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Vampire Economy for Mother Jones

MARCH 4, 2011

Recently I was asked by Tim Luddy of Mother Jones to paint the cover for the March issue.  The idea was that the economy has some inherent problems that essentially bleeds us dry.  The image, from Tim L, was of the classic Dracula and damsel, only the damsel this time is the United States.  Alex Ross did a wonderful Bush as Vampire for the Village Voice in 2008.
Our Dracula is a simple and clean  image and makes for an arresting cover.
With Mother Jones and Tim Luddy we have a major fan of illustration.  Both on the web and in print, the magazine is filled with thought provoking images and writing that makes it  a standout.  Like Runner's World and PlanSponsor and a few others, Mother Jones pushes illustration out there as a means to convey complex stories and each turn of the page has you arrive at a new idea with an unexpected image.
The legendary Randall Enos opens the issue with this illustration .
The inventive imagination of Marcos Chin evident in this illustration.
A effective spot illo from Gordon Studer.


A tour de force project from Jason Schneider. It stitches this longer article together and makes these charts easy to digest.

This one is a great spread by the remarkable Bill Mayer. A fight poster motif that goes across the gutter and makes this article seem alive. A stellar mix of illustration and art direction.

Finally, Stephen Colbert had a few words to say about this issue and the income disparity in this country...

© 2024 Tim O'Brien