I was a little weary of the cult of zombie, just because whenever the masses around here get so uniformly behind something it inevitably turns out to be stupid.

But I have to admit, the answer to your question is probably yes.

With ZY they have a distinctive, unified artistic vision, kind of like Gottlieb did in the 50's-70s , when they basically had 2 guys do the art for the majority of hundreds of pins. It's a good idea to have a cohesive look to these games, with well-drawn, creative, and immersive artwork that people will instantly identify as a Stern pin.

I think with the amount of licensing they do, we are still going to run into photoshop disasters like Game of Thrones, but maybe the success of these hand-drawn art packages will make Stern a little more selective of which licenses they put into production as well. Clearly, some licensors are going to be more amenable to artistic freedom than others.

He's undeniably an incredible talent, and we are all fortunate that he found his way into the pinball world. It's the one good thing that came out of the whole Jpop debacle.

I would say yes, but DD has also had the shittier, be far, themes.

Has Zombie Yeti done Ghostbusters, Iron Maiden and DeadPool?
Dirty Donny: Metallica and Aerosmith?

Franchi is pretty good too! The art on Guardians is fantastic!

Yeti does have an amazing style though and is probably the top pinball artist right now. Deadpool looks amazing.

Ahh yes, Pabst, that one does look great. I can't wait to see what DD does next.

Personally, I believe ZombieYeti's pinball artwork is superior but I think we can all agree that we are very lucky that these two artists have found their way into the pinball community.

Yeah, I'm a fan of both Batman66 and Guardians.

IMO Metallica is easily the best playfield art on a recent Stern. To me ZY's pfs are still trying to cram too much in, both art and colour wise, and don't work quite as well.

The Premium and LE cabinets on Deadpool do look fantastic - I'd say best on a Stern ... though decal and print quality to be determined.

IMO, Zornow has set a new high watermark for recent machines with pf, cabinet and LCD work for Alice Cooper.

But if we think back a few years, these guys amongst others (Franchi / Youssi etc) are all top notch,and producing far better work compared to the bad years.

Both are super talented, but I'm more of a Christopher Franchi guy.

Glad you mentioned Jeff Zornow. I think Dirty Donnie, Zombie Yeti, and Jeff Zornow are a trio of artists that will create some amazing pinball artwork. I prefer their styles over the more realistic artwork of Christopher Franchi.

He's no Roy Parker.

Zombie Yeti!

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Yeti is awesome and is very versatile...they could probably give him any license and request any style and he could pull it off. Donny's style is a bit more specifically Donny....so far, I think Donny's art actually "feels more pinball" if that makes sense. Franchi is good too, but so far his games kinda look like Stern's older photoshop games, even though they're not. His style is just so realistic, it feels stiffer more "product"-ish, kinda like WOZ.

I think DD's work on Aerosmith's playfield blows Metallica out of the water but I know art is subjective. We are lucky to have such talented artists doing pinball art today!

Python, Freres, and Youssi are still my favorites. They have raw/creative work, that did not look like a derivative of properties from the IP holder.

Least favorite is the work on Aliens and Predator. Both look ripped from a DVD box cover.

Predator looked like it was ripped off a goddamn cereal box

Franchi is just too photoshoppy for me. He is definitely talented, and far better than what Stern was doing in the 2000's till recently, but the hand drawn line art of ZY is amazing. DD is great, particularly on AS and Can Crusher, but not as much a fan of the style over ZY. Either way, we are lucky to have all of them doing art nowadays. I was complaining for years how horrific pinball art became...Great to see this sort of renaissance.

Franchi's photorealism is so good it's almost unbelievable. Yeti's art is less detailed, but more stylized. 2 very different styles.

DD is great as well. His black line skills are top notch.

I'm glad we have them all. Seems like the shitty PS collage era is finally behind us.

Or just ripped off.

At least with this guy it isn't quite as obvious who's style he ripped off.

That's called "inspired by" or "influences" in the art business