Curt Evans
Curt started cartooning as a kid…and never stopped. In high school his work appeared weekly in a motocross newspaper, Southern California Motocross. This led to illustrating for several extreme sport magazines : Motocross Action, H30 Hawaiian Heavywater, Mountain Biking, and Bicycle Retailer.
His drawings have appeared on websites, decals, T-shirts, and even an entire bus. He’s illustrated five books, and recently published his own kid’s book - "Z is for Zundapp" - an ABC dirt bike book.
He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a degree in Studio Art.
For a career he’s worked in the screen printing industry, making and designing shirts, signs, stickers, graphics and logos.
Curt has taught cartooning classes to all ages and volunteered in local schools. His best advice to students - don’t worry about what anyone else thinks of your work. Make it crazy because it’s a cartoon. And…never stop drawing.
Ashland, Oregon has been his home since 1995.
down/up
The roots of down/up started in Hawaii with mountain race promoting. The first events, held on the island of Oahu, were held in 1985. There were some classic events - the Zero c.c. Enduro, Final Grind, Oakley Summer Series, and intermission races during the Aloha Stadium Supercross races.
Of course, the race T-shirts featured mountain bike cartoon artwork. These became available through mail order, along with several new designs. This was before the Internet, back when you mailed in a dollar for stickers and a catalog. We were even running ads in national magazines and going to big bike shows. In our hey-day during the early 90s, we featured cycling clothing, and sponsored several riders, including Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. Oregon became the new home for down/up, and race promotion was still part of the game.
Fast forward to 2022, when down/up was relaunched featuring mostly motocross cartoon merch and art. We grew with a website, social media and international clients. Racer X Magazine featured our cartoon puzzle as a subscription promo. Custom commissions became a big part of our work. Products expanded to board games, coloring books, puzzles and posters. Now our our on-line store has over a 100 designs on multiple products in all sizes and colors. Super excited where this is going, hope you can join us.