We first heard of Raphael Phillips' Notorious Mo'dok on a Fatman Beyond podcast in which he presented one to Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin. That appearance led us to checking out his Instagram and following his feed. Now, the Kickstarter for this amazing mash-up is live and ready for backers to support this artist and get their hands on this amazing piece for their own collection. Do yourselves a favor and head on over to his Kickstarter page and check out the video and backer rewards!
From the Kickstarter page:
The Notorious Mo’dok sculpture is an expanded idea that had its genesis as an illustration by artist Adam J. Rosenlund. Roughly 7 years ago, I ran across an illustration of The Notorious B.I.G. as M.O.D.O.K., and thought ‘Damn, this needs to be sculpted!’ I started the digital sculpture in March of 2015, thinking that I’d create exactly what I saw and wrap it up in a few weeks. However, as most sculptors will tell you, turning a front view image into a 3-dimensional sculpture takes time. It was during this process that I unknowingly started making this project my own. The challenge became making the statue feel equal parts, comic book, hip hop, and tech, all while being visually pleasing to the eye in 360 degrees. I would get to moments where I thought it was done, but it just didn’t feel right. Finally, in January of 2017, after fits and starts of adding and subtracting parts, I at last added the Jesus piece, and in that moment, finished the first iteration of the Notorious Mo’dok. Little did I know, this creation would be a mirror of myself: A video game/movie character artist, brought up on classic hip hop and Marvel comics.
I shared images of the digital model through various social medias, relieved that I finally finished it. That relief was quickly replaced with a warm sense of pride once I started seeing reactions to the model. However, one reaction kept on reoccurring: YOU NEED TO 3D PRINT THIS %$#@ RIGHT NOW!!! I wish I could say that I was able to immediately capitalize on the peoples desire to own this thing that I made, but the journey from a digital model to a finished product would take another two years due to the amount of detail in the digital sculpture. In preparation for a soft launch of sculptures in late 2018, I collaborated with a well respected manufacturer in the collectibles industry, and we made sure that the product could be reproduced at a high quality. The Notorious Mo’dok is now ready for his world debut!
