August 21, 2012 12:15 pm

See Thirteen Pieces of Colorful Breaking Bad Fan Art

By Denise Martin

Vulture attended Saturday’s preview of the “Breaking Bad Art Project,” a curated collection on display in Los Angeles’s Gallery 1988. Presented by Breaking Gifs, a site launched by comedian and Breaking Bad super-fan Paul Scheer, the exhibit (which includes a piece by Christopher Monro DeLorenzo, above) features a mix of fan art and works Scheer commissioned from sixteen artists and graphic designers depicting some of the show’s most memorable scenes, characters, and moments. “I was a little late to the party vis a vis fan art,” series boss Vince Gilligan told us. “I don’t usually use the Internet much other than for porn, so I don’t ever look up Breaking Bad. To now see this wonderful, very creative, very skillfully executed artwork derived from this show we all work on? It’s mind-blowing.” Stars Bryan Cranston, Bob Odenkirk, Betsy Brandt, and RJ Mitte were also on hand to gawk and make purchases. (Proceeds go to the Alzheimer’s Association in memory of Barbara Slovis, the mother of Breaking Bad cinematographer Michael Slovis.) We asked them to tell us about the pieces that struck them and why. Flip through the gallery to see what they said:

Vince Gilligan: “I don’t know, it’s just so odd and not of the world and yet I love it and it seems to fit the world of Breaking Bad; this LP that looks like it’s from the fifties or sixties. Of course, kids today don’t even know what an LP is. That makes it even more special and of another time I suppose. It seems that it would better fit Mad Men but it somehow works for us.”

Bob Odenkirk: “I’ve never conceived of the character as cute. The notion of making Saul cute is so ludicrous and funny to me and the artist just totally committed to it. He made everyone funny and cute! Look at the expression on Jesse’s face! He’s so lost! He can’t juggle two yo-yos at once. He captures amazing stuff.”
Bryan Cranston: “We look like we’re little cherubs! Aren’t they fun? Almost like you can hang them in a kids room.”

RJ Mitte: “The one is all about the level of detail. Everything the show has ever mentioned about this superlab is all right here. So much detail in such a small poster. You have your chemicals, your equipment, what to do and what not to do, your product. He did an amazing job.”

Bryan Cranston: “That’s a game I used to play as a kid. I used to have a Wooly Willy. Walter White is a perfect Wooly Willy. Even the alliteration is the same. I’d like to get my hands on it. Apparently it was purchased by a rock group [Vulture heard Panic at the Disco bought it.] Now I have to go and talk to them about it because the artist only made one. I have to try and pry it out of their hands or get them to give it to me.”

A Vulture fave! It takes skill to find this many bad suits for Saul. Someone give the costume designer an Emmy already.

RJ Mitte: “It’s awesome. It’s so scary, and it’s really interesting to see because it looks a lot like Bryan!”

Bryan Cranston: “I’m most attracted to the art that makes you think and not necessarily or immediately representative of the show. This pink teddy with its ear torn off, you look at that and you go, ‘I don’t know what that means.’ You let it sit awhile. It’s a little disturbing, too. Teddys are supposed to give you a cuddly warm feeling — this Teddy does the opposite of that.”

Betsy Brandt: “I bought Ding because, I don’t mean to be a downer, but I think this is probably the closest I’ll get to having a scene with Mark Margolis on the show. I’m all for a good flashback, but it doesn’t look good for me.”

Another Vulture pick. We’d wouldn’t mind cozying up with Walter White. Not so much Heisenberg.

Vince Gilligan: “There are a lot of striking images here tonight, it’s hard to pick a favorite, they’re all wonderful. But that one seems to me very g...

Vince Gilligan: “There are a lot of striking images here tonight, it’s hard to pick a favorite, they’re all wonderful. But that one seems to me very graphically simple and economical and yet instantly striking. I’m gonna sound like some sort of art theorist, right now but I like the formality of the two characters facing in opposite directions in profile. It’s like Whistler’s Mother or even American Gothic, very formally composed, formally posed; very photorealistic and yet very graphically simple.”

Bob Odenkirk: “I love this one. It’s kind of like a movie poster with everybody on it. It’s so artistic, so complex. I love the colors.”

Another vote from Vulture. Because Wendy works hard for the money too, dammit.

Bryan Cranston: “I didn’t like that at all (laughs). As one of our writers said to me, ‘Oooh, there’s a bad day. Oww!’ I looked at it for awhile. Now, I have wrinkles on my face as you can attest to, but I’ve earned these. Those are like … I guess there’s a face in there somewhere? I was trying to figure out what that meant. Maybe every wrinkle is a lie, or a dead body.”

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See Thirteen Pieces of Colorful Breaking Bad Fan Art

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