Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Pinball Wizards & Blacklight Destroyers: The Art of Dirty Donny Gillies’

Review Fix chats with artist Donny Gillies, who discusses his new book, ““Pinball Wizards & Blacklight Destroyers: The Art of Dirty Donny Gillies.”

Review Fix: How was this book born?

Donny Gillies: This is actually my second art book. The first was published by Gingko press and is since sold out.

The new book is published by Schiffer books. It’s my current work, everything from the last five years and my favorite stuff to date. When I designed this book I had a lot of time to think about the flow, photography and images. I didn’t want it to be like a giant flip book. I wanted to show my work in its element. Photos of the Snap-on Funny car about to take off from the starting line. My ’73 Dodge custom van that I hand painted. My friend Eric Clay shot that on Mount Davidson in San Francisco right by my house. We did allot of that, capturing the art in its element. Trips to the screen printers to show the printing process, photos of the model kit boxed, not just the art itself. There is allot of art too but I wanted to break it up and make it interesting for the reader. Allot of love and care went into it. I also learned Indesign, that was fun and I think the best part was being able to sit down along and slowly build the book.

Review Fix: What makes it different?

Gillies: I’m very stoked about is that it retails for under $35 US. I want this to be available to everyone.  The next thing to me is the hardcover and editions of a 6 color spot color cover. Basically, I got to make a fluorescent color cover that looks like one of my posters. We also added black flocking (black velvet) for that retro blacklight poster effect.

Review Fix: So many people have been affected by this art. What was it like to hear from them?

Gillies: I’m glad now people can get all my new stuff in one place, this book. I’ve gotten a lot of love from family and friends, fans.

Review Fix: What have you learned about yourself through this book?

Gillies: It was really nice to collaborate with a few friends, Eric Clay shot allot of photos, Jay Watson shot allot of the product and I had world famous street photographer Ricky Powell shoot my author photo. It was great hanging out with Ricky in NYC. I just had him out for the book signing in SF. He did his slideshow, that was amazing.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone pick up this book?

Gillies: I try to make my projects, fun, bright and so dope you really don’t need it but you just gotta have it. There is a little bit of everything in there for fans of pop culture.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Gillies: Just following my heart, accepting fun protest and being stoked people are asking me to do art for them. Hopefully more pinball machine art too.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Gillies: It was great to work with Schiffer, they are releasing my coloring book that will be out sometime in 2017, spring I think. The clients in my book, the companies, the bands, everyone, it has been a great experience working with everyone. It’s been 20 years of full-time art, it’s been a long road, not always easy but each year got a little better. I’m stoked every day to be doing what I’m doing and humbled by the response my art has gotten over the years.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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