Night of the Living Teds

What could possibly be frightening about cute, cuddly, adorable little teddy bears? Well, artist Christopher Zenga has reached deep within his splendidly wicked imagination to answer that very question. The result: ZomBears.

Buster

A series of charcoal and oil-paint illustrations of teddy bears taking the guise of classic movie monsters and other horrific forms from Zenga's dark subconscious, the first grouping of ZomBear pieces is now complete.

Zom-Bear-Tep

"When I started my icon Series I had always planned on doing the classic Universal Monsters," writes Zenga in his own blog, The Day After. "I love new horror very much... but lets be honest, without films like The Wolf Man or Frankenstein, we would not have Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger today."

The Bride of FrankenTedd

Now that the first series of ZomBear illustrations is finished, Zenga is offering print reproductions for sale. I urge readers to check these out, not merely because they're unique and interesting, but also because Zenga plans to donate a portion of his sales to the B.R.A.F.F. organization, a charity dedicated to the adoption and welfare of children in the Baikal region of Russia and Mongolia (more on them in the coming weeks).

Our ZomBear of Fatima

Ah, sweet blasphemy. Your work warms my heart, Chris!