FICTIONAL IDEAS MADE REAL.

Imagine a museum where comic-book legends are commemorated amongst important historical figures. It adds a blast of reality to the whole superhero idea. Leo Caillard created these digital marble and bronze busts, and photoshopped them into the Louvre’s galleries.
https://www.leocaillard.com

Below, a monument to the famous Staten Island Ferry Disaster of 1963, when a giant octopus dragged a commuter boat under. Of course, this event never happened. Made by Joe Reginella, the monument was placed at an appropriate spot, Battery Park in Manhattan, where you can see the ferries coming and going. Many tourists were understandably confused by this pop-up memorial.

Clearly, it must be inspired by Jules Verne’s 1870 novel, “20 Thousand Leagues under the Seas,” or perhaps by the 1954 movie (which dropped the “s” at the end). In this classic poster, a massive giant squid attacks Captain Nemo’s submarine.

Fake museum website: http://www.sioctopusdisaster.com/memorial.html
The disaster occurred on the same day as the assassination of President Kennedy, which is why it was lost in the news. The real Cornelius G. Kolff ferry was retired in 1987, used as a prison ship until 1997, and scrapped in 2004.

A typical Staten Island Ferry.

Photograph by Rachel So.

Editor’s note: Some people wonder why I sometimes have design and art-themed posts (like this) on an infographics blog. Well, it’s because I believe that we have to be aware of all things visual in order to create our best infographics and data visualizations. These general influences make our work better.