Best Art Ever

It’s the beginning of a new era for the Star Wars saga. Love the movies, loathe them, cherish them or criticize them, the undeniable fact is that when a new Star Wars movie comes out, the world pays attention. The concepts, stories, environments, and, of course, characters of the Star Wars universe provide a bountiful well of creativity which pervades culture around us. The well doesn’t always provide the best, but it does provide and Star Wars: The Force Awakens has done well to provide so far, especially when it comes to fan art inspiration. Characters like Finn and Rey seem from the outset to carry a spark that’s been difficult to replicate since the days of Luke kicking sand around gazing into the horizon of Tatooine. Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma provide a sense of awe, fear, and mystery that will serve their parts in the antagonistic Empire well. Of course, Han and Chewie are still kicking around, having gone from youthful renegades to grizzled veterans.

For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire. And what an Empire it was! Just as the Star Wars universe is lauded and loved for its heroes, those heroes would have no way to prove their bravery and valor without the best bad guys in the galaxy. Sure the Joker and Loki are incredibly popular, but Star Wars has the power to take characters with one or two lines of dialogue and make them full blown cultural icons. Or make dozens of highly sought after action figures based on characters with zero lines of dialogue who do little more than briefly stand around in the background. Vader famously said, “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side”, but let’s celebrate that power with this small collection of fan art and see if we can’t get a better idea.

For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. And for almost 40 years, Star Wars has captured the imaginations of men, women, and children from... well, not a thousand, but several generations! It’s hard to imagine a movie, or any other work outside of a religious text, that’s touched as many and had as powerful an impact on pop culture specifically --- and culture in general --- as Star Wars. To mark the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we've compiled some of the best fan art we could find celebrating the heroes of the original Star Wars trilogy. (And a few from the Prequels, because, why not?)

Ever since it first hit bookshelves in 2008, Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series has been a pop culture phenomenon. As the Twilight series started to fade away, The Hunger Games was the next book-based franchise starring a female protagonist to successfully make the jump from literary success to massive Hollywood hit. With the last of the Hunger Games movies arriving in theaters, we've collected some of the best Hunger Games fan art ever for you to enjoy.

In an alternate timeline where nuclear energy paved the way to all kinds of technological advancements (including robotic servants), the Fallout series plays off of the often unsaid fears that were prevalent throughout American culture during the Cold War, when humanity was seemingly calm about the potential of a nuclear catastrophe, just as long as everybody was able to get their slice of the American Dream. In order to celebrate the launch of Fallout 4, we're scrounged up the best fan art of the franchise we could find. Just don't be surprised if you're left glowing green by the end of it.

Ever since the original Tomb Raider title first debuted in 1996 for the Sony PlayStation, players have been falling head over heels for Lara Croft and her Indiana Jones-inspired gameplay. As the first few Tomb Raider games would go on to gain widespread success, all eyes were on Lara during the late 1990s, fixated on the new female face of the video game industry (sorry Samus). To celebrate this week's launch of Rise of the Tomb Raider, it's time we go spelunking and exploring across the world in search of the best fan art we could find starring Lara Croft.

Halloween is almost here. In fact, it basically couldn’t be any closer because it’s All Hallow’s Eve. Or Devil’s Night if you’re a Crow fan. As you’re planning your spooky activities, mapping out your candy begging routes, and putting the finishing touches on your costumes, we’ve got one last treat Halloween treat for you! This ghoulish gallery devoted to everyone’s favorite shambling, abomination to medicine and religion, Frankenstein! I don’t want to get too book report-y here, because you have access to Wikipedia for that, but Frankenstein’s grip on the public’s imagination, and more importantly how quickly and how long it’s held that grip, is something that cannot be undervalued or disregarded. Whatever reason has brought you here to look at these images, I’m going to assume at least part of it has to do with what place Frankenstein (or “Frankenstein’s Monster” if you’re one of those people) holds in your heart or your nightmares.

Over the course of the last several decades, James Bond has come across his fair share of villains. They’re some of the most colorful class of egomaniacs, sociopaths, thugs, dental problems, hat throwers, and femme fatales. This veritable cast of sometimes classy, sometimes crass criminals all present a unique challenge to Mr. Bond. Whether he’s tied to a chair, strapped a table, or hanging precariously over another death trap, Bond will often inevitably fall into his enemy’s clutches. Lucky for him they also tend to monologue for a while and then leave him alone with more than enough time to figure out how not to die in their precarious traps. Dr. No came out in 1962. It starred Sean Connery along with Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder and Joseph Wiseman as the nefarious Dr. No. More than fifty years later, Connery and several more 007s have worked their way through a cavalcade of bad boys and girls who just want to own the world, destroy the world, or do any other number of things that catch the iconic M16’s attention. Being around for so long, there’s no lack of infatuation with creating art based around this colorful cast. We scoured for some of the best the rabid fan base had to offer to the iconic spy universe. We hope you’ll enjoy this extensive gallery of Bond baddies.

2015 is the 30th anniversary of Jem (and, to a lesser extent, the Holograms), and with her outstanding new comic series from IDW in comic stores and her very first feature film hitting theaters nationwide, there’s no better time to celebrate our favorite hologram-powered, rock ‘n roll superhero!

Well, it’s been almost 26 years, but we’re finally here; October 21, 2015. This is the day in the far flung future that Marty McFly traveled to in 1989’s Back To The Future Part II; The impossibly distant future time where everyone would have hoverboards and flying cars. I assume you’re reading this as you put on your talking clothes, getting ready to eat your miraculously expanding pizzas. OK, if the future isn't quite what we expected, at least we have this awesome collection of Back To The Future fan art to keep us entertained!