Can you spot every 2015 pop culture reference in this giant illustration?
Face front, true believers! Beutler Ink has once again gathered the biggest stories of the past year—from soaring triumphs (Pluto flyby) to sobering tragedies (Paris attacks) to stomach-turning travesties (Go Set a Watchman)—and packaged them together into a single, sprawling illustration. Loyal readers will note that this is our third such end-of-yearvisual compilation. Our best ever? Your words, not ours, friends. The glorious graphic is embedded below. Click here to purchase a copy. And scroll further down to learn how our team of top talent decided which heroes and villains made the cut, and to see an illustrated answer key identifying all of the depicted characters and events.
Excelsior, — Beutler InkFace front, true believers! Beutler Ink has once again gathered the biggest stories of the past year—from soaring triumphs (Pluto flyby) to sobering tragedies (Paris attacks) to stomach-turning travesties (Go Set a Watchman)—and packaged them together into a single, sprawling illustration. Loyal readers will note that this is our third such end-of-yearvisual compilation. Our best ever? Your words, not ours, friends. The glorious graphic is embedded below. Click here to purchase a copy. And scroll further down to learn how our team of top talent decided which heroes and villains made the cut, and to see an illustrated answer key identifying all of the depicted characters and events.
Excelsior, — Beutler Ink
Behind the scenes
Our list of pop culture-and-news items for 2015 began developing as soon as our "Here's to 2014!" graphic was posted last December. Viral content never sleeps, after all, and our team of bleary-eyed news hounds and social sleuths were adding items to our shared Google Doc as far back as Left Shark. The list really started coming together over the summer, and by the fall we were ready to start to upvoting the best and saying sayonara to the rest (we miss you already, Crying Jordan meme).
Characters and events
We made a special effort this year to include individuals—particularly women—who might be overlooked or simply ignored in other year-end wrap-ups. For example, we knew we had to include B.B. King in the "RIP" section at the bottom of the graphic. But we decided that the lesser-known musician Jean Ritchie—who became known as "The Mother of Folk" in the 1950s—should be highlighted alongside him. Ritchie's status at the time of her death was much smaller than King's, but her contributions to Appalachian music and scholarship shouldn't be overshadowed.
The inclusion of activist and civil rights pioneer Grace Lee Boggs in the same RIP section (back row to the right) reflects a similar appraisal. The New York Times, Washington Post, and event President Obama—a fellow community organizer—recognized the passing of Boggs in early October with kind words and praise. But most year-end retrospectives will ignore her in favor of more familiar celebrities. This is unfortunate, as Boggs' accomplishments deserve to be better known and studied by citizens interested in social movements and the fight against inequality.
Backdrop
Next, we decided on a setting. We were torn between a Mad Max-esque desert vista and the tropical island from Jurassic World. It would have been fun to incorporate different characters and events into the Mad Max caravans—e.g. Left Shark could have taken the role of the flaming guitar player, and Donald Trump would have been a natural Immortan Joe. But we ultimately chose the "Main Street" setting from Jurassic World as it allowed us maximum flexibility in depicting a wide variety of characters and events.
For example, no matter what setting we chose, we were struggling to figure out how to best depict the 2016 presidential candidates—especially the sprawling GOP field, which at one point featured fifteen would-be nominees. The park setting provided a fun solution: we placed the candidates’ heads in jars—Futurama-style—that resemble the incubators within the Hammond Creation Lab.
The Main Street-setting also let us use a newsstand to depict some of the year's bigger news and media stories via recognizable magazine and book covers. We included the New York magazine cover featuring 35 of Bill Cosby's accusers, the Caitlyn Jenner Vanity Fair cover, the David Beckham "Sexiest Man of the Year" People magazine cover, the Paper magazine Marilyn Manson issue (one of the year's more visually distinct covers), and copies of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman and Jonathan Franzen's Purity. We also included a magazine version of the Drudge Report's bear vs. Leonardo DiCaprio freakout.
With the characters, events, and setting selected, it was time to move into illustration. Our previous two "Here's to" graphics each had a unique visual style reflective of their different artists—Mario Zucca in 2013 and Noah Smith in 2014. This year, we hooked up with the very talented Luke McGarry, a Los Angeles-by-way-of-London-based designer who has done previous collage-style work for OC Weekly and Goldenvoice. Luke has a magical ability to make every single character he draws pop off of the page, as his work here clearly demonstrates. His early sketch of the graphic hit all of the marks we were hoping for, and as his submissions progressed from pencil to pen it was obvious to us that the graphic was going to look amazing.
We always have fun putting this project together, and we're very proud of this one. Please get in touch with us if you liked the graphic, hated the graphic, or just want to talk to us about our work more generally. We love producing fun content that gets brands noticed—just like the Boston Man noticed an amazing "sea monstah" on a magical September afternoon. Look at this thing, Jay! We gotta call the aquarium or something, bro. That thing's just dead.
An illustrated answer key is included below, along with a full list of people and events included in the graphic. How many can you identify?
