From thesis to road theater
Like many of us when we were in college, delivering an end-of-the-year thesis can be a trying and often mind-numbing experience. Sean Peacock, a 2022 Illustration grad of CCS (my alma mater, heyyy!) had to deliver his, and chose to create a comic book as his project. Peppermint Desert was born out of his love of rock music, classic cars, and a very quirky take on everyone’s favorite Dark Prince, the Devil.
Peacock was showing this book and some of his other projects at Motor City Comic Con this year, but its style was immediately what caught my eye on the show floor: visually it seems to combine classic surf punk with parts Archie Comics and parts spaghetti western for a very graphic and bold aesthetic. Each page of the book looks like a poster ripped from a 1950s travel guide, which in this case is the aforementioned desert. In the book we follow a couple on the run from the Devil down a Route 66 styled highway. Cacti line the sides, rolling hills and mountains dot the plains, and a lot of bullets fly as the pair make their high speed escape. Or at least try to.
Image courtesy Sean Peacock
It’s an intriguing plot, and Peacock wants to make sure that the project is more than just what we see on paper. “I create a playlist for my projects, because I feel like people will want to listen to the rock influences as they read the books.” That rock playlist turns the reading of a comic book into a Saturday afternoon jam session with our eyes and ears fully engaged in the experience. Like the classic vehicles within it, Peppermint Desert races off of its pages and straight into our ear drums, and, if we put our noses right up to the pages, we might even smell a little of the car exhaust.
You can find out more about Sean Peacock’s work at AllSorrows.com. Photo taken at Motor City Comic Con 2023 by Dali Dimovski.
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