Adorn Your Walls With Modern Retro Takes On Familar Superheroes

One of the first things that people notice when they enter my home for the first time is the massive amount of artwork I have hanging from my walls. While I have my fair share of classic film posters receiving the home gallery treatment, my collection does boast some pretty cool comic-inspired artwork. Rather than tearing out some of my favorite splash pages to thumbtack to my wall (as I was prone to do as a kid), I’ve become a fan of the modernist interpretations of some of my favorite four-color heroes. Today I wanted to take a look at some of the fun takes on superhero artwork, the kind of pieces you wouldn't be embarrassed to have hanging in your home, either.

 

To start is a few selections from a series that came out recently from artist Josh Siegel. His “Modern Hero” series blends simple, elegant imagery from comics' own icons in bold colors with the artist's own sense of wit and imagination. Up until recently, Siegel had been selling the high-quality prints through his Etsy.com store at only $18 each, until the popular demand forced him to step back and reassess, as his time was beginning to be spent more as a printmaker/mailer than an artist.  Some truly beautiful pieces, some of which I will highlight here, and hopefully Siegel is able to get some sort of print shop going again, while still allowing him the ability to make his art.

 

Another recent discovery of mine is artist Michael Blaine Meyers Jr., who is working on a series of vintage-inspired posters, again featuring the iconds of DC Comics with a little Captain America thrown in. Fans of Lost and Arrested Development may also enjoy Meyers' animated interpretations of the small screen's favorite ensemble casts. Those pieces and more can be found on Meyers' Flickr page.

 

The next two pieces come from artists whose work I discovered a couple of years ago when the excellent Gallery 1988 in Hollywood hosted an art show centered around the work of Stan Lee. Not only was I at the exhibition's opening where Stan the Man was in attendance, but I managed to grab some cool pieces that have become great points of conversation to visitors at my house.

 

First is Eric Tan's take on the X-Men, inspired by old German film posters of generations past. I immediately latched onto Tan's clean style, which he always manages to present in interesting and well-design ways.  He’s done a number of poster series for Pixar the last few years, has done similarly-themed Indiana Jones posters, and proved one of the most popular entries in the “Damon, Carlton, and a Polar Bear” series of Lost-inspired posters.

 

Another piece I bought at the Stan Lee tribute show was "Sanctum Sanctorum" from New England-area artist Daniel Danger, featuring Doctor Strange perched atop his Greenwich VIllage townhouse. The moody skies mixed with the grlowing red coming from inside really pop in the artwork. Danger's work can be scene in a variety of galleries, on gigposters and cd covers, as well as at the Alamo Drafthouse.

 

Speaking of which, I would be remiss not to mention Tyler Stout's fantastic work on his Iron Man 2 poster for this week's fan screening at the Alamo Drafthouse.  Like Eric Tan, Stout also had a piece in the incredibly popular Lost poster series, and has contributed dozens of striking posters in his unique style to the Drafthouse's screening series.

 

The following aren't strictly the kinds of pieces you would be hanging on your walls; you you likely see them instead stacked on an endtable in the 1960s. Design studio Fonografiks redefines the idea of a cool cover treatment in their reimagining of classic comic book stories as dime-store paperbacks. Below are a sampling of my favorites, but even more can be found on their DeviantArt page.

 

Now this is by no means a complete collection of the cool comic book-themed artwork floating around the web, but it is a nice sampling of some artists whose work I personally know and enjoy, and hopefully this may help give some alternatives to the faded Wizard posters from the 90s you don't know what to do with. At the very least, maybe I have helped provide a new wallpaper for your mobile phone.

 

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Benjamin Simpson lives and works in Los Angeles, and is generally disrespected among his co-workers because of his ego and dimness. Feel free to send him an email or follow him on Twitter.