Evil Clown

 

Sketch for the villain in "Die Groszstadt" ...an evil ice cream selling clown. Maybe it is a clichée since John Wayne Gayce but I am sure the fear for clowns was known long before him. Archetypes work better for fairytales because they don't need long explainations. It's the same with horrormovies. Once they try to explain they are getting dull and boring.

Die Groszstadt - Part II

Maybe you can see it is also a tribute to George Grosz (1893-1959) hence the spelling in the original title. It doesn't translate too well into english because we have this funny "ß". George Grosz changed the spelling from Groß into Grosz because he wanted to let it appear less german and more international. Same with John Heartfield who was born as Helmut Herzfeld. I did just read that a possible translation for Kremers could be Chandler....but then again: What would Raymond do?

Die Groszstadt

 Hänsel und Gretel in der Groszstadt
 (Hansel and Gretel in the big city)

Excerpt from illustration project at the university, 2010, during the lectureship of Lars Henkel. We had to come up with a new setting for the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. So in the story we don't have bread crumbs, a wood or a witch. Not even a oven I did choose an early 1930s city and an evil icecream selling clown as the witch.