More Bears and Scares from Astra Zero

9th October 2024 John Hernandez

Last October, we featured the art of Astra Zero on our Halloween cover. One year later and he’s still creating spooky homoerotic masterpieces for our delectation, however he has expanded the scope of his work in new and exciting ways as you’ll see below. Join us as we catch up with Dustin Nicholls, otherwise known as Astra Zero, and enjoy lots more of his his spooky bear-centric art.

John Hernandez (JH): Hi Dustin! Thanks for joining us again. Last time we spoke you were hitting your stride on classical art/ religious paintings reimagined through your artistic lens. I am happy to see that has continued. How do you select which paintings you want to revamp?

Astra Zero: Thank you so much! It started off by me just collecting my personal favourite pieces that I grew up an alt / goth kid. I always seem to steer towards the darker gothic and religious work first, but the more I started researching different artists in different time periods, the more amazing fantasy style art I discovered. I still very much look for pieces that were intended to objectify and/or worship women in a sexual manner and switch it up by replacing the women with overly sexualized men instead. I also discovered that there may have been a ton of homoerotic artwork among other things made in these time periods that were destroyed by war and the church that we will never be able to see, which is kinda sad to think about. So, I like to think I’m just helping add the queer back to art history, even if it’s not the real thing, haha.

BWM: A mission statement we can all support! I notice you’ve expanded your retro art series over the last year. Tell us about that.

Astra Zero: I’ve always loved the retro advertisements and pin-up aesthetics from the 40s-60s, so I started off by just using the essence of that and putting my own unrealistic beefy, gay, fantasy, horror, and over the top spin on that style. It ended up being just as popular as my Dark Vintage collection, so I ended up making a book in that style as well ( Retro Sinners ) which ended up catching the attention of the classic movie publishing house Criterion Collection, who reached out to me to do the cover of a re-release of the surreal vintage queer movie Querelle. That cover ended up being more controversial than we anticipated, which ended up helping get the movie and a ton more exposure. Since then, I’ve been working on more retro style work for a second book, I’m still up in the air on weather I just want to make a large “Deluxe” edition that includes the work from the first book or just make a second volume like I’ve been doing with the Dark Vintage books.

JH: Yesss!! That’s amazing! I also see you are venturing into revamping porn/ alt photography images which I personally am thrilled to see. What led to this, and which vintage porn stars catch your eye?

Astra Zero: I think just my fascination with visuals from queer history and discovering there were actually a lot more erotic gay photos taken going all the way back to the 1920s than I realized, so I’ve been playing around with what I’ve collected so far and putting my own spin on everything.

JH: Fantastic! I love that imagery and your unique spin on it. What do you have going on the spooky front and what are your plans for spooky season?

Astra Zero: Thank you!! Well, I’ve been so busy this year that I’m kinda frantically working on some more spooky stuff! I’m a little behind so it might just be rolled out slowly throughout October. But for anyone interested in my more spooky / horror themed erotic art, my book (MENtality & Monsters) is fully based around that style as well as a new deck of “traditional” playing cards ( Meaty Monster Playing Cards ). Oh! And I also released a deck of Dark Vintage Oracle Cards which have been another fun side project.

JH: MENtality & Monsters is a beautiful book I’ve been slowly collecting all of the others. I am excited to hear there are more on the way! Thanks again for joining me Dustin and have a Happy Halloween! I can’t wait to see what you dream up for us next.

Astra Zero: Thank you so much! Happy Halloween!!

*Self-portrait of Dustin Nicholls, better known as Astra Zero.*

You asked and we heard you. Below is the complete list of all of Astra Zero’s books that are currently available along with links to each of them. To see his complete assortment of artwork and merch head to his website www.astrazero.com.