Super Surma Bros.

I've mentioned in the past; one thing which really interests me is when fans push their love of LEGO® into original, unusual territory. I was simply going to post a link to these guys from New Elementary's Twitter account, but I couldn't really compress my love for them into 140 characters so here's a proper post instead.

The Surma Bros. are Marcin and Przemek; two Polish comic illustrators who, as the name suggests, are brothers. For two years they've been posting an illustration of an old LEGO set every Sunday on their blog, Sur m'ale Gobros. I only found them after they posted on Eurobricks recently, although I see they got some love from The Brothers Brick back in 2012. While disappointed I'm so late to the party, it does mean I've been gorging myself for hours on dozens of beautiful images.

These aren't straight depictions by any means; more re-imaginings. The brothers inject whimsy and naïve sensuality into their art, and plenty of humour. I'll shut up for a bit and let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

 

 

The presence of women in the images is noticable, particularly the number of minifigs that I (and perhaps most people) always presumed to be men! I especially love the sense of friendship, romance and happiness imbued in many of their works. For me, they tap into the imaginative play scenarios we created in our minds as children, but from a distinctly adult perspective.

For sets you're not immediately familiar with, it's great fun to look up the original box art on Brickset to see how they've interpreted it. The guys don't include these on the blog, as they rightly feel it's more fun to imagine the original set based on their work before you see it. I do recommend looking them up though as it proves how charming and innovative their interpretations are. To make your life a little easier, here are the links to the ones I've shown in this post: 3718, 6411, 6876, 6622, 10182, 1479, 7015, 6318, 6237, 6382.

Unfortunately they don't sell prints - "yet" - but if they published these in a book I'd be first in line to pre-order. If you're going to Poland's Pyrkon convention this weekend (21-23 March) I believe they'll be exhibiting prints there. I've selected just a handful in this post but you're sure to discover different favourites of your own on their blog. I'm now following them via the Surma Bros. Facebook Page to get a smile every Sunday!

Here's a sweet pic of the brothers way back when... clearly, their shared passion for LEGO is a lifelong one!