Interview: The Savage and Seductive Artwork of Rick Melton
Interview with Rick Melton
Interview conducted by Keri O’ Shea – April 2011
Probably the most singularly striking thing about the latest wave of classic horror releases from Arrow Video is the amazing quality of the original artwork which features on the covers, and one of the artists behind these covers is the UK-based Rick Melton, whose unmistakeable work has featured on the releases of The Beyond, The Stendhal Syndrome, Street Trash and more. Before his work for Arrow, Rick was an established artist for The Dark Side magazine, and these days he’s working on an array of projects for Arrow as well as for others. In true self-deprecating style, Rick talked to Brutal as Hell about his career so far…
Brutal as Hell: Firstly Rick, thank you for taking the time to speak to us. Could you tell us a little about your background: did you formally train as an artist?
Rick Melton: I went to art school, but the first day was spent showing my teacher how to draw hands! By the end of the week he still couldn’t draw, partly because he’d spent most of it trying to bonk my girlfriend. I hung on for about a month learning nothing and then got slung out. The Principal said I had brought the place into disrepute which, believe me, in the 60s took some doing! I still can’t remember what it was I did. I was such a nerd I think it must have been a case of mistaken identity. I took the credit for it anyway, though. A proud moment. I bet you wish you hadn’t asked!
Brutal as Hell: What drew you to horror as a theme? Are you a fan? We’d love to know what inspires you, and about your own tastes in film…
Rick Melton: I love horror. Growing up in the States, we’d all pile into the cinema on Saturday afternoons and watch crud like Horror of Party Beach while skeletons whizzed about our heads on wires. Great fun. When I came back to England all this stuff was an ‘X’ certificate and kids couldn’t watch it. Not that it mattered because the poxy Sound of Music ran for 18 months solid and there was only one theatre in town. With one screen! As for my tastes, I like the atmospheric Hammer Gothic of the late fifties, pre-CGI creature features like Tremors, Alien and Jaws, and real low budget efforts in the ‘so bad they’re good’ category. I hate torture porn, slashers and anything dubbed, which explains why I missed out on the Argentos. Listening to talented actors deliver lines like dozy sat nav systems is too painful to bear.
Brutal as Hell: Tell us about getting involved with the Arrow covers…
Rick Melton: Almar Haflidson of Cult Labs fame got me the job. Initially, the brief was to do the covers in a 1950s EC style but we abandoned that after the first three. I like Almar; he’s a great guy who never takes credit for his inspired cover suggestions. Unfortunately he never takes credit for his less inspired suggestions either. I’ll never forget his immortal “let’s have a bit more arse on her” when I showed him the rough drawings for the Inferno cover. You couldn’t see him for dust while I was getting nailed to the wall over that one!
Brutal as Hell: What’s the process itself like: do you get to choose from a list of upcoming titles?
Rick Melton: Arrow uses several artists all of which are technically better than me. I’m not being falsely modest here! Tom Hodge’s graphics are stunning and Zornow and Robin Bougie are two of the best graphic novel type illustrators out there. However, when Arrow needs a painting of a homicidal maniac and his naked sister nailing a tourist to the ground…well, there’s only one place to come! Of course these sorts of covers are created without reference photos which means the characters in them aren’t dead ringers for the actors and this gets up some people’s noses. These are the people who prefer those carefully-traced montage type covers but that’s not for me. Art for me is creating something totally original. Often bad, but original!
Brutal as Hell: You obviously know the films you design for really well: have you been revisiting them along the way, and how do you pick the scenes or references that finally make it onto the cover?
Rick Melton: Well, I never did see a Dario Argento movie before doing Arrow covers which is probably why I screwed most of his up! It was Almar’s idea to paint Asia Argento naked for The Stendhal Syndrome and, like I said, the big fat bare butt smack bang in the middle of the Inferno cover wasn’t my entire fault. I took all the stick of course and I’m not expecting an invite to the Argento’s family barbecue any time soon. My best covers are for disposable fare like Street Trash and Blood Feast 2. My Caligula was pretty hot too.
All my best stuff is done in less than two days. Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead sucked, I hate those covers: they just dragged on and on and got worse and worse. Dawn has big gaps either side where they made me take stuff out. Everybody was really uptight about not offending anyone because those Romero films were so iconic, but because of that the covers lacked any guts (plenty in the movie though!). If you go on my site you can see one of the better efforts.
I don’t get to choose which titles I do, but as they give me all the juiciest ones I can’t complain. Still do, of course! Choosing the scene is easy; I simply go for the one that combines all the best ingredients for selling the movie, which is usually sex and horror. If the film has no sexy bits like in The Beyond I still try and slip in a bit of eroticism. Contrary to some people’s opinions this isn’t because I’m a huge pervert (although of course, I am!) but because selling the disc is my main priority. Whether we like it or not, a beautiful woman in a perilous situation will outsell two people running from a dog every time! (I’d better point out that the original artwork for The Beyond was of course vastly superior to my 3-day effort and consisted of more than just two people running from a dog!) (interview continued below)
Brutal as Hell: Do you have a particular Arrow cover you’re most proud of so far? And are there any movies you’d absolutely love to design for?
Rick Melton: Vamp is my favourite cover even though for some reason they demoted it to the flip side. Almar (yep, him again) wanted Dedee Pfieffer painted with a combination of innocence and sexiness and to keep her vibrant I used no photo references and just worked away while watching the film. I was really pleased with the way she turned out, and the Grace Jones and Vampire Stripper posters on the wall beside her were not to be sniffed at either, if I say so myself! I really emptied my pram when they bumped it to the arse side of the disc I can tell you! Oh yeah, I’d love to do Roger Corman’s Humanoids of the Deep (the Doug McClure one). I’d do it for nothing, but keep that to yourself!
Brutal as Hell: Lastly, what are you working on right now? Where else can we see your work?
Rick Melton: At present I’ve just finished two more covers for Arrow and some filthy illustrations for a classy erotic horror book called Grease Monkey for Mansion House Books. I’m about to illustrate and do the covers for another four books for them. I’m also doing DVD covers for a German distributer called Elektrocity and just completed Rape of the Vampire for them. I only work for people I like nowadays. I’ve just done a nice poster for a kid who’s made his first 30 minute horror film, sCAIrcrow. He budgeted for a good poster because he knew it would contribute to the success of his movie and he was right. I was also contacted last week by a well known (but still very lightweight) filmmaker who kept blabbing on about all the publicity I would get doing his poster because he was so frikken’ famous. This sort of line always precedes being offered peanuts for the job, which of course is what he did. I directed him to the Terminally Stupid and Desperate Artist’s Home where I’m sure he got a bargain. Next year he’ll still be feeling smug about having saved a few quid on his poster but wondering why nobody went to see his movie!
Thanks again to Rick for taking the time out to talk to us. To see galleries of Rick’s work and for more information on commissions, visit his website: http://www.stunninglysavage.com. You can also click on all images to see them at larger hi-res sizes!
