This is a fairly frequent theme of mine. Lately, I seem to be into portraying the nasty side of life and fantasy. When I was a kid, and into Star Wars, I was always more drawn by the awesome aura of Darth Vader and the Dark Side, than by the golden boy Luke Skywalker clan. Han had some edgy chutzpath about him, but the rebels were a pretty lame goody two-shoes bunch…
Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of devil stuff. I was brought up Catholic and was always drawn towards images of Satan. I’m a staunch atheist, but I’m still fascinated by religious iconography.
Davros was another big draw for me. I was of the ‘hide behind the sofa’ generation that experienced Tom Baker’s Doctor pit his wits against the cantankerous creator of the daleks.
Zombies are another favourite with me. From Romero’s classic movies through to modern shows like ‘The Walking Dead’, I’m all over it!
One final evil character that I feel never got a decent run out is Ming the Merciless. Max Von Sydow’s performance in the 1980 Flash Gordon movie was faultless in itself, but got consumed in the camp fanfare that the film turned into. The new TV series of 2007 was said to have missed the mark. In an era of persistant Hollywood reboots, I am surprised that this franchise has never been green-lighted.
roboflow 