We all know the Circus of Values clown. We’ve all bought ammo, EVE hypos and health kits “from him” dozens of times. But did you know that he originally sold melons?
While the fact that some of the BioShock series’ period artwork appears to have been inspired by real-world vintage advertisements was already known (shown on the BioShock wiki, for example, here, here and here), this extensive GIF album, put together by redditor UpgradeTech, does a really good job of showing off these influences. In fact, UpgradeTech was the one responsible for uploading many of the original ads on the Wiki in the first place.
Here’s the album. Be warned, GIF #5 is NSFW.
Comments
5 responses to “The Origins Of BioShock’s Vintage Art”
That’s an impressive amount of research there. I was expecting a handful of images, not 29.
Holy crap, you didn’t count the number of images and put it in the title!!
Good to know that “inspired” can now be used instead of “ripped off” or “traced over”.
The original artwork is old enough to be outside copyright protection. It’ll be public domain now, free to be used by anyone.
I know, I wasn’t implying that it is illegal or anything. Just that it’s a bit cheap and that the word “inspired” is misused in the article.