"What happens when make-believe believes it's real?"

I got this week's illustration done just in time! I'm running to catch a bus to Montreal for the weekend, to see some horror movies at "Fantasia Fest". Should be good times. For this week's entry, i did one of the more memorable monster designs of the last ten years, the Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth. Here's a plot synopsis taken from imdb.com:

"In 1944 fascist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again."

The pale man is the creepiest part of the film, and i was happy to do an illustration to help express that.

I'm off to Montreal, see you guys next week.

"Demons" (1985)

Sorry for the lateness of this update, my local Kinko's had a broken scanner. As promised, this week's entry is a tribute print for Lamberto Bava's splattery classic, "Demons". Those of you who live in Toronto, do yourself a favour and check out the double-feature screening of "Deep Red" and "Demons" at the "Toronto Underground Cinema"(186 Spadina Ave) tomorrow night. "Deep Red" screens at 7:30, and "Demons" is at 9:30. I'll be there selling select prints from previous "Feature Creature" entries, as well as the new "Demons" print, seen above. Thanks, and let me know what you think! See you next week with a new entry.

Retro Triple-Feature!

Hello all! Firstly, i'd like thank all the new followers who have joined up to the Tumblr version of this blog in the past week. It's really great to see people joining up over time.

Sadly, due to me being both under the weather and out of town for most of this past week, i don't have a brand-spanking new entry for you. But that doesn't mean i'm going to give you nothing to look at! Firstly, for those viewers living in Toronto, i'm working on a poster that should be done by early next week. It's for a great show on the 23rd at the "Toronto Underground Cinema" , a 35mm screening of Lamberto Bava's "Demons", and Dario Argento's "Deep Red". I'll be selling illustrations before and after the show, so come by if you can, and buy a print! Here's a sneak preview!



Look for the full image early next week!

Secondly, as this is the 10th entry in this weekly series, i thought i'd show you three pieces from my past that paid tribute to some of my favourite villains and monsters. These were, for obvious reasons, from an art show named "Villains", at a local gallery in Toronto.

"The Abominable Dr.Phibes"



Vincent Price plays the disfigured and mad Dr.Anton Phibes, obsessed with getting revenge on five prominent surgeons who failed to save his wife. The abominable Dr.Phibes utilizes the ten plagues of Egypt as his schematic for revenge, leading to some pretty inventive death sequences. Vincent Price gets the opportunity to chew the crap out of the scenery with some great villainous monologues, and always a tongue firmly in cheek. A wonderfully lavish take on the "Phantom of the Opera", with a darkly wry sense of humour. An absolute classic!

Watch the (amazing) trailer here!

"Hardware"



A grimy, dusty, overall dirty take on a post-apocalyptic world, "Hardware" stretches the limitations of it's indie budget to create a fully-realized universe. Mo returns home from the nuclear wasteland with a present for his artist girlfriend; an abandoned robot head. Unbeknownst to him, it's the remains of a military-grade killer android, and it's still alive. The robot (The Mark-13, look up the bible passage.) is wonderfully realized, all flailing limbs and glowing-red eyes, with nasty needles for teeth, and saw-blade arms. Even more iconic, before the robot goes on a killing spree, Mo's girlfriend, Jill, paints an American flag on it's head as a statement. Fun stuff. Look for a cameo by Lemmy, and the angry voice of Iggy Pop!

Watch the trailer here!

"The Deadly Spawn"



Goofy monster with an amazing puppet. Shoe-string sci-fi horror at it's greatest, "The Deadly Spawn" depends entirely on it's creature. Luckily, it has a totally memorable monster to boast. A meteor crashes to Earth, bringing with it the spores of an ever-growing, ever-mutating eating machine. It hides out in the basement of a nearby house, eating anyone who ventures downstairs and birthing more of it's toothy, sperm-shaped brood. Eventually, it's up to a plucky horror-fanatic kid to kill the monster. Great fun.

Check out the trailer here!

Next Friday i'll be back with the full-reveal of the Demons poster for Saturday's show, and a bonus "Feature Creature" to boot! See you then.

"Sci-Fi that Reaches Out and Grabs You!"

This week's entry is probably the most obscure monster yet, from a rarely seen Japanese monster movie called "Zeiram". The plot involves the titular bio-engineered killing machine landing on Earth, while a bounty hunter and her sassy computer take on the job of catching "Zeiram". They imprison the monster in a desolate alternate dimension that looks just like Japan, and set about catching the fiend. Unfortunately, two bumbling electricians get caught up in the trap, and hilarity ensues.

"Zeiram" is just plain entertaining. It's got some surprisingly great special effects, an interesting and iconic monster, and some decent action. You even get a little stop-motion animation for your money. The real draw here is "Zeiram" himself (herself?). Resembling a samurai from another dimension, he's a 9 foot tall humanoid creature with a head resembling a giant hat, a red slit for an eye, and a horrifying little face in his forehead that likes to shoot out on a tentacle and bite people. He also has the power to generate horrible fleshy minions with baby faces. Just some great and cheesy rubber-suited monster fun.

I wanted the illustration this week to evoke the idea of both old-school movie posters, and a "wanted" poster, as it's befitting the alien criminal from the film. Hope you enjoy!

Check out the trailer here!

"The darkest day of horror the world has ever known."

Sorry for the semi-late entry this week, the local print shop was closed early for Canada day. This week's entry is the third in a seminal horror trilogy, "Day of the Dead".



I chose the world's most sympathetic zombie, "Bub". In "Day of the Dead", the zombies have basically won. The last rag-tag group of surviving humans live in a bunker in Florida, arguing with each other and desperately trying to teach zombies not to eat us. Bub is the most successful example of training a dead person to not see human beings as food. He's able to recall some memories such as how to salute (he was in the army.), learning how to use a walkman, and mock-shaving with a razor.

Of course, this all proves to be for nothing when the facility is invaded by the living dead. "Day of the Dead" might be my favourite in the original trilogy of Romero zombie movies, but they're all pretty amazing. No Romero zombie movies exist after "Day of the Dead".

Click here to view the trailer!

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