Illustrator Amusingly “Unmasks” the True Identities of Pop Culture Icons for New Book

Alex Solis continues to marvel us with his clever series Icons Unmasked. The witty cartoon-style portraits reveal the unknown “identities” of famous characters in pop culture, and their costumed alter-egos might surprise you. All along, a babbling Minion has been lurking beneath the facade of a Storm Trooper, while the evil Mister Burns is really the one controlling famed billionaire-turned-politician Donald Trump.

The success of Solis' series is in his clever pairings. Normally, the two characters exist in different universes, yet Solis links them using a specific, shared aspect–be it name, personality quirk, or species. We then begin to imagine these two in a whole new light, which is an underlying goal of Solis' work. He explains, “I'm trying to bring a new sense of discovery to characters everyone has seen hundreds of times.”

Solis' on-going project has been one of his most popular to date, and he's recently compiled a number of the illustrations into a book by the same name. If you'd like to own a copy, it's now available for pre-order on Kickstarter.

Alex Solis: Kickstarter | Website | Facebook | Instagram | Society6
via [Design TAXI]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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