Al-Qaeda Fantasy

When I saw these paintings by Boris Vallejo for the first time, I couldn’t avoid thinking of the 9/11. Maybe old Osama and the guys in Afghanistan were great fans of Boris Vallejo. But in the end I don’t think so. The big similarity derives from the fact that the best apocalypse has still to happen in New York.


Vallejo did the paintings in 1997 to illustrate a text by Philip José Farmer.

Colosseum Ruins for Dallas

Not long ago I stumbled upon this interesting project called CO-OP CANYON by the architecture firm Standard. It was planned as a sustainable, zero carbon, no waste water community of modern, terraced urban dwelling house in Dallas.



This architects claimed that they draw their inspirations from the villages of the Anasazi Indians. But I recognize only the Roman Colosseum. Even better as the original this quotation of a ruin is covered with plants.

The Last Boy on Earth

Kamandi is a comic book character. The DC Comics series was published from 1972 to 1978. Kamandi lives on a on a post-apocalyptic Earth where a disaster had wiped out civilization and a great part of the human population. Only some few communities survived in underground bunkers.

The series is neither well drawn nor is the story very interesting. Kamandi looks like many of the usual superheroes and meets similar looking enemies.

To me the most interesting thing of the whole series is the cover of the first issue showing the usual rests of Lady Liberty.

Downstream: Post Apocalyptic Movie

Downstream is a new post apocalyptic movie announced for 2009. The oil resources has collapsed, great parts of the female population died and food is running short…

Sounds like a new version of the good old Mad Max story a little more western style. Till Today there is only a small website and a trailer on Youtube.

World War Battlefield

In the French Vosges, a mountain range near the German border, there can be found a lot of remnants from World War I. One of the most cruel and futile battles raged around a hill called "Hartmannsweilerkopf".

The once devastated landscape has long recovered but still there are many bunkers, dugouts and trenches.


Some zones which saw the hardest fighting and soaked the most blood are now transformed into memorials. Without any doubt that’s a good idea, but what I cannot understand, why they put there white crosses for they fallen French and black ones for the Germans. I don’t hope that they intend the crosses to proceed with that senseless fighting.

Winter Ruins

The French artist Jules Laurens (1825-1901) accompanied a French diplomat on his voyage to Turkey and Persia (1846-48) where he made thousand sketches and drawings. Some he used later as patterns for oil paintings.

I find especially these two paintings impressive. They tell of a great past, of times that have passed by long ago. I don’t know if Laurens invented the snow but it is intensifying the effect enormously.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the ruins of Chernobyl

Here some pictures of another shooter game. "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl". It’s made by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World and published in 2007.

The background is borrowed from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker and the graphics are influenced by the abandoned city of Prypiat.

At least it’s another example for how popular ruins are among video gamers.

More information about the game (in Spanish) and nice screenhots can be found there.

Exotic Ruins by Catherwood

Frederick Catherwood (1799–1854) was an English artist, architect and explorer. Like many who were interested in old ruins Catherwood began with trips to Northern Africa and the Near East, but he became really famous for his impressive detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization.



To my mind Catherwood was the first European artist who focused on the exotic aspect of ruins. They are no classical or gothic, pre modern western architecture. They are strange, alien. It fits, that they were found in the jungle, covered with earth and plants.

Here I think is the big influence of Catherwood, reaching till modern day films like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or "Tomb Raider".

Fallout 3: Post-Apocalyptic Shooter

Here a trailer from the video Game Fallout 3.



I’m no great fan of shooter games, but seeing the really impressive ruin scenery, the cutting irony of the trailer I will think it over.

Romantic Ruin Paintings

Romantic Ruin Paintings by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901).



It’s evident how important is a spectacular illumination for a good ruin image, for photos as well.