The Young Frankenstein of Illustration
By Jillian Locke

“Zombie movies, when they’re not just fun and silly, are really just disaster movies, and it’s the way people behave towards each other that makes them interesting.” Out of all the quotes I got from illustrator Derek Ring, this one really stuck in my brain. Maybe it’s because I feel it provides the most genuine glimpse into the artist’s mind and into the motivation behind the work that gave birth to the world of Abnormal Brain.

The 35 year old Worcester resident didn’t start off with the most abnormal of subject matter ~ he started off with the classics. “I was about 4 years old and my granddad had bought me some sketchbooks. They were like Disney coloring books, the cover had all the Disney characters, but there were no illustrations inside, just blank, coarse paper. I started copying Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck from the cover. I always liked Donald Duck. He’s such a prick.”

Abnormal Brain first saw the light of day back in the late nineties, when Ring decided to create a dotcom for his illustrated manifestations. “I was doing a lot of Frankenstein stuff at the time and liked the idea of something that referred to the more goofy side of the Frankenstein mythology, specifically from Young Frankenstein. It’s just a good name that lets people know ahead of time that what I’m doing might be a bit mental.”

The portfolio behind the world of Abnormal Brain may be mental indeed, but it’s ridiculously fascinating and pleasing to the eye ~ that is, if zombies and edgy art is your thing. Ring’s illustrations are dripping in psychobilly zombie mayhem, an affinity Ring simply attributes to the fact that zombies “…are fun to draw. And mental and maniacal. And what’s a better subject matter than maggots, mischief, rotten teeth and boobs?” Or better yet, how about the way human beings react to walking corpses trying to eat their brains ~ terror, desperation, survival mode? If nothing else, zombies turn the human psyche inside-out, much like this young Frankenstein’s illustrations teeter on the brink of insanity and…abnormality.

In many people’s eyes, zombies are an integral part of artistic tradition. Ring’s two favorite zombie films are Night of the Living Dead and 28 Days Later; the first is a classic in terms of zombie cinematography, a film after which so many later interpretations have been modeled. In 28 Days Later, a clear ode to the new zombie regime, zombies don’t just limp and groan after their able-bodied prey, but actually charge them at break-neck speed. These two choices definitely seem to run parallel to Ring’s choice in media.

“I’d prefer to be a traditional pencil-paint-and-pen artist. While working at ad agencies back in the 90s, I got really good at making stuff in Adobe Illustrator and fell in love with the precision and control that’s inherent in that program,” Ring explains.

Ring’s work can be seen on posters and album art for such bands as Nytmare, The Memphis Morticians (an amazing specimen of zombie art), Flock of Assh*les, the Deadites, and many more.

Check out Ring’s most badass offerings from the abnormal half of the brain at
abnormalbrain.bizland.com and
derekring.blogspot.com.