Superhero graffiti in San Francisco

I really dig the stylized superheroes in this massive graffiti piece in San Francisco's Mission District. I didn't see the artist's name and the background text was too hard to read from my vantage point. (Update: Thanks to TheEvilJeremy for identifying the artists as Keb, Wand, and Buter, which is what the letters spell behind the superheroes.) Click to enlarge, and check out Batman, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Wolverine, Dr. Doom, and others after the jump.

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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The Snowden Principle

blake31a

So, this has me thinking. He inhales a huge mass of air, compresses it in his lungs (temp of air goes way up) and blows it out letting the air expand and the temp goes way down. That’s all good, but what about the heat that he’s pulled out of the air? Does Superman have such a ridiculously high specific heat that the temperature increase is negligible?
- mccrum
  
  I’d always assumed it was because it was just moving so fast but wouldn’t compressing it in his lungs make it colder instead of warmer, like liquid nitrogen?
  - blake31a
    
    mccrum: Compressing a gas makes it hot, letting it expand makes it cold. AC works on this principle, only with a refrigerant instead of air. A mass of air will have some amount of heat in it. When you compress it, it makes the probability of molecules hitting each other go up which can be measured as a rise in temperature.
    So even though the amount of heat is the same, the temperature goes up. Now that the temperature is higher, it will start cooling off and approach the temp of its container. The cooling corresponds to a loss of heat. Now when that gas is allowed to expand to its original volume again, it has less heat than it had before which manifests as a lower temperature. Freeze breath.
    Itâ€™s not a very good metaphor, but I like to think of a wet sponge. The sponge is the air and the water is the heat. If you squeeze it, it loses water and it only picks water up again when you let it expand.
    - jwepurchase
      
      Compressing a gas makes it hot, letting it expand makes it cold. AC works on this principle, only with a refrigerant instead of air.
      
      Yes and no. The temperature difference you’d get compressing a gas with a typical fridge compressor wouldn’t be enough to make a difference. The catch with refrigerants is that they change state very close to the fridge’s operating temperature. If you compress room-temperature freon, it stays about the same temperature but transitions from gas to liquid, spitting out a lot of latent heat as it does it. Release the pressure and it has to suck up heat to go back to being a gas. So if you compress outside your fridge and decompress inside, the fridge moves the refrigerant’s latent heat around without the refrigerant going through much of a temperature change.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  It goes straight to his gonads for storage, until he has the time and privacy to dissipate it by its release.
- Brainspore
  
  He dissipates the excess energy as heat-vision. It all balances out.
Anonymous

“I didn’t see the artist’s name and the background text was too hard to read from my vantage point”

sorry, but that makes me giggle.
TheEvilJeremy

The artists are Keb, Wand, and Buter. Here is a shot of the whole wall, and several nice details of the characters: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegtfamily/4391120683/in/photostream/
- bbonyx
  
  I think the most amazing part of the work, if it was done by 3 individuals, is how well they are able to emulate each other’s style so that there is no dividing line between them. The text is within vid and the character style is incredibly similar. Great shared work, if it is.
TheEvilJeremy

Incidentally, I knew that because I recognized Buter’s letter style and then knew where to search to find a shot of the whole wall. Geeks come in all types these days…
Anonymous

Pretty sure this is a legal mural (put up in order to reduce random tagging & further defacement via some obscure graffiti code of honor that says you can’t tag over someone else’s work). This guy has done murals in downtown Berkeley as well, on temporary walls put up during storefront renovation, which also featured awesome tiny superheroes.

I’d love to know who he is so we can see more of his work!
gwailo_joe

I drive by this at least once a month, it’s been up for over a year: no tags or throw ups. Sweet.

Still has years to go to match the piece off of Market that had Donkey Kong and an Atari joystick: that one was unsullied for over a decade!

Since painted over alas, but more due to fading than anything else I suppose…
Brainspore

Ironically, if you could find the artist, hire him, get all the rights squared away, and had him paint a sanctioned legal mural, it would likely get covered with inept sloppy tags within a few weeks.

Most of the murals in the Mission are legal and sanctioned, if not commissioned, by the property owners. I’d be willing to bet the only serious legal issue with this mural is the use of copyrighted characters without permission from D.C. and Marvel.
License Farm

This is not, as suggested, done in the “Superhero Squad” style, as was suggested, but instead quite blatantly ripped from Chris Giarusso’s longtime backup feature “Mini-Marvels,” which have been collected into a couple books. On his own he’s done the series “G-Man” for Image Comics, which is great fun.
Anonymous

MissionMission’s covers more details of the mural:

http://www.missionmission.org/2009/06/26/the-making-of-the-new-superhero-mural-at-19th-and-mission/
Anonymous

I walk by this mural all the time – it is my favorite in sf – the batman is actually the background on my phone – nerd alert!
blake31a

Stored in the gonads, released as heat vision. Done.
Anonymous

I’ve walked by this and was struck by it as well. All of my friends were with me in awe. This piece deserves to be seen.
squid flavored mouthwash

I live within 100 feet of this mural. There are people taking pictures of it every day. Lots of people take their kid’s picture ‘posing’ with the superheroes…..
It does get tagged now and then with the gang tags….
blue on blue though, it’s hard to notice sometimes…..
landlords let people put murals up so they don’t have to paint over graffitti everyday….
this super heroes one is better than what was there before…..
Anonymous

BTW, That’s (rapper) MF Doom not Dr. Doom. Notice the mic his holster.
Anonymous

summer 2010, cell phone pic of this mural at a rather opportune moment.
http://www.gnargoyles.com/images/0629091730a.jpg
kattw

I think Batman looks suspiciously like Megaman. I bet he has a batarang boss weapon captured already, too.
isaacb2

How much of a geek am I that I know that the Marvel characters shown are drawn in the style of the kid’s TV cartoon show “Super Hero Squad”? And the DC guys are just done to match, I guess.
- rrh
  
  I can see some enough costume differences between these and the Squad designs that I think they are just parallel developments of “tiny versions of superheroes.” Not enough blue on Wolverine, Hulk’s ears are too big and his jaw too round, and Iron Man’s arc reactor is round instead of triangular. So however much of a geek you are, I am more so.
  - isaacb2
    
    You’re totally right — I misspoke (or typed, or whatever) — meant to cite Mini Marvels!
Vanwall

Love the big Spirit letters, and the spirited work!
Stefan Jones

Those are really well done.

Ironically, if you could find the artist, hire him, get all the rights squared away, and had him paint a sanctioned legal mural, it would likely get covered with inept sloppy tags within a few weeks.

* * *
Hey, when did Superman get frost ray powers?
- Anonymous
  
  It freeze breath Ã la Superman the Movie
- mccrum
  
  Tiny Superman has always had them.
  
  Seriously though, he’s blowing and just sticking his arm in the same general direction, blow marks go all the way back to his mouth.
  
  I’ve always wondered why he had to stick his arm out to fly in the first place, what’s up with that? Aerodynamics?
- Anonymous
  
  Interestingly enough, this is on a wall at a major intersection in my neighborhood and HAS BEEN FOR ABOUT 5 MONTHS.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BA2T236QFWW2AOBW2EPYQKKIHE Mark B

This guys is totally ripping off Chris Giarrusso of G-Man and Mini Marvels fame.