It seems that scenic San Francisco is the latest stop for bedbugs on their nationwide comeback tour. SFBG art director Ben Hopfer wanted to give this cover feature illo the full horror movie treatment, and I was more than happy to oblige.
My first sketch shows a pair of oversized, overstuffed crawlies creeping towards a wide-eyed, screaming gal:
After seeing the first sketch, Ben asked that we see our victim asleep, since the bloodsuckers typically strike while we're snoozing. I think it's a good call, since it makes the illo even creepier. Ben also asked to see more bedbugs, so I generously piled on one additional critter, for a whopping total of three. By now, the editors had supplied their headline, so I broke out one of my trusty horror poster books for lettering reference.
Ben approved the second sketch with one last request, (more blood!), and it was time to go to final art:
Dear readers, will the next stop on the bedbugs' nationwide tour be our very own bedrooms? Let's hope not! As a bonus, here's a G-rated bedbug illo I drew for Michael Gentile at Habitat back in November of 2006:
Your bedbugs ROCK!
ReplyDeleteI think this is creepier than the one with the three large bedbugs approaching the laaaaaaaady.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the first David Cronenberg horror film, They Came From Within, in which worm-like parasites spread from resident to resident in an apartment tower-block in Toronto, giving rise to fevered outbreaks of sexual behavior among the infected residents. It's a sort of "Night of the Living Dead" scene, but instead of undead zombies eating the living, it's the living controlled by parasites and driven to infect others through an epidemic of fucking. The parasites are shown in a couple of scenes as moving lumps beneath the skin, like your bedbugs in the second illo here.
These bedbugs can ruin your sleep. Be sure to maintain the cleanliness in your home to avoid these pests.
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