Paulie Forrester may not join the ranks of museum-worthy artists anytime soon. But if any institution should want to ever showcase Sebastian Giovinco as a Roman soldier, Diego Chara wearing moon boots with springs attached to the soles, or occasionally combative San Jose Earthquakes mascot Q, then the 25-year-old is their guy.
Forrester, who lives in Spring Grove, Minnesota, launched his @BadMLSComics Twitter account—showcasing just such creations and more—during the 2015 MLS preseason. Since then, he’s assembled a following more than 2000 strong, and growing.
The account also wanders over to international play. One recent drawing features US Men’s National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann in a variation of the dog surrounded by flames/“This is fine” meme. But the majority of the drawings focus on MLS league play.
“I started ‘drawing,’ if you can call it that, as a joke between me and some friends,” Forrester says. “Something out of the ordinary would happen and I would just do a 10-minute sketch depicting my thoughts on it.” Eventually, his friend Mark Nealon suggested the Twitter account.
“I think he thought we were humoring him when we would tell him how much we enjoyed them,” said Nealon, a New Jersey-based Red Bulls fan who initially connected with Forrester through an online soccer forum. “They're silly and light-hearted, which is a nice change from how overly serious some people get about sports sometimes. On top of that, Paulie is a huge fan of MLS and very active in the fan community online, and I think he just knows what other fans are going to enjoy or find funny.”
Keri Maxvill, a Virginia-based D.C. United fan who also met Forrester online, agrees: “His passion for the game shows through the drawings and I think that's what it so great.”
That passion is reflected in particular in one recent drawing, “The Soccer Gods,” in which a fan touts the potential for a match, proclaiming, “I have finally convinced my friends to give soccer a chance.” Meanwhile, a whole pantheon of gods from across the spectrum of religions decrees a final score of 0-0.
Forrester is genuinely appreciative of the attention the account’s getting. Though 2000 is a modest tier in today’s Twitterverse, the account’s subscribers include broadcasters and journalists who cover the league, and close to a third of the league’s official team accounts have retweeted him.
One of Forrester’s personal high-water marks came from a drawing inspired by a moment broadcast cameras captured in last season’s epic Portland Timbers vs. Sporting KC MLS Cup playoffs penalty shootout. That, of course, was when Saad Abdul-Salaam’s shot caromed off the left post and the right post.
Two Timbers fans embraced with a palpable combination of relief and disbelief, and Forrester drew and posted it. Timbers fans then made it into a two-pole and brought it to the stadium for a subsequent playoff match, which then came full circle when the two fans posed for a photo with it … that was then posted on Twitter.
Forrester’s still developing as an artist. He’s not exactly joking when he says he prefers to draw teams with animals in their logos/crests.
“I got some complaints that I never do certain teams but that's only because I am still learning how to draw the human figure,” he says. Animals, for whatever reason, are easier for me to draw so teams like RSL, Orlando, RBNY, and Dallas, get drawn more often simply because I can draw a lion or bull better than I can a human.” (However, in one preview this year highlighting Orlando City vs. the Chicago Fire, he managed to include both teams by having a lion jump through a ring of fire.)
For Forrester, the key to relevance is immediacy, which makes his “bad” technique work to his advantage. “Some of my most popular drawings were whipped up in five to 10 minutes at half time, or just after the conclusion of a game,” he says. “The more people who share it, the more people that can see it and hopefully crack a smile, which is why I started this whole thing to begin with.”
