Patrol of Terror, Real Men magazine cover 1966

Victor Prezio made this cover illustration for Real Men magazine with paint and ink, and it’s dripping with a certain kind of mid-century anxiety. The colors are stark, but the application feels kind of casual, like Prezio was working fast, thinking on his feet. I'm drawn to how the shadows are laid down, almost like big, smudgy charcoal marks that haven't quite been blended. It's a cool way to build tension and lets the viewer fill in the gaps, which is kind of disturbing. The overall effect is that the whole thing feels raw and exposed, like a half-remembered dream. This piece reminds me of some of Philip Guston's later work, where he also used this kind of blunt, almost cartoonish style to deal with some really heavy stuff. It makes you think about how art can be a way to wrestle with things that are hard to talk about, and how sometimes, the messier the process, the more honest the result.