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GIZMO (Gremlins) – Story Book Edition by Mark Davies

I loved every single minute of working on this fantastic piece! I loved Gremlins as a kid and that hasn’t changed one bit. A few years back, I created ‘Midnight At The Mall’ which was brilliant from start to finish as it brought back so many great memories – I mean just the tune itself gets your head wobbling about and pulls on your heartstrings!

 

So, just like with my latest E.T. piece, I have chosen to create this new offering in a different format, and a brand-new one at that! A battered 1984 collector’s edition magazine cover that has been dusted off and framed to enjoy for many years to come. Well, if you follow these 3 rules…

1. Do NOT read after midnight
2. Do NOT get magazine wet
3. Do NOT expose cover to bright light

 

Follow those guidelines and all good! 

To date, I have VHS, Billboard, Vinyl LP, Playing Card, Cassette Tape and Story Book formats, so I thought it was time to introduce another, the magazine cover! Now, I’m not the first to do this, heck no! Yet this just makes sense and is a great link back to my formulative years when I was a graphic designer working on various publications. However, I didn’t want to fall into the trap of simply adding an image behind a masthead and offer a couple of subheadings – I wanted it to have genuine context and a real purpose and look truly authentic. 

The aspiration here was to conceive a magazine for the ‘KIDULT’ residents of Echo Falls, and beyond and position it immediately after the events of the movie, to make it real.

 

So, what we see is the first edition that follows the town’s chainsaw massacre and shines a bright light onto the one and only ‘Stripe’! There is a nice element to this feature where it raises the question of whether he was born bad or a man-made monster. I love that. You know I love to write a few lines and am a little random at times, I have embraced this within the copywriting on the magazine cover, it’s just pure good fun and makes for a great read! Not only were free 3-D glasses provided back then, but you also got a centrefold pull out poster of the green haired busty beast that is GRETA! Hubba Hubba! That saying hasn’t aged well has it, worse than the Smokeless Ashtray?

 

Did you know that the set for Gremlins was the same as for Back to the Future? The town hall building is there in both, I love that. I referenced this within ‘Midnight At The Mall’ and I have done again here to further make the magazine authentic. Doc and Marty hit the screens in 1985, whereas Gremlins was 1984, so the film preview spot not only links the two movies but makes perfect sense.

 

The style of both the original and limited editions allow me to really go for it with the mixed media elements and sees me laying down abstract paint detail as well as anything else that is within arm’s reach at the time! It’s perfect as it epitomises the chaos of the movie and the screeching whirl when that chainsaw fires up!

 

A final piece of advice, if I may. So, if your PlayStation goes on the fritz or your video doorbell blows up or your Nespresso machine conks out, before you call the repairman, turn on all the lights, check behind the picture, cause you never can tell – there just might be a gremlin in your house.