(Half) Marathon Man

Here comes the sun … on a T-shirt — and he’s running! Sol himself is the centerpiece of the artwork for this year’s Santa Barbara Half-Marathon, coming November 9 to Santa Barbara’s main streets. To inspire runners and help promote the many parts of the event (including public events on November 7, 8, and 9), race organizers annually call on a local artist to create work that is used on T-shirts, posters, and the much-coveted finisher’s medal — available only to the people who complete the grueling 13.1-mile trek. 

This year’s artist, Daniel Sulzberg, brings a long record of creative success and ideas to the task. Raised in an artsy family — his father was a longtime gallery owner in the Bay Area and his brother Bruce is a very busy artist — Sulzberg was always doodling. Not until a college professor told him about the world of illustration did he think it was a money-paying life. “I only really knew about fine art,” he says. “And my dad [warned] me, ‘Don’t do that for a living.’” 

While still filling notepads with colorful characters, Sulzberg worked as a screenwriter (on TV’s Smallville, among other projects) before becoming an advertising creative director. He turned full-time to the drawing pad in 2018 and has never stopped. Sulzberg’s colorful, bouncy, curvy work is packed with personality. You’ve seen his work, whether you realized it or not, with brands such as Google, Red Bull, and DoorDash; in magazines and newspapers from New York to Hollywood; for sports outlets such as the Dodgers, Galaxy, and the NHL; and don’t forget a series of feeling-groovy beer cans for San Francisco Brewing Company! 

During COVID, Sulzberg got into running, partly, he jokes, as a way to work off some of the beer he got in partial payment for the can work, and partly to, well, get out of the house. 

“Running was like this magic thing where everything got worked out in my head,” he says. “I would get back to the computer after a run, and it would all just come right out. And I didn’t waste any more time. So, I wondered what if I keep pushing this kind of superpower and see where it takes me. I also started to notice that I had a lot more patience as a dad, too,” which Sulzberg’s young kids certainly appreciated (they are 8 and 5). “All the things in my life kind of started to click for me, and running was kind of the answer for me to kind of balancing out my life.”

So, how do these strands connect?

Being the go-getter type and having seen a friend — artist Madi Manson — handle the task in 2024, Sulzberg reached out to the S.B. Half-Marathon organizers. They were thrilled to hear from him, familiar as they were with his work in which never a millimeter is wasted. (“I have a terrible fear of empty space on a page!” laughs the artist.) Sulzberg then created the running-sun character for the finishers’ medal, as well as a larger poster and T-shirt design. 

During one of his idea-generating runs, Sulzberg just felt the warmth of the right idea, so to speak. 

“The sun! What else is more in tune with our town?” he says. “It’s the sunshine. Everyone talks about how good our weather is. And the idea that we spend a lot of time outdoors. And the sun has a very positive effect on us as humans. The natural rays make us feel good. So, I thought he would make a great main character for this.”

And so he is. Sunglassed, headbanded, and be-sneakered, Sol charges at you in the main drawing, looking inspiring and fit for a run around the galaxy while all you have to run is 13.1 miles.

Inspired by Sulzberg’s art, race organizers also created a 3D version, a costumed mascot that will surely be part of hundreds of post-race selfies. Sulzberg also notes that the artwork will appear on various merchandise that runners, friends, and fans alike can buy at S.B. Half-Marathon events. Look for T-shirts, hats, sticker packs, and more.

Speaking of which: Even if you’re not one of the 7,000 runners set to take on 50 percent of Pheidippides’s — the original Greek messenger who carried the big news of his team’s win at the Battle of Marathon 26 miles back to Athens in 490 BCE — challenge, you can take part in other Half-Marathon events. The Palm Park Festival is Friday, November 7, from 2 to 6 p.m., and Saturday, November 8, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Then on Sunday, race day, join the finishers and friends at the Finish Line Festival from 9 a.m. to noon in the Funk Zone. 

Race organizers offered to send Sulzberg a medal in thanks for his art. But he said he’d be lacing up his sneakers on November 9 instead. “I told them no free medal — I gotta earn it!” 

For more information, see santabarbarahalf.com.