John C. Reilly’s “Dr. Steve Brule” Gets New Spinoff & Mural in Seattle
[Read Part One feat. the 179 exhibit HERE]
A few months ago, I was watching Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network when an image of a giant pie-chart that was painted on the side of a building was shown. The pie-chart was divided into 4 sections, representing what viewers could expect to witness on Adult Swim during the 2010 year. Descending from largest to smallest percentage-wise, the divided portions of the chart were as follows: “EXPLOSIONS“, “MEAT“, “P’TOOTS“, and “LOVE“. The bottom corner of the screen identified the location of the mural as being in Seattle and I recognized the spot immediately. It was on 45th St. just barely on the West side of Interstate 5, which separates Wallingford from the U-District. The building that it’s painted on contains Milano Pizza, a joint that stays open and delivers pizza until 3 am every night. Since first noticing the image on television, I’ve traveled by it and seen the painting numerous times. I’ve also seen various other locations with almost identical murals in other cities, shown on Adult Swim, generally with somebody posing in front of it. I’ve thought about taking a photo myself, but never really got around to it. On the day of the opening reception for the 179 exhibit at Upper Playground, my bus traveled past that location as usual but, as I looked off to the right to glance at the painted wall once more, I noticed that somebody was painting something else over it. At first I was disappointed but, upon further inspection, I recognized that what was being painting on the wall was a 100 times more awesome than what was on there before.
Two men with ladders and a van full of spray-paint were diligently creating an elaborate mural over the last one, so I pulled the chord to stop the bus and jumped off early to get a closer look. Adult Swim has been running some of the most forward thinking advertising campaigns over the last few years and this removal of their last promotion was only being done to make way for their latest. You may remember that one of their most notable marketing schemes involved L.E.D. versions of the Mooninite characters from the show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force being posted around various cities. You may also remember that the placement of these little neon spacemen resulted in a bomb scare in the Boston area. Since then, the network has found new ways to continue to create visually bold statements throughout communities, while avoiding the unnecessary waste of tax dollars caused by paranoid citizens and the summoning of bomb squads. This new campaign involves a giant aerosol rendering of actor, John C. Reilly‘s face and, even without that threat of explosions and destruction, the image of this new ad is no less jarring. Here are some images that I was able to capture of the piece, both finished and in progress, which was created to build hype for an upcoming show called CHECK IT OUT! The new program is a spin-off set to revolve around Reilly‘s socially awkward character of DR. Steve Brule from the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Working on the Mural
Bottom half
Lettering work
Wayne Skylar, one half of TV’s “only married news team”
Tim Heidecker as Jan Skylar
Yep, he’s free-handing this shit from a simple image that he’s holding in his other hand. As if it wasn’t mind-boggling enough that this mural was created strictly from spray paint.
I needed to keep moving and didn’t want to bother them during their work. I knew that it would be a little while before the mural was complete, so I waited 2 days and went back up to shoot the following images.
I commend the network for their constant innovation, as well as their employment of talented aerosol artists across the country. I expect to see a lot of these images popping up on the internet from various cities over the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.
According to this advertisement, the new Steve Brule program, Check It Out will debut on Adult Swim on May 16, 2010. From my understanding, the newprogram will air as 15 min. long episodes and will run consecutively after the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!.
Here are 3 promotional trailers specifically created for the program.
[vimeo width=”600″ height=”450″]http://vimeo.com/10599430[/vimeo]
[vimeo width=”600″ height=”450″]http://vimeo.com/10599572[/vimeo]
[vimeo width=”600″ height=”450″]http://vimeo.com/10599704[/vimeo]
great post as usual!