Cereal is one of those universal meals that just seems to fill the hole any time of the day or night. It doesn’t matter if we are a little child or a senior citizen, we probably have at least one box of cereal in the pantry just in case of a munchy emergency.
Thinking back to our childhood, we may reminisce about the giant sugar-laced bowl of cereal that got our days started.
There is something strangely nostalgic about grabbing our favorite cereal and pouring a huge bowl. Sometimes, we don’t even bother to sit down to eat it, we just stand at the counter and pour another bowl.
Joe Simko is an artist who also has a love for cereal. He also has an interesting sense of imagination, which is why he started the project, ‘Cereal Killers’. The sticker cards are cereal boxes inspired by horror icons from the big screen.
Not only are the cards interesting to look at, but he also uses some puns to spice things up. It includes names, such as: “Tales from the Crisp,” “Children of the Corn Flakes,” and “Fiber the 13th”.
Simko does a great job changing an ordinary cereal box into an interesting plot from a horror movie.
When you see his work, you can’t help but get nostalgic on a number of different levels. Simko recently gave an interview with Vice, saying: “When I started to design the look and feel of the Cereal Killers, I wanted to invoke a tribute to that 1980s collectible world of gross-out celebration for kids. Just like Garbage Pail Kids, Madballs, Boglins, and many others successfully achieved during that 80s time. Going back to my childhood, I found that my favorite things that gave me the most joy were humor and horror. By around age ten or 11, I was obsessively collecting Mad Magazine and at the same time, needed to see every scary, gore-filled horror movie that came out on video.”
Simko didn’t reach this level right away. The cereal stickers came from some parity paintings he created in 2009. Five of his cereal artwork paintings were included in an exhibition and they stuck.
He was asked about how he conceives the new character and said: “When I begin the process of creating a new Cereal Killers gag, I take a look at what cereal brands are out there on the market, from popular to sometimes local or regional brands. I also look at what horror films would make a great cereal. Pretty much all of them. But really, it’s just a going-back-and-forth type of process, playing on words and seeing what fits best to make that joke work.”