Artist gives DC Comics superheroes a remake in Lego
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (Reuters) - At a studio in North Hollywood, artist Nathan Sawaya carefully adds the finishing touches to his large sculpture of caped crusader Superman -- small black Lego blocks for his hair.
Next to the work are other such replicas of the faces of superheroes Batman and Wonder Woman as well as grinning villain the Joker.
Sawaya has teamed up with Warner Bros. to recreate the DC Comics characters in Lego form, painstakingly made with thousands of the toy plastic building blocks as well as one of the most sought-after comic books -- the 1938 cover of Action Comics No. 1.
His work will be shown at this week's major comic book fan convention, Comic-Con International, in San Diego.
Previously a corporate lawyer in New York, Sawaya now devotes his time to one of his favorite childhood hobbies.
"I have fun, I've found my passion. It's creating art out of Lego bricks. Is there a better job out there?" he said.
The artist says it takes him two to three weeks to create each of the life-size forms. He has displayed his work in a world-touring exhibition "The Art of Brick", which features his large-scale Lego sculptures. "The Art of the Brick: DC Comics" will start touring later this year, according to Warner Bros.
"For this exhibition, I wanted to explore themes of good and evil ... heroes and villains, so what better place to turn to than comic books, and what better place than DC Comics, with all their famous characters," he said.
"I wanted to take their superheroes and their supervillains and combine them in an art exhibition," says Sawaya.
This year's Comic-Con convention runs from Thursday until Sunday at the San Diego Convention Center.
(Reporting by Reuters Television in North Hollywood; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in London; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
