illustration

Truck Torrance, a.k.a. 100% Soft, chooses subversive subjects for his absurdly adorable illustrations. Bill Murray becomes a chibi version of himself in his different roles. Wolverine and Kitty Pryde smile on the cover of Days of Future Past. And movie villains from far and wide gather on a single poster, a demented campout of cutesy evil.

Many of Eduardo Peña's digital paintings are grand in scale, depicting Earth-shattering demonic forces, cities torn apart by mecha battles, the fearsome sandworms of Dune. But he also captures smaller, tenser moments: Batman and Bane meeting in the murky light, the Joker caught in a rare private thought, a cat watching a robot on a misty morning.

Paulina Ganucheau is the artist behind the magical girl webcomic Zodiac Starforce, so she's no stranger to drawing butt-kicking ladyfolk. Her portfolio is filled with sci-fi heroines, princesses turned powerful and offbeat mythological creatures that look monstrous at first, but couple probably use a hug.

Jeff Langevin collects objects from video games, books, movies, and TV shows in his weathered posters, evoking nostalgia for all the familiar pieces. In addition to these more design-heavy pieces, Langevin also does figure work, including his romantic portrait of Wonder Woman and Alphonse Mucha-inspired illustrations.

If you spend a lot of time look through the t-shirts on Threadless, you may have seen Aled Lewis' frequently punny designs—and his charmingly goofball images featuring plastic toys and snarky text. But he has more fun images up on his website, including scenes of Battle Royale, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz reimagined as arcade games.

Gaming dice get their own personalities in the hands of Lee Bretschneider, who creates portraits of everyone from your everyday d6 to the regal d100. He also dreams up labels for Harry Potter-themed booze, goofy fanart, and plenty of music and roller derby posters.

Patrick Connan's artwork has been making the rounds lately, in part because of his simple but wonderfully clever trio of chess-inspired Lord of the Rings posters and in part because of his contribution to the Hero Complex Gallery's Jaws tribute art show. But Connan has put his spin on many, many more movies, dreaming up new posters and pop culture mashups.

A few weeks ago, artist SalBa Combé tickled our tricolor nostalgia with his remake of The Powerpuff Girls intro sequence. He also plays with the visuals from classic NES games, The Dark Knight Rises and He-Man, when he isn't sketching up his very own Mecha Army.

Artist John Loren's "hypothetical perfect movie" is a stop-motion animated Spider-Man, and offers his own concept design—as well as a few other Spidey-themed drawings. He also imagines his own version of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, caricatures the bands Mumford & Sons and Tenacious D, and sketches up a squirt-gun showdown and a rather dapper zombie. ...

There's a storybook playfulness to Liam Barrett's illustrations that simultaneously evokes Western folk art and modern digital art. So it's appropriate that so many of his pieces feature colorful monsters, coyly macabre cats and devils engaged in nefarious pursuits.