Shogun Sanders mural at 836 Main St., Covington Photo: Earth To Kentucky

The king of Kentucky Fried Chicken has landed in Covington as one of the city’s newest murals.

In a nod to both KFC and Japanese culture, the mural Shogun Sanders features a 3D-esque Colonel Sanders as a Shogun warrior towering over an extraterrestrial scene. It now lives on the Earth To Kentucky building in Mainstrasse Village. Earth To Kentucky is a toy store that carries many artist-made “bootleg” toys.

“Shogun Sanders is a mash-up of Kentucky and outer space and that combo is perfect to adorn the exterior of the shop,” Earth To Kentucky said in a press release.

Jonathan Queen’s Shogun Sanders action figure Photo: Earth To Kentucky

Jonathan Queen, a renowned toy painter and the artist behind the Kenner Toy Heritage Mural in downtown Cincinnati, created the mural. Queen dreamed up the mural and then sourced the parts to actually create a Shogun Sanders toy so he could reference it for the 20-foot-tall mural.

Shogun Sanders is one of 12 new art installations launched in May by the City of Covington’s Quality of Place grant program and meetNKY. Grant recipients represent businesses, organizations or individual residents of NKY whose creative, winning ideas aim to enhance the city’s business districts via art projects.

City of Covington Economic Development Director Tom West says the installations represent why Covington is the “bold side of the river” and have the potential to create new landmarks.

“Covington continues to attract new companies, residents and visitors to Northern Kentucky, in large part because of the economic investments being made at local, state and federal levels,” West said in a press release announcing the projects. “We are embracing the qualities that make this the ‘bold side of the river,’ and these art installations will serve as a canvas for our artists to showcase their creativity while inspiring visitors to our city.”

Related

Earth To Kentucky will hold a “birthday party” celebrating Shogun Sanders’ arrival on Friday, July 28 starting at 6 p.m.

Earth To Kentucky, 836 Main St., Covington. More info: earth2kentucky.com.

Subscribe to CityBeat newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Related Stories

This article appears in Jul 12-25, 2023.

Katherine Barrier is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s journalism program and has nearly 10 years of experience reporting local and national news as a digital journalist. At CityBeat, she...