Denial of a Job at Whole Foods Helps Comic Artist’s Career.

by Mike Kravinsky

I read a few blog posts last week about artist Paul Maybury, who was fired from Whole Foods for creating an illustrated “Mr. T" sign. It read, "I pity the fool that don't eat boneless sirloin steaks." That's funny. After a little research, I discovered that someone named Paul Maybury is a comic artist with a graphic novel out; and who has drawn comics for DC Comics, Marvel and Image Comics. Are these the same people? Seems it is. So I gave him a call.

The first thing he let me know is that yes, he indeed worked for Whole Foods; but no, he wasn't fired. It was more like he wasn't rehired. I'll explain shortly, but first a little background.

Paul Maybury, born and raised in Boston, has always been involved in art. When Maybury was thirteen, he became a muralist in Boston. "I worked for Mayor Menino in a summer program teaching kids to apprentice under other painters," he says.  He worked in that program for years, helping to complete forty-five murals in Boston. "It was really natural to do the performance art." During that time, he developed an interest in comic art.
 
As an adult having to make a living, Maybury did his comic artwork part time and worked in a music store. When his future fiance went to apply for a job at Whole Foods, Maybury tagged along. On a lark, he filled out an application. "They ended up hiring me in the cheese department," says Maybury. He worked there every night; taking the train home smelling like “the weird cheese guy.”
 
He soon discovered that Whole Foods has a sign artist for every store - not just a regional graphics department, but a person whose job it is to create the signs and print the sales fliers. He applied for the job at the store where he worked, but found that they already had decided on another internal candidate. "I just sort of kept my eyes peeled for another sign maker position opening," says Maybury.  Three months later, an opening appeared. He was hired at another store in Boston as an assistant sign maker.

The sign departments at Whole Foods have their own font style called the Molly font, created by a former Whole Foods sign maker named Molly. Up until that point, the focus was always on just the lettering on the boards. Beyond that, there were no real guidelines as to what could or couldn't be done. Maybury noticed that there wasn't a real focus on artwork. "Before I started working there, somebody would have written 'lamb chops on sale' and drawn a (very basic) little lamb going 'baaa'...It was surpising that nobody did any (real) artwork with them before that," says Maybury.

Since there were no guidelines, Maybury decided to draw as well as letter. "I really saw that giant sign as an opportunity to do something a little more interesting."  The response from the store management was lukewarm.  Maybury believes that it was because it hadn't been done before. Throughout his time there, he remained an assistant artist. It didn't appear that he would ever become the lead sign maker. He did find a lead artist job at a smaller Whole Foods just outside of Boston. "I took sort of a smaller job, which is a little more comfy, and nobody really paid attention to me out there," he says.

Meanwhile, Maybury, having watched Bob Ross videos on YouTube, decided he wanted to emulate that style on the A frame chalk boards that displayed the signs. "I started doing wild Alaskan salmon and I just drew really intricate "Bob Ross" mountains of Alaska." Maybury fondly remembers the customer reaction. "It went over really well. The customers thought it was really neat."  As time went on, Maybury grew tired of that style. "I just kept going with it; but then I thought, ‘How many times can you draw mountains of Alaska?’"

So he started doing signs in the styles of famous artists. "The first one I did was like a Van Gogh holding these raspberries," says Maybury. He was so pleased with the outcome that he moved the sign out to the street so people could see the sign as they were driving by.  "It really started catching on,” he says, “So the next week I did a Picasso." Maybury researched Picasso’s style and reproduced it to sell groceries.  He next mimicked Paul Gaugin, and then Andy Warhol. The Warhol style was a collage of prints and torn up fliers of sales of the week. "It was interactive," says Maybury,  "Like there was this little sleeve that you could pull up and then it had all the sales under it."
 
The customers liked it, but it also grabbed the attention of the regional Whole Foods people. "They started watching me a little closer, even though it was this remote Whole Foods store… I was really on a roll…I started doing music signs, since I ran out of painters." One of his favorites was David Bowie. "The whole store liked it, the neighborhood like it, everybody liked it," says Maybury.
 
But then - "I did the Mr. T sign," Maybury says. It triggered a few complaints. "Some lady, who was a vegan, was really really upset and went up to customer service."  Not realizing that the drawing was of Mr. T, she told customer service that she didn't like that this aggressive black man was yelling at her and that he pitied her because she didn't eat meat."  Apparently she wasn't the only one who complained. "I got called into the office," says Maybury. They told him, "You can't do this anymore." The problem in Maybury's eyes is that Whole Foods really didn't have any guidelines on what he could and couldn't do. They just didn't want him to do that. "If you're doing the right thing, they leave you alone. If you're doing the wrong thing, you get called into the office," he says.

So here is where other articles get it wrong: Maybury was never fired; he decided to take a sabbatical. This is a perk that Whole Foods offers to its employees on a one time basis. Both Maybury and his fiance decided to move to Austin, Texas because 1)  his fiance’s parents lived there; 2) it was getting too expensive for them to live in Boston; and 3) the corporate offices of Whole Foods were in Austin. Maybury figured he could get a job at the Whole Foods there.  When he applied for a job though, they wouldn't call him back.  "They stopped answering my emails, they stopped answering my phone calls. The store management would not call me back," says Maybury. He got the message. He could have gone back to Boston to work for Whole Foods there, but his life was now in Austin.

Throughout his time at Whole Foods, Maybury and a writer had been working on the graphic novel, Aqua Leung, together.  The book was released right at the time he could not find work in Austin. "It was really a hectic time, finding myself jobless, but having this book coming out," says Maybury. His fiance was making good money so they were okay.

Having a book out may seem to be a path to riches, but it's not - particularly a graphic novel. The one thing it did bring him, though, is attention in the comic industry. In the last couple of years, Maybury has secured an agent, which means steady work for the year. He drew a Spiderman story for Marvel and is working on a line of inspirational comics.  "I had a nice little checklist of things I wanted to do, and I get to do them now," he says. His comic art is a full time job now. 

Maybury has no bad feelings towards Whole Foods. He says he may not have been able to focus full time on comic art had he been hired in Austin.  "Everything is a step forward", he says, "I'm in a much better place than I was just a few years ago, more professionally satisfied." Although during his Whole Foods tenure his art was a little out there for the company, he finds they've adopted much of what he did. "Now I walk around Whole Foods and everybody does it."

Here is more of Pauls' art from his Whole Foods days;