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The Great Showdowns (2012)

by Scott C.(Favorite Author)

4.46 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1781162778 (ISBN13: 9781781162774)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Titan Books

review 1: I first discovered Scott Campbell's work around the time LOST ended. There was a gallery show full of art inspired by the show, and Scott created a bunch of his showdown pieces with Lost characters that I immediately fell in love with. His style was simple while still being quirky and unique. I've been following his blog ever since, and he never fails to produce combinations of people and things that make you laugh, smile, or think. I particularly love that the characters always have such happy expressions on their faces, regardless of whether they are Carrie at the prom or the wall Andy Dufrane chipped through to escape Shawshank.I particularly enjoyed this book because there were a number of pieces I had never seen before. I don't always recognize the movie his work come... mores from, so sometimes, I wish that there was an answer key of sorts, to let you know what you're missing. However, part of the fun remains the joy at being able to recognize the scene you're looking at.My particular favorites from this book are probably Edward Scissorhands vs the dinosaur topiary, Buddy the elf vs. Miles "call me an elf one more time" Finch, the Titantic vs the iceberg, Han vs Greedo, and the aforementioned Andy Dufrane vs the Shawshank wall.
review 2: To my shame, I’ve never been all that much of an art geek. Now, that isn’t to say that I don’t appreciate artwork because I do. I’ve been reading comic books and graphic novels for well over four decades, so I can look at some forms of drawing and painting and coloring, and I can certainly get jazzed about what it takes to put something like that down on paper for others to see, much less evaluate. But art museums and the like? I just never caught that ‘bug.’ I couldn’t say why. It could be that I just never understood the ‘inspiration’ behind the successful artist; thankfully, Scott C’s artwork in THE GREAT SHOWDOWNS isn’t lost on me.Clearly, Scott C is a film nerd, much like so, so many of us today. His particular obsession – even highlighted in his brief ‘intro’ in this small coffee-table-style book – is conflict as depicted in film … because, after all, what would the art of storytelling be without conflict? There’s no film to be had without it, and Scott C – in all his grace – has latched on to some wonderful metaphors in his watercolor illustrations here. Quite a bit of his inspiration is drawn from truly great motion pictures – THE SHINING, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, DR. STRANGELOVE to name but a few – but one can see by perusing his illustrations here that he genuinely loves good film. And who doesn’t?It’s his style that’s immediately accessible that makes THE GREAT SHOWDOWNS such a winner as a collection. There’s absolutely nothing highbrow about any of it. In fact, it’s refreshing uncomplicated – almost crude scrawling, in some cases – given life through basic watercolors. And even though he’s given new life and examination to moments of conflict, everyone – even inanimate objects – are brought to life with a slim smile. These are kid drawings, but they’re done in such a way that they unquestionably bring out the kid in each of us.And I think that’s because movies – at their core – can be so universal. As Scott C reminds us in his intro, we experience them together – collectively – in their dark. We laugh at them together. We cry at them together. We cringe at them together. It’s arguably the single-greatest collective experience left to the highly independent experience we call “life,” and, with his clever illustrations, we’re kind of reminded of those subtle moments, those memorable characters, that we all first experienced as a group in the dark. He’s a truly remarkable artist – there’s not a lot of flash and sizzle here, just some basic scribbling, colors, and those inescapable skinny smiles everywhere – and I’d encourage you to pick up and, seriously, enjoy this brief accounting of his work.THE GREAT SHOWDOWNS is published by Titan Books. It includes a clever and brief – much like the artist’s approach to his work here – foreword by Neil Patrick Harris, as well as an introduction to the work by the painter himself. For the record, the only thing that’s missing here is a key – something that could identify precisely what film or program inspired the work – and I throw that out only as a suggestion should there ever be a second draft; for folks like me who, perhaps, haven’t seen every flick rendered so winningly here, it would’ve been nice – even a bonus for using the neat li’l book for trivia contests – but it certainly isn’t absolutely necessary. Without much effort, I think I recognized well over 90% of what’s depicted here, and that’s without even having seen some of the motion pictures.HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION. It’s a rare opportunity to peek inside the mind of a creative artist, but THE GREAT SHOWDOWNS – even with its brevity – shows the utter genius of Scott Campbell at work. His simple yet elegant watercolor illustrations cut immediately to the heart of conflict as seen in film – be it the Alien Queen facing off against a heavily-mechanized Ellen Ripley in ALIENS or the likes of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson threatening the smiling young punk from PULP FICTION. Who knows? If you look close enough, these paintings might even make you think about the film (the artist’s original inspiration from his work) in a whole new light, and THAT is nothing short of an amazing accomplishment when measured up against the painter’s preferred plainness. It’s brilliant, and I’d encourage art fans, film nerds, and just plain good old-fashioned geeks to run out and pick up a copy today.In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the good folks at Titan Books provided me with a review copy of THE GREAT SHOWDOWNS for the expressed purpose of completing this review. less

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