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Hollywood Creature Designer Gives the Justice League a Zombie Virus
By Great White Snark | January 23, 2009
Marvel Zombies has been a huge hit for Marvel, but DC has thus far failed to follow suit by giving their universe of characters the zombie-treatment in epic fashion.
Because they’re too good to stoop to copycatting or whatever. Fools.
Click for higher-rez image. (Opens Flickr in new window.)
UPDATE: The bounds of my comic book geekiness have found their limit; Casey points out that JLA zombies appeared in JLA: The Obsidian Age, Book 2.
Enter Casey Love, former owner of a skateboard company turned freelance Hollywood creature designer. Casey’s amazing work has appeared and will appear in movies such as The Cave, Resident Evil: Extinction, AVP: Requiem, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Race to Witch Mountain, and Dragon Ball.
(Yes, Dragon Ball. So, thanks to Casey, not everything about that movie will completely suck steaming awfulness.)
Through a series of commissions, Casey has zombie-fied several members of the Justice League–including Batman, Superman, The Flash, and Hawkman–in beautifully-detailed, horrific, life-sized sculptures.
Casey patiently explained his process to me. (Apparently, “When’s the part when you make it look AWESOME?” is not a particularly insightful interview question.)
The time it takes on each project can vary depending on complexity of design etc. Everything starts with a concept, weather it be done on paper, in clay or digitally in the computer. I will also sometimes just start with clay or a what we call a “maquette,” [...] a small scale sculpture that is created to show what the final design will be.
After the design is done, I will then create it at the right scale (lifesize or larger). An armature is usually created to sculpt onto so the clay will have a good support or structure to hold it in place. An armature is basically just a support, you can think of it like a skeleton made of aluminum wire.
If the design is to be a mask then I will sculpt onto a life cast which is a cast taken of an actor or person from the chest up.
For sculpting I literally must have hundreds of sculpting tools but I tend to stick to a dozen or so favorites. Each piece has to be prepped, seamed, base coated and then painted. I mainly use an airbrush as well as a brush for smaller details like eyes etc to paint my pieces
Uh. So. At which point, exactly, do you add the awesomeness, again?
Check out more close-ups of Zombie Superman and Zombie Batman in Casey’s online portfolio. Thanks much to Casey for sharing the deets.
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Topics: Batman, Crafts and Hacks, Zombies | 7 Comments »
Tags: Crafts and Hacks, Justice League, Zombies
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Very freakin’ awesome, brother! I love this stuff so much :)
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Note that DC is going in this direction with the upcoming Blackest Night event. The Black Lanterns will be many of DC’s dead characters — some of whom will *look* like these guys…
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:34 pm
@Rich: Yep, can’t wait to see alternate-Earth Superman with a black power ring.
January 24th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Fantastisch!
January 26th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Sorry, is it me, or are those wine toppers?
January 26th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
@Shithead: I wish. I would start drinking wine.
September 13th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Sorry, two words;
Marvel. Zombies.
DC is a boring ass Comic brand. Only Batman (And to a lesser extent Superman) keep it afloat. There are no good third party comics (Watchmen) released anymore.