other artists he met online are starting a comic book company and plan to do so publish a graphic novel with an original story. So far, the team has not released any key details of the project. It remains to be seen whether or not this original story will feature some great characters of its own.
