"SOMETIMES PEOPLE ONLY SEE HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE THINGS IN MY PAINTINGS..."

H.R. Giger 

The man himself.

A sad farewell to H.R. Giger, the man who shaped so much of my life. Sorry this is so belated...

Beyond the influence of my parents, Giger* is likely the person who had the biggest impact on my life and the direction I have chosen for myself.

"When I was a young boy, I was obsessed with skulls and mummies and things like that."

H.R. Giger

I always enjoyed drawing, and from early childhood I had a natural flair for it- and this gave me an appreciation for other people's work. While I was in my early teens my mother showed me the film Aliens, knowing full well I was going to love it (out of sequence, I know, but it still holds up on its own). I remember being blown away by the creature design and immediately became interested in not only the 'creation' of movies, but who could have possibly imagined such a nightmare. That, as I'm sure it did for many others, led me to the works of H.R. Giger- who had earned an academy award for his work on the first Alien film**, designing the creature itself as well as the desolate landscape of the planet where the ill fated crew of the Nostromo first encounter it. That's when I started to take art seriously; not just as an interest but as a possible career. Aliens soon became one of my all-time favorite movies.
Giger is the reason I excelled in art at school, submitted the work that I did, and pursued the subject beyond mandatory education... I may no longer seek art as a profession (well, I still do a little freelance work here and there), but it's certainly shaped who I am today.

"You get talent when you discover the ground of your pain."

 H.R. Giger

His work on Alien earned him international attention, and rightly so.

Whatever your personal opinions on his work, whether they're a kind of morbid and immature kitsch*** or a deeply unsettling and surreal look into the physical and sociological environment surrounding us, there can be no denying the level of talent and imagination required for their creation; talent and imagination that H.R. Giger had in spades...

"Some people say my work is often depressing and pessimistic, with the emphasis on death, blood, overcrowding, strange beings and so on, but I don't really think it is."

H.R. Giger

Goodbye H.R. Giger, may you forever ride the ghost train home.

February  5, 1914 - May 12, 2014.

A typical Giger piece; a surreal and Freudian sado-masochistic exploration of feminine form and bio-mechanical organs.

*It's pronounced "Geager", like eager. not as in "Geiger counter".

 **James Cammeron infamously cut H.R. Giger out of production for his sequel to Alien, choosing to work on the creature designs himself. However, Giger was subsequently rehired by David Fincher for the 3rd installment-creating what many consider (myself included) the Alien's most awe-inspiring interpretation.

***I said to my tutor "you dismiss Giger because you call his work Kitsch, but you're hanging all this shit by Andy-fucking-Warhole around the room? You don't see any irony in that?" What a clueless dick.

"IT'S NOT WHO I AM UNDERNEATH, BUT WHAT I DO THAT DEFINES ME..."

Bruce Wayne (Batman Begins)

Perhaps this will shut a few people up?

The first images of Ben Affleck in Zach Snyder's Batman reboot have surfaced on the interweb. Have to be honest about this- I think things thus far look very, very cool. Kevin Smith's enthusiasm was well deserved.

The comics have certainly inspired the 'new look'.

The suit is dark, broody and less Halo-space-amour than Nolan's vision, and as a result is much more in keeping with the comics. Affleck's put on some serious mass for the part, his arms are like tree trunks and remind me of the Frank Miller drawings!
Everyone would do well to remember that Zack Snyder has always had a near slavish devotion to aesthetics; love-or -hate his movies, just compare 'The Watchmen' and '300' to their comic-book counterparts and you'll see some very faithful interpretations.


I'd still rather see Batman keeping to his own franchise because I personally feel the notion of a 'Superman vs. Batman' film is close to autistic (even in the comics it's just plain stupid Batman can ever go toe-to-toe with an indestructible alien), but at least things are looking up. Having said that, I've still not seen Snyder's 'Man Of Steel', so I could be being a little unfair.

Here's hoping I'm pleasantly surprised...