Chicago-based artist Terrell “Rello” Jones is introducing his new Billy Spacekid character with the release of a new collectible vinyl figure.
This project is a continuation of Rello’s “Please Interpret as Black” series of works, which takes fictional characters from pop culture and reimagines them as Black as an art experiment about representation. The first characters that were introduced were Ruby and Ozzy the Bad Mouse in 2019, reinterpretations of Minnie and Mickey Mouse.
“The original idea for [Billy Spacekid] was sparked by the song ‘Every Nigga is a Star’ by Boris Gardiner,” Rello explains. “After playing around in my head I landed on making a character that’s a ‘what if Lando Calrissian was astroboy inside of the Futurama universe’ type of thing.”
This marks Rello’s first release since the closing of Fat Tiger Workshop last January, a streetwear boutique founded by Rello, Joe Freshgoods, Vic Lloyd, and Desmond Owusu in 2014. This is also Rello’s first release since renaming his art brand Lost Paradise Design House, now known as Cherry Mountain Arts.
The 13″ Billy Spacekid vinyl figure is an edition of 300 and drops on Friday, April 1st at 12pm CT on Rello’s website, priced at $199 USD.
