The “Laughs Last” section on the back page of Portland Monthly magazine’s October issue features an eye-catching illustration (see it below).
It’s a make-believe movie poster for Collision Course, which is “Coming this Halloween to a Theater Near You” and stars “Bikers vs. Cars”.
Under the movie title is the tagline:
“Feel the spine-snapping suspense as two-wheeled warriors challenge horsepower-mad mutants for the right-of-way. Will anyone survive?”
The focus of the illustration are two figures, one of them a drooling beast lunging from its car, with spikes on its knuckles and cell phones dangling from its hulking shoulders. An outsretched arm is raised menacingly in the direction of the other figure.
The other figure is astride a bicycle that has been shattered by the car’s grill. The warrior-like figure on the bike has it’s arms raised with wheels-turned-weapons, knives protruding from the tires.
Then, set against a red background of what looks like it could be splatterings of blood are the words, “Filmed on the streets of Portland!”
Here’s the illustration:
It’s important to note that magazines like this work on a 3-4 month lead time. My hunch is that this illustration was inspired by the frenzy over a series of bike/car road-rage stories that were sensationalized by the Oregonian back in July.
In a strange twist, the artist Lukas Ketner who created this illustration, works a few doors down from me. I just asked him about it and he confirmed my hunch. He said that the magazine contacted him with the “bikes vs. cars” movie poster spoof idea.
It’s an amazing drawing and I really like Ketner’s work (check out this Obama illustration), but I’m having trouble finding the humor or entertainment value in this illustration. But maybe it’s me. I’m admittedly over-sensitive to this sort of thing.
What do you think about it?