the Lonesome Bowies- Luke Yates

My parents owned a record store before I was born. My brother & I were fortunate enough to be born into family with a love for music. Growing up, a favorite of mine was David Bowie, his stage theatrics and ability to change style like a chameleon were unlike anything else my tiny brain could comprehend at the time. The album concepts were so visual, and to me were similar to another discovery that helped spark the creative bug in my brain at the time- comic books & their colorful characters.

Initially the idea for my project was to meld the two together somehow. Surely, anyone of Bowie's strange entities could have starred in their own uncanny comic series. The cosmic tales of love, loss & society's eventual drift toward a bleak, dystopian future were heavy sci-fi concepts that always screamed for more visual interpretation.

I decided to basically "build" an oversized comic book. The cover art to be the focus, but the book itself was the whole package. Final concept would turn my favorite songs using the lyrics to create the visual & blocky tag-lines with the feel of a classic-4 color vintage comic. Odd idea, but it could work. The first series(2009) were comprised of my own designs with an easter egg of a cover hidden in there for good measure. For 2011, I decided to pay homage to some classic(and not so classic, Rom? Really?) book covers in my opinion and have fun with it.

The original pieces are 12x18". Staple spine, 20 newsprint weight pages, with cover. The art itself is a layered blend of mixed media, and are then weathered/yellowed and dog eared. Dust, must, and even tea cup stains were all fair game. To top it off, they come signed, bagged & boarded. Designed to create a feel of that first breeze thru the back issue bins at the local book store.

A love letter to two of my biggest inspirations.

Luke