Monsters with artist Billy Tackett, and zombies in space
Monsters with artist Billy Tackett
In this spandex and monster, we switch gears and go for the worlds of the monster and horror with hardworking and well known artist Billy Tackett who delights fans with both his creative graphic work and his wry sense of humor. I first met Billy af the first Scarefest in Lexington, KY when my table was next to his, and I'm sure Eric Butts and I scarred him for life when we were promoting Zeppo the whole weekend. Uh, sorry about that...so without further delay, here is graphic artist Billy Tackett.
Tell the world about yourself...to the guy on the street..what is it that you do?
I am a professional artist, zombification specialist and Father of the Zombie Mash-Up. I've been doing book covers and illustrations for over 13 years now but my biggest claim to fame is the stuff that I do for shits and giggles, which is my Dead White & Blue series of paintings. Dead White & Blue consists of iconic images that I re-paint as zombies. Probably the most well known are Zombie Sam and Fannie The Flesheater who were Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter before the change. I've done a bit of research and I believe that I zombify movie posters, album covers, historic figures, whatever. Nothing is sacred. I think one of the things that makes me different from a ton of other cats doing similar stuff is that all my zombification pieces are created using traditional means like oils paint and pencils. Most artists use computers to do paint overs or photo manipulations but, as I like to say, mine are lovingly hand-crafted.
You mixed iconic superhero images with a different take on them (the cover of action heroes with a zombie superman). How has the reaction been to these works, and to your work in general from the comic book/horror/science fiction community?
Overall the reaction is positive. I'm not sure what it is but my zombies seem to appeal to both zombie fans and zombie haters alike. Having said that, there is a difference in the reaction by the hardcore fans of the different genres. Comic fans have embraced us with open arms. Horror fans on the other hand tend to be more of fans of a specific movie monster than stuff like mine. Their reactions aren't necessarily negative but more neutral. Hardcore sci-fi fans are a bit more on the negative side. They seem to regard zombies as gross.
And to keep anyone getting their panties in a wad I want to be clear that these statements are just generalizations. We have been doing dozens of conventions a year for several years now and these are some general vibes we have gotten over the years.
What was the 'aha' moment when you decided to follow your passion in art.
I never really had an 'aha' moment. Art was always something I did as long as I can remember. And as I got older I realized that it was the only thing that I could do exceptionally well so I had to figure out how to make money doing it. THAT was the hard part!
One of the things people don't realize is the rampant stealing of images and passing it off as your own work. I was only made aware of this by a con artist who passed off his work to a friends convention only to have the real artist threaten a lawsuit over ripped off works. Why do you think there is an explosion of that kind of con artist in the art world, and to be fair filmmakers, promoters sometimes also indulge in this practice.
For one it's easier to do now. It's simple to find some teenager from Croatia that can draw like the dickens and tell everyone it's your own. They might never know. The flip side is that it is harder to get away with it if you have any sort of internet presence.
Secondly, there seems to be a creative bankruptcy of sorts. Large numbers of people want to be creative but a number of these people don't want to pay their dues. They don't want to succeed or fail on their own merits. It's easier to just take someone else's shit.
What inspired you, artist, media, person when you compose a piece and finish a piece?
I could write you a book on my inspirations. Basically I'm a product of the 70s and 80s. Scooby-Doo, Famous Monsters of Filmland, KISS, cheesy horror flicks, Mad Magazine etc. I absorbed all of it and it has festered and is now coming to a head...so to speak of course.
My most recent nod to some of my influences is my Dead White & Blue Comics, which is available now. Visually it is a throwback to the comic books of the 70's, off white paper, bad printing and coloring, silly ads. Story wise it has zombies, Nazis, aliens, giant robots and more!
If someone wanted to know more about you or what you do, where would they go?
http://www.billytackett.com/. You can find me on Twitter, Facebook and most other social time-wasting sites by searching for Billy Tackett
muchas senor Tackett!
Queen of the cursed world (aka zombies in space)
Originally, this was to be the follow up to my film, misadventures in space, and was more sci fi comedic satire and craziness with the idea of a planet of zombies invading the galaxy! It's a fun crazy bawdy film, but I have to be honest when I say I have a love/hate relationship with the film. It's really funny and folks seem to like it, but there was a lot of weird personal drama behind the scenes on the film, nothing to write a book about, but there was definitely a straining of some personal and professional relationships that thankfully doesn't show up on screen. As director, I was caught in the middle of some of it, and that made the film for me at any rate a mixed bag. I watched a documentary about the adventures of Baron Munchausen where director Terry Gillam goes over the troubled film, and says that at the end of the day the film still delights fans and that's important, so I usually go back to that view of 'Queen of the Cursed World'.
Here is the trailer for the film, and it is available at blip.tv (I tunes) and on amazon instant video if folks are interested in the zombie planet invading the galaxy!
Queen of the cursed world on blip tv
Queen of cursed world on Amazon instant video
In the film, there are robot warriors played by talented actress Cassie Young (ZP's Monstrosity), so perhaps in the future there might be a grand army of evil robots versus the zombies! Here is a recent shoot with her as an undead vampire...robots and vampires?...hmmm...
more of Joey's photo work..click here
An interesting side note, I created the Astro Space Hero show located squarely in this science fiction universe. The first thing with Corso was events alluded to in 'Queen of the Cursed world'.
