Among the hundreds of images showcasing impressive stats, memorable clips and striking poses of the Seattle Seahawks, a unique type of promotion populated the social media pages of the team last season.
After each win, the simplistic yet expressive artwork of Harris Fishman—pen name Beetle Moses—would find its way onto the social media feeds of Seahawks fans everywhere. Fishman’s meteoric rise from glasses store manager to professional web-comic artist and freelance illustrator for the Seahawks came somewhat suddenly, but is indicative of how consistent, good art can still reach the masses in an age shrouded in worry for the art industry.
Fishman’s foray into the world of professional web comics began in 2022, after the death of a college friend left him thinking about how much time he had left to create the art he was passionate about. He knew he needed a drastic change.
“I quit my job, I broke up with my then-girlfriend and I moved out,” Fishman said. “I totally hit a hard reset on my life.”
Fishman gave up his job at Warby Parker in New York City and moved to his hometown of Miami. He had spent much of his life cartooning and painting, and while it had never been his career, he decided it was time to try.
“I had some money saved up from the job I had been working so I was like ‘Okay, I probably have a few months to make this profitable.”
Following some motivation and advice from fellow artist Zach Smith, pen name Yolo Swag Studios, Fishman launched his webcomic, “Beetle Moses.” The name served both as the title of his comic and his pen name. The artists found success almost immediately. His regular posts on X (formally known as Twitter) often circulated around pop culture icons that could immediately grab the eye of an idle scroller. That—in combination with his unique color scheme, expressive facial expressions, and endearingly simplistic style—led to him garnering a following almost immediately.
Within a couple weeks he had already accrued thousands of followers. After a little over a year, Fishman was hired by King Features to produce three comics a week that they would then distribute. Fishman’s constant workload led to a rapid development of his style, allowing him to stand out in an internet that is so often overloaded with reposts and rehashing of the same jokes.
While Fishman did not return to King Features after their deal ended in December, he still maintains his rapid output schedule. This schedule means that he does not always have the time to make every comic perfect, something that he views as an advantage rather than a hindrance.
“Something that I liked about webcomics more than painting or a graphic novel, is that it’s fun to draw, it’s quick,” Fishman said. “As an artist, if you’re working on something for a really long time, you start to hate it a little bit. That’s what’s nice about having these bite sized things. If you do them in a large quantity, you’re just making a huge portfolio of stuff and you’re still improving.”
Fishman’s consistent schedule led to his work getting pushed to people’s Instagram “For You” pages. A member of the Seahawks team was one of these people, and reached out to Fishman. To announce the Seahawks’ 2024 schedule, the team wanted him to draw each one of the teams they were playing against as super villains from classic films. The team was so happy with Fishman’s work that they decided to hire him for the whole season.
“The dirty little secret is that I crushed it,” Fishman said. “They gave me a lot of drawings to do in like a week. I got back to them really quickly, and in the drawings I included some easter eggs.”
Fishman’s Miami roots served him well, as the easter egg that received the most positive feedback online was in his drawing of the Miami Dolphins’ mascot dressed as Dr. Blowhole from “The Penguins of Madagascar.” In the drawing, the dolphin is eating a sub from Publix, a supermarket chain which is quite prevalent in Florida.
“Everybody who lives in Florida knows what that is,” Fishman said. “When they posted that one, you had Miami Dolphins fans replying to a post from the Seahawks. Those little easter eggs and stuff that they didn’t ask for was going above and beyond, and it got great feedback. George Kittle of the 49ers happened to reply to one of them, I could see that the Seahawks were really excited about that.”
After the drawings went live, he considered pitching another idea to the Seahawks, but less than two months later they reached back out with their own ideas. Fishman was offered a season long contract that had him drawing a victory piece each time the Seahawks won, they also had him contribute meetings with the marketing team to brainstorm ideas.
These drawings depicted the Seahawks’ mascot doing everything from using the Chicago Bears’ mascot as a rug, tackling the San Francisco 49ers’ mascot in a wrestling ring, beating the Arizona Cardinals in Call of Duty, and even eating a Publix sub with the Miami Dolphins’ mascot inside. Each drawing was jam-packed with references and little details, leading to thousands of likes and millions of impressions across the Seahawks’ social media pages.
Fishman does not take the job lightly, and ensures each drawing is eye-catching and clever.
“It’s very humbling to be a webcomic artist,” Fishman said. “It’s really hard, it’s a grind, you gotta do a lot of vouching for yourself. So, when opportunities like this come about, I think they’re pretty rare. For what it’s worth, I’m really trying to overextend myself with the drawings I’m doing for them.”
Fishman’s work gave the Seahawks a standout series of promotional comics, something that Fishman is not opposed to doing more of in the future.
“Hopefully this turns into something continued with them because they have been so great,” Fishman said. “That whole team of people has been really funny. If they asked me to move to Seattle to start working for them I’d be like, ‘let’s make this happen.’”
More Beetle Moses comics can be found here.
