Sunday, April 25, 2010

Resident Evil: Extinction

From the Resident Evil movies "Extinction" is the post-apocalyptic one. Mankind has nearly disappeared and only few survivors are trying to make their way through an infested country. And if there wasn’t Milla Jovovich like an avenging angel nobody would made it.

That’s a nice occasion to show the glamour of Las Vegas in ruins. Like relics of a bygone civilization there are the Eiffel Tower and Lady Liberty.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Exotic Orient

Like many other artists of this time the Scottish painter David Roberts (1796–1864) traveled in the early 19th century to Egypt. But different from others he intended from the beginning to sell his artwork later as lithographs to a greater public. And as true son of the romantic movement he drew dramatic sketches of exotic ruins, still covered with paintings and half buried in the sand. Maybe he was the first to discover the special attraction of exotic ruins at all.


Probably it was due to this combination of romantic interpretation and (unromantic) mass production that Roberts gained this enormous influence on the iconography of ruins. Without his artworks many modern films and videogames like Tombraider or Indiana Jones would have a different look.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Defending New York

Mighty Samson was a post-apocalyptic comic created by writer Otto Binder and artist Frank Thorne and published by Gold Key between 1964 and 1982.


Mighty Samson is a kind of superhero who has to fight with evil humans and mutated monsters. Here in #4 he’s defending New York against foreign scrap robbers. Despite I don’t understand why anybody should fight about metal scrap in a world full of ruins, it’s nice to meet Lady Liberty again and to see that she will be defended by our hero.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Exotic Battlefields


Two beautiful paintings by the Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin (1842-1904).

Vereshchagin was probably the most famous Russian battle painter of his time and accompanied the Russian army on it’s campaigns in Central Asia. At the first look the paintings look idyllic, war and misery are hidden only indicated by the vultures above.