In this spandex and monster, we switch gears and go for the worlds of the monster and horror with hardworking and well known artist Billy Tackett who delights fans with both his creative graphic work and his wry sense of humor. I first met Billy af the first Scarefest in Lexington, KY when my table was next to his, and I'm sure Eric Butts and I scarred him for life when we were promoting Zeppo the whole weekend. Uh, sorry about that...so without further delay, here is graphic artist Billy Tackett.
Tell the world about yourself...to the guy on the street..what is it that you do?
I am a professional artist, zombification specialist and Father of the Zombie Mash-Up. I've been doing book covers and illustrations for over 13 years now but my biggest claim to fame is the stuff that I do for shits and giggles, which is my Dead White & Blue series of paintings. Dead White & Blue consists of iconic images that I re-paint as zombies. Probably the most well known are Zombie Sam and Fannie The Flesheater who were Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter before the change. I've done a bit of research and I believe that I zombify movie posters, album covers, historic figures, whatever. Nothing is sacred. I think one of the things that makes me different from a ton of other cats doing similar stuff is that all my zombification pieces are created using traditional means like oils paint and pencils. Most artists use computers to do paint overs or photo manipulations but, as I like to say, mine are lovingly hand-crafted.
You mixed iconic superhero images with a different take on them (the cover of action heroes with a zombie superman). How has the reaction been to these works, and to your work in general from the comic book/horror/science fiction community?
Overall the reaction is positive. I'm not sure what it is but my zombies seem to appeal to both zombie fans and zombie haters alike. Having said that, there is a difference in the reaction by the hardcore fans of the different genres. Comic fans have embraced us with open arms. Horror fans on the other hand tend to be more of fans of a specific movie monster than stuff like mine. Their reactions aren't necessarily negative but more neutral. Hardcore sci-fi fans are a bit more on the negative side. They seem to regard zombies as gross.
And to keep anyone getting their panties in a wad I want to be clear that these statements are just generalizations. We have been doing dozens of conventions a year for several years now and these are some general vibes we have gotten over the years.
What was the 'aha' moment when you decided to follow your passion in art.
I never really had an 'aha' moment. Art was always something I did as long as I can remember. And as I got older I realized that it was the only thing that I could do exceptionally well so I had to figure out how to make money doing it. THAT was the hard part!
One of the things people don't realize is the rampant stealing of images and passing it off as your own work. I was only made aware of this by a con artist who passed off his work to a friends convention only to have the real artist threaten a lawsuit over ripped off works. Why do you think there is an explosion of that kind of con artist in the art world, and to be fair filmmakers, promoters sometimes also indulge in this practice.
For one it's easier to do now. It's simple to find some teenager from Croatia that can draw like the dickens and tell everyone it's your own. They might never know. The flip side is that it is harder to get away with it if you have any sort of internet presence.
Secondly, there seems to be a creative bankruptcy of sorts. Large numbers of people want to be creative but a number of these people don't want to pay their dues. They don't want to succeed or fail on their own merits. It's easier to just take someone else's shit.
What inspired you, artist, media, person when you compose a piece and finish a piece?
I could write you a book on my inspirations. Basically I'm a product of the 70s and 80s. Scooby-Doo, Famous Monsters of Filmland, KISS, cheesy horror flicks, Mad Magazine etc. I absorbed all of it and it has festered and is now coming to a head...so to speak of course.
My most recent nod to some of my influences is my Dead White & Blue Comics, which is available now. Visually it is a throwback to the comic books of the 70's, off white paper, bad printing and coloring, silly ads. Story wise it has zombies, Nazis, aliens, giant robots and more!
If someone wanted to know more about you or what you do, where would they go?
http://www.billytackett.com/. You can find me on Twitter, Facebook and most other social time-wasting sites by searching for Billy Tackett
muchas senor Tackett!
Queen of the cursed world (aka zombies in space)
Originally, this was to be the follow up to my film, misadventures in space, and was more sci fi comedic satire and craziness with the idea of a planet of zombies invading the galaxy! It's a fun crazy bawdy film, but I have to be honest when I say I have a love/hate relationship with the film. It's really funny and folks seem to like it, but there was a lot of weird personal drama behind the scenes on the film, nothing to write a book about, but there was definitely a straining of some personal and professional relationships that thankfully doesn't show up on screen. As director, I was caught in the middle of some of it, and that made the film for me at any rate a mixed bag. I watched a documentary about the adventures of Baron Munchausen where director Terry Gillam goes over the troubled film, and says that at the end of the day the film still delights fans and that's important, so I usually go back to that view of 'Queen of the Cursed World'.
Here is the trailer for the film, and it is available at blip.tv (I tunes) and on amazon instant video if folks are interested in the zombie planet invading the galaxy!
Queen of the cursed world on blip tv
Queen of cursed world on Amazon instant video
In the film, there are robot warriors played by talented actress Cassie Young (ZP's Monstrosity), so perhaps in the future there might be a grand army of evil robots versus the zombies! Here is a recent shoot with her as an undead vampire...robots and vampires?...hmmm...
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| Cassie Lynn Young as a nosferatu, photo by Joey Goldsmith |
An interesting side note, I created the Astro Space Hero show located squarely in this science fiction universe. The first thing with Corso was events alluded to in 'Queen of the Cursed world'.
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