3.08.2011

The Chicken Suit

Yup. It happened. The chicken suit was acquired and promptly donned on a beautifully grey day in Portland this week. Portlanders, in case you're wondering who that was dressed up as a bright yellow chicken walking across the Burnside bridge or crossing the road (har!) in front of Powell's, or having a Maple Bacon doughnut at Voodoo Donuts, it was me. I'm an illustrator. I drew a children's book titled "Chicks Run Wild," hence the chicken reference. This silly stunt was part of a crazy promotion to get people to know about the book, written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen.

I have to say, it was a lot of fun. Honestly, I probably would've worn the darn suit even if we didn't get 300 fans or friends on Facebook. But I'm happy to see that we exceeded our goal—a full week before the deadline! That's awesome.

So, here you go, Portland. Here you go Oregon. The United States of America. THE WORLD... Ward Jenkins in a chicken suit:

The Chicken Suit


My presidential pose
My Presidential pose.

Profile shot
My Profile pose.

About to cross the road.
Oh, hey. Look at that. I'm about to cross the road. IMAGINE THAT

Of course!
Why did I cross the road? To read Chicks Run Wild, of course.

Chicken admirers
Chicken admirers. Sadly, I wasn't Bieber.

The Chicken seated
It's hard work, this shameless promotion-thing.

Reading to the kids
This is my favorite part of the whole book-drawin' experience: reading the book to the kiddos.

Any questions?

The Chicken Man

In the library
I paid a visit to the library to sneak a copy of the book in the bookshelves.

The Librarian & The Chicken
The librarian totally caught me!

More photos soon. To see more check out:

The Chicken Suit on Facebook.
Chicks Run Wild on Flickr.

Now you know, I'm a man of my word.

15 comments:

  1. This is too awesome!
    And this seriously beats Bieber, despite popular opinion of tweens.

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  2. You are a fool! ( And I mean that in the BEST way!)

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  3. I hate to repeat everyone else, but that's so totally AWESOME! I got my copy last weekend - I think my 5 year old nephew will love it.

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  4. I just love this whole series...it will be a classic one day and people will google it and write papers on it and erect a statue in downtown Portland...you will be immortalized. My son.

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  5. You are a good person. And a brave one at that. Good for you! And congrats on the book.

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  6. Ward, me gustó mucho tu disfraz. Deberías usarlo más a menudo. Cuando te inviten a una boda o a alguna reunión aburrida, llévalo contigo debajo del esmoquin.

    Saludos.

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  7. This looks like too much FUN! Congratulations on the fans! Your book deserves it! :)

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  8. this is AMAZING ward!!!!! congratulations......would you mind if we reposted some of this on Modern Kiddo? (I'd love to show off the book too....)

    hee.
    You rock...

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  9. Sure thing, Alix! Let me know if you need any links, etc. I uploaded some more photos of me in the chicken suit in my Flickr recently, by the way.

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  10. My friend, Ethan Hurd, directed me to your site, as I'm a new children's book author and totally new to Facebook, blogs, and anything tech.

    Your site is really funny. I LOVED the chicken photos! Especially the chicken crossing the road.

    Lisa Traugott

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  11. i'm proud of you for coming out of the coop :)

    you knocked don knotts off my favorite mr.chicken podium.
    (well he scooted over for you)

    my blog depression is lifting + i'd LOVE to interview you + review your chicks on my blog.

    i'm trying to go vegan, so i won't be checking out your breasts, thighs or ovums

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  12. Fantastic! I co-produced a documentary on urban chickens titled Mad City Chickens. Too bad I didn't learn about your chicken suit sooner.

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