Witnesstheabsurd

Commission - Goblin Zombie Shirt Design

Added 2023-09-24 11:51:11 +0000 UTC

A few months ago I was contacted by Nyhmnim, also known informally as Gage, a professional Yu-Gi-Oh tournament player/Youtuber who commissioned a shirt design from me of Goblin Zombie , a YGO card that while mostly irrelevant in the modern format has become something of a breakout hit in what's referred to as "Edison" format where cards available for play are restricted to a certain timespan (If I recall correctly, Edison format specifically simulates the meta from the year 2010) and is a signature card in Gage's own deck. The shirt design (available for preorder HERE) was intended to promote a tournament organized by his org/shop, OPTML.

Goblin Zombie as a design exemplifies a specific kind of visual language Kazuki Takahashi made his own - ornamental piping, inset art-nouveau esque orbs, pseudo-skeletal decorative forms that sit somewhere between the camp of tokusatsu villain apparel and Jomon pottery. Goblin Zombie in particular is compelling to me because nothing about it at a glance suggests the usual depiction of a "Zombie", trading in asymmetry, decay and the image of a corpse for a kind of sculptural, jewelled corpus, raising immediate questions about the nature of the entity. Is the Goblin Zombie ceremonially preserved at death like one of the counter-Reformation "Katakombenheiliger"? Is the living counterpart to the Goblin Zombie simply so bizarre morphologically speaking that it's decayed, skeletal appearance resembles no other organism?

"Goblin" as a term usually denotes the most mundane and traditional tier of monstrous opponent in material where they're depicted, and a rank-and-file "Zombie" is usually lumped into the same category, but here the "Goblin Zombie" bucks both trends quite spectacularly, leaving quite an impact. It feels appropriate to the undead that it would be "resurrected" into the Edison format scene, and I was very happy to assist in the process.

I included the initial thumbnails offered to the client, as well as the rough that would become the final piece. This brief was an opportunity to flex my typography, and I freehanded a prog-esque title/logo to accompany the Goblin Zombie.