The Beatles have hired legendary comic book artist Alex Ross to create a series of paintings of the band Alex Ross made his name with his painted, nearly photorealist artwork for superhero comic books, most famously Kingdom Come and Marvels . Now he's turning his hand to a different set of visual icons. Rolling Stone can exclusively reveal Ross's series of illustrations of the Beatles , created with the blessing of the band's organization Apple Corps. Ross is set to unveil the artwork in person at this week'sComic-Con InternationalinSan Diego.
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The first fruit of the project was a six-foot-wide print of the band; a painterly, CinemaScope-style re-envisioning of the distinctly cartoony, two-dimensional imagery from the Beatles' 1968 animated movie Yellow Submarine .
"I was very much raised on that film," Ross tells Rolling Stone ,"so I know every detail of it, and I can import that into my work, as though it was a live-action film that they starred in. I was warned at the outset that they might not get approval from the [John Lennon and George Harrison] estates to release it formally that it was a kind of test. I thought I might not get another chance at this, so I wanted to put everything plus the kitchen sink in one piece of art."
The initial Yellow Submarine print turned out well enough, though, that Apple and Ross now have an ongoing relationship. Next up is a set of four images that Ross is working on now: portraits of the individual Beatles, each surrounded by vignettes from Yellow Submarine , and again illustrated in Ross's modeled, hyper-realistic style rather than Heinz Edelmann's stylized, flat designs from the actual movie. (The portrait of Ringo Starr includes a scene based on the film's sequence in which time goes backwards and the Beatles are turned into younger versions of themselves; Ross worked from reference photos of what the four of them actually looked like as children.)
The look of the Fab Four in Ross's Yellow Submarine images is based on his research into the real-life sources for Edelmann's designs, which he notes were mostly inspired by the Beatles' outfits and hairstyles at the release party for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. "They took great liberties with the colors and everything, but those were the particular hairstyles," Ross says. "I love the idea of treating the movie as if they'd been engaged to make this absurd fantasy that they actually filmed on some kind of green-screen soundstage."
Ross will eventually go on to illustrate other phases of the Beatles' career, but notes that he has a special fondness for their visual presentation during the Rubber Soul period of late 1965. "It's just on the precipice before they would completely blow out to greater individuality," he says. "But there's something about almost every era, related to each album, that I can find inspiration from."
And he takes obvious delight in illustrating the Beatles themselves. "The four of them were just fascinating-looking men," Ross says. "These are incredibly unique faces. And what they introduced to the world was such an avant-garde expression, opening us up from what had been a very stifled look for men. They completely overwhelmed a generation."
The Magical Mystery Tour, a Yellow Submarine......the British Invasion of the 60's
The most memorable band of all time, the music of my childhood .....
And beautiful art work too.
Enjoy!
I have never seen these before and they are just amazing!
Do you know if you can purchase them?
A fellow Beatles Fan!
BTW did you have a favorite Beatle and why?
Perrie
Glad you liked the pictures
I never thought much about an individual Beatle but I guess it would be George Harrison - he wrote some of the songs I liked (Here Comes the Sun, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Taxman) and as a young lad, I thought Ravi Shankar was cool so that helped.
Also George was a little more subdued from a publicity standpoint back then and focused largely on the music and little else.
What wonderful pieces of art.
Loved them RIO.
My Beatles preferences were similar to yours, ROI, including Ravi Shankar.
Kavika
Glad you liked them, thanks for the feedback
Buzz
Appreciate the feedback
It was an exciting time in music for sure
I have seen these somewhere before-- perhaps in another lifetime! These are great!
Dowser
Thanks for the feedback
I a glad you liked the pictures, I too thought these were great pieces of art