He-Man: The Rescue of Captain America! (Daniel Johnston Birthday Tribute)

RABBITSNAKE · 2025-01-22T00:00:00Z

Photographs documenting a pair of related acrylic-on-wood paintings by RabbitSnake created in Austin, Texas in celebration of the birthday and cultural legacy of musician and artist Daniel Johnston. The works reinterpret He-Manthrough the visual language of Austin outsider art, grunge mythology, comic-book symbolism, and street culture. The central figure merges the likeness of Kurt Cobain with He-Man iconography while wearing Johnston’s iconic “Hi, How Are You” shirt featuring the “Jeremiah the Innocent” frog drawing associated with Johnston’s unfinished album artwork and Austin music history. The paintings incorporate references to Johnston’s recurring themes of vulnerability, heroism, monsters, innocence, and cosmic struggle. Text elements including “WE HAVE THE POWER COSMIC!” and “TOGETHER THEY BATTLE RED SKULL AND THE BEAST” combine comic-book melodrama, punk humor, and mythic language into a playful but emotionally sincere tribute structure. The rabbit-headed serpent figure appearing beside the main character connects the work to RabbitSnake’s ongoing mythology of hybrid creatures, transformation, duality, and outsider identity. A visual tribute to late Austin street artist BEWM appears through the stylized “BEWM” graphic integrated into the composition, linking the painting to Austin’s interconnected underground art, mural, punk, and DIY scenes. Executed in bright saturated acrylic colors on 2 x 3 foot wooden panels, the paintings intentionally preserve the flat graphic immediacy of handmade sign painting, comic art, folk art, and street mural aesthetics. One version of the painting was reposted by the Hi, How Are You Project on Instagram. After the original work was accidentally sold to two separate buyers, RabbitSnake created a second hand-painted version marked “2nd of ? 4 da Will” near the signature area, transforming the duplication into part of the artwork’s living folklore and material history.