Plaid Socks
Description: For this piece, I created an old school medical chart, simplifying the dreaded "Brain Cloud," Joe Banks's condition in Joe Versus the Volcano. I first drew it with just the cloud, but it was missing something. Then I realized what it needed was the iconic lightning bolt shape that continuously appears in the film. I decided to use this recurring "crooked path" symbol as the glue that ties together the three pieces in the collection, just as it ties together the various themes in the film.
Description: At heart, I am an absurdist. In modern times, it's getting harder to separate reality from absurdity ... but that's a conversation for another time. In this piece, I wanted to marry two completely different worlds, each relatively absurd in their own way. Two worlds so distant from each other that when thrown together, they become utterly surreal. Honestly, the thought of Frankenstein's Monster and the Creature from the Black Lagoon earnestly competing in the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right (in the 1970s, no less) simply makes me laugh. So I created it. But I wanted to do it right, so I added an absurd amount of detail.
Description: "They're coming to get you Barbara ..." in the beginning of the film Night of the Living Dead, this phrase is said mockingly, and yet, it still comes off creepy as hell. It wasn't technically the first film to feature zombies, but it was the first centered around a world where the dead rise to literally eat the living. With one small, low-budget black and white movie, George Romero created an entire genre that would be adored by zillions forever. Why are so many people fascinated by zombies? There are many reasons, but the thought of people who were once good, sentient humans with thoughts and dreams and families, turned into mindless beasts whose one primal goal is to eat living people is pretty scary. Not to mention cool as hell.
Description: As I tied my Joe Versus the Volcano collection together with the iconic "crooked path" lightning bolt symbol that occurs throughout the film, I thought one of the pieces should be just the symbol itself. But I needed a color scheme that was thoroughly Joe-centric. Upon one of countless viewings of the film, the orange Jump Soda cans the Waponi drank (and wore) *jumped* out at me and then I had the answer.
