BREAKING BAD _ THE FULL SHEET

NEWS!: You can now purchase some of these images as poster prints HERE on Society6!


In honor of the visual library of poetic imagery realized by the BREAKING BAD creators and crew, I've concocted these Loteria versions of some of the more poignant images from the show.  You can read some cheat sheet translations of the less obvious Spanish below and a fuller explanation of the cards HERE.  You can also find the larger individual cards in sets 2, 3, and 4. Please let me know if my rudimentary Spanish skills gummed up my messages.  Note: Only a single card is a direct description of the image. You know which one?


Caution: Possible SPOILERS if you're not fully caught up with the episodes.

8 - EL OSO - While I wasn't completely sold on the pool tease and ultimate Season 2 reveal, the lingering eye of THE BEAR served as a spooky, guilt-laden totem of Walt's conscience.

32 - ADJUSTADO - "TIGHT, TIGHT, TIGHT!" Tuco's catchphrase and current predicament encased in a lucite cube.  Also, Hank's chest during a panic attack.

37 - UNA PUERTA - This is the one of which I am most proud. Last season, we see Jessie obsessing over Jane's outgoing message and then over a cigarette with lipstick left in his car ashtray. Later in the season, we actually get a show-opener where Jessie and Jane make it out to the Georgie O'Keefe museum and rather than the pictures of vaginas that he was promised, Jessie is flummoxed by an abstract painting of a door. Jane's response is that O'Keefe was not "obsessing" over it, painting the door in every imaginable light, she was loving it, trying to remember it exactly as it was. As Jane extinguishes her cigarette in the car ashtray, Jessie repeats incredulously "A door. A DOOR?"

41 - SANGRON - Literally "a bleeder" which is what Jessie often is.  Figuratively, a whiner or bitcher as in "BITCH!"

BREAKING BAD _ Loteria Cards 01

NEWS!: You can now purchase some of these images as poster prints HERE on Society6!

UPDATE: You can see the full sheet of 16 BREAKING BAD cards HERE

AMC's BREAKING BAD is currently my favorite show on television. I was late to the game, but, after THE WIRE, it is the sort of dark, smart, narrative that demands your attention and rewards dedicated viewing. The acting, particularly by lead Brian Cranston, has been notably lauded but I'm writing today because of how it consistently inspires me with some of the medium's most poetic imagery.  With much of the action of the show occurring in and driven by the drug trade of the Mexico/US Border, Vince Gilligan and his team revel in the art of visual storytelling and utilize a picture > 1,000 words approach that lends an epic potency to the story beyond the tropes of a traditional crime drama.

As a bit of fan art, and in hot anticipation of the next season premiere on July 17th, I've set out to recognize the show by marrying some of the BREAKING BAD iconography with another applicable medium: Mexican Loteria Cards.  

Like a Mexican version of "Bingo," Loteria is a game of chance that employs a gridded board (a 4x4 tabla) and an illustrated deck of cards instead of numbered ping pong balls.  The "authentic" deck, illustrated by Don Clemente Gallo, consists of a total of 54 iconic images of people, animals, and objects.  Riddles often accompany the reading of a card and the whole set has a totemic or Tarot Card quality to it.

With BREAKING BAD, I've decided to start with 4 sets of 4 images to complete a single tabla. The images will be recognizable to fans of the show; some are fan favorites that have driven plotlines and others are those that the camera has lingered on long enough to charge with significance.  In a break from the source material, I am not merely translating the name of the subject into Spanish.  Adding a little poetry of my own, I'm choosing terms that reveal more of the item's importance to the narrative.

Below are the first four.  I have the rest planned out and ready to go but please feel free to write with any suggestions.  Also, check out the Breaking Bad Insider Podcast for some informative behind-the-scenes chatter by a tight creative team.