Planet Madness: Illustration inspired by detective comics and 1950s America

In his series Planet Madness, Hungarian director and motion designer Rene Mednyanszky has provided his own spin on the period – injecting supernatural characters into neat concrete landscapes that contain pop cultural references associated with the time.

A bottle green vintage car is slotted under the yellow awning of the Blue Moon Diner, while a mummy stands by. A woman rides an escalator through a twisted, concrete landscape reminiscent of a scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. An unmistakably 1950's brown suit and hat balance in mid-air in front of a hotel tower block, with a yellow taxi cab parked outside.

The methods used to create the images are photo-manipulation and digital painting. Mednyanszky states his inspiration for the series as detective comics, 1950s America, Magical Realism and Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite Introduction theme.