WHO IS DREW TOONZ?
Andrew Miller is driving down Kamehameha Highway , the year is 2001 ... abandoned vehicles litter the side of the road...
They looked like ancient monoliths, stone henges made of junked metal, some of them crushed, stacked, upside down... jungle growing around them, they were everywhere... BLANK CANVAS! He began painting
cartoons on them. not much of a seasoned graffiti artist, the drawings were crude, drippy but the inspiration was there.
Graffiti without the weight of vandalism... who's gonna care about a trashed car? He was obsessed with this guilt free form of expression and painted 100's of them. He signed them ' Drew Toonz'
The Honolulu Advertiser ran a pic of a car he painted on the cover of the Sunday newspaper and overnight
the city initiated a program to swiftly remove ' AV cars' and the graffiti days ended
but 'Drew Toonz ' was just getting started!
...
Drew Toonz 2025
ACE COOL AND THIRD STONE
my first friend on the north shore was Ace Cool.... a larger than life big wave surfer... It was 1996 we were on the north shore for the first time from Jersey . We just purchased a 500 suburu , from Jack Johnson of all people, and we're wondering where to go ... we notice a guy spray-painting a sign on the side of the road: "ROOM FOR RENT $500"... Took a hard beer-spilling turn and found ourselves living on the beach at Jocko's with who would be my best friend and hero, Ace Cool!!! We Surfed and partied and laughed our asses off and made cartoons and it was the ultimate introduction to the North Shore! . I will have to circle back to Ace Cool later.
A couple years later I meet Pete Matthews at a Party . he had a backyard surfboard company called "3rd Stone" and invited me to join his gang of misfit surfboard makers . "I could live at his house in trade for tee shirt designs"... I famously showed up to his house one day with my belongings in a cardboard box and did just that. Pete had a younger brother my age , Steve ...and together we've been working on THIRD STONE, a core surfboard brand, for the past 26 years and counting...
SELECTED CLIENTS
Toonz and Steve 2001
EXHIBITIONS
Pipe Masters/ Triple crown of surfing
Avenir Light is a clean and stylish font favored by designers. It's easy on the eyes and a great go-to font for titles, paragraphs & more.
Ace Cool got me a job to paint the mural for the 2001 Pipemasters . For my debut mural, I painted the landscape of Pipeline and I made it my goal to paint as many spectators on the beach along with all the relevant characters that made up the event in the crowd in intricate scene... It was a lot of fun and I painted over 1000 real spectators onto the mural from life , from Gerry Lopez to Kelly Slater's dad , locals, random tourists... I killed that job. I like bringing people into my art
After that, Randy Rarrick hired me for all of the triple crown events for the next six years, painting giant murals on framed up plywood at the various beach parks. This went on for several years and came to an abrupt end when vinyl printing was introduced ....
I don't have many records of those times. if you're reading this and have pics please share them
I
Lucky for me there was another exciting chapter for myself at the Banzai Pipeline....
the goonies are all grown up now
all I need is a cool buzz and some tasty waves and I'm fine
random lifestyle shot
TOONZ PAINTING A THIRD STONE SURFBOARD
SURF SKOOL AND THE VOLCOM YEARS
2006 I started an animated project called Surf Skool, with a funny guy named Aden Stay... and 'Johnny Stone' was born. Volcom then produced us for a spin off feature of this called 'Dawn of the Stone Age' and In 2008 I was hired as an animator for VOLCOM PIPE PRO broadcast ... it was a big hit! During this time we also made 'The Junior Lifeguard movie" made possible by Rick Williams... The Volcom Pipe pro job lasted for 12 years, until it was canceled due to covid in 2020.
%20--%20NEW!%20SEALED!!%20%20eBay.jpeg)
EMO CAT , Trouble Andrew and NO WORK CITY 2012-present
Emo Cat was born on instagram as vulnerable , whimsical and topical one panel comic strip drawn on bar napkins. It developed over time randomly and emo cat become the symbol of "no Work City" and animated cartoon I'm still currently working on... collaborating with my friend Trouble Andrew on this project....
THESE ARE STILL SOME GOOD OL'Days
2026 ... STILL Livin' the dream on the north shore, SURFING.... what's next...
THIS CHAPTER IS in the making.....
Written by Sophia Noel / @DrewToonz / @3rdStoneHawaii for more of Drew's Work