Robert Durst admits to murder in HBO documentary The Jinx
Fetty Wap
Mr. Robot debut
Jon Stewart leaves The Daily Show
David Letterman leaves The Late Show
Stephen Colbert takes over The Late Show
RIP BB King
RIP Jean Ritchie
RIP Jackie Collins
RIP Leonard Nimoy
RIP Stuart Scott
RIP Yvonne Craig (Batgirl)
RIP Wes Craven
RIP Christopher Lee
RIP Yogi Berra
RIP Rowdy Roddy Piper
RIP David Carr
RIP Darryl Dawkins
RIP Moses Malone
RIP Grace Lee Boggs
RIP Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor (Motörhead drummer)
RIP Scott Weiland
RIP Oliver Sacks
Google creates its new parent company, Alphabet Inc.
Paris Terror Attacks
Charlie Hebdo Attack
UCC Shooting
Black Lives Matter campaigns against violence
Starbucks red cup controversy
#NetflixAndChill
All 10 seasons of Friends released on Netflix
Drake accused of having ghostwriter, but “Hotline Bling” still breaks the internet
Future tops charts with What a Time to Be Alive and DS2
Ryan Adams covers Taylor Swift's 1989
The Weeknd tops the charts
Adele releases huge album after three-year hiatus
Ronda Rousey knocked out by Holly Holm, ending Rousey's 3-year reign as champion
Patriots win Super Bowl amidst DeflateGate allegations
Left Shark dances to its own drummer
Controversy surrounds publication of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman
Drudge Report claims Leonardo DiCaprio is 'raped by a bear' in The Revenant
Caitlyn Jenner completes transition
Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Purity, is released
David Beckham is People’s “Sexiest Man Alive”
Women who were drugged and assaulted by Bill Cosby pose together for New York magazine
Marilyn Manson on the cover of Paper Magazine
David Cameron’s “Piggate” scandal
Taiwanese Animators tackle Gawker's editorial implosion
Minions released
Syrian refugee crisis
Mars Rover discovers water
The four stiffs that also play for the Cavaliers
FIFA corruption case
Pitch Perfect 2 (depicted: Fat Amy)
Reddit becomes obsessed with a button, panics after AMA coordinator Victoria Taylor is fired
True Detective 2 is disappointing
Boston man can't comprehend a sunfish
Matt Damon stars in The Martian
LeBron James nearly wins NBA championship by himself
Warriors win NBA Championship
Serena Williams completes “Serena-slam” (four Grand Slam victories in a row) before finally losing in semifinals of US Open
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden decides not to enter the 2016 race
Dem candidate Martin O’Malley
Dem candidate Bernie Sanders
Dem candidate Hillary Clinton (reading The Skimm)
GOP candidate Rick Perry
GOP candidate Marco Rubio
GOP candidate Rick Santorum
GOP candidate Donald Trump
GOP candidate Scott Walker
GOP candidate Lindsey Graham
GOP candidate Mike Huckabee
GOP candidate Bobby Jindal
GOP candidate Rand Paul
GOP candidate George Pataki
GOP candidate Jeb! Bush
GOP candidate Ben Carson
GOP candidate Chris Christie
GOP candidate Ted Cruz
GOP candidate Carly Fiorina
Chris Paul rides banana boat
DeAndre Jordan free agency saga plays out on Twitter
Chandler Parsons' airplane emoji tweet
Chandler Parsons
Kylie Jenner runs social media
Cecil the Lion killed by American dentist
Mad Men finale
Jon Hamm & Jennifer Westfeldt split
Gwen Stefani & Gavin Rossdale split
Jon Snow seemingly dies in Game of Thrones
Kermit & Miss Piggy split
Zayn leaves One Direction
Bill Simmons throws bombs at NFL, fired from ESPN
Anti-Vax crusaders bring us back to 19th century
Fifty Shades of Grey hits theaters
Jurassic World hits theaters
Mockingjay Pt 2 / Jennifer Lawrence
Amy Schumer has a great year
#squadgoals
The shifting identities of Rachel Dolezal
Ta-Nehisi Coates wins Genius Grant, authors Black Panther comic
Apple Watch
Ashley Madison leak
The Dress sparks internet-wide debate
#FreeTheNipple
Planned Parenthood defunding / Colorado PP shooting
Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet is awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize
Super Mario Maker
Tu YouYou awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Apple Pencil released
Taylor Swift, “Bad Blood”
Kendrick Lamar releases To Pimp a Butterfly and is featured on “Bad Blood”
Supreme Court ruling makes same-sex marriage a right
Empire debuts and is smash hit
Narcos debuts
Viola Davis makes moving Emmy speech
Llama chase
Straight Outta Compton released
Pope Francis visits Cuba and U.S.
Kim Davis refuses to issue marriage licenses, maybe meets Pope
Boston breaks winter snow records
Ahmed Mohamed, the “clock kid”
California drought forces water rationing
USA wins Women’s World Cup
Kansas City Royals win World Series
Chicago Blackhawks win Stanley Cup
Margarita Guy aka Jimmy Buffett cameo in Jurassic World
Mad Max released (depicted: "Doof Wagon")
New Yorker article about the Cascadia Subduction Zone terrifies the Pacific Northwest
Brian Williams (NBC News) and Bill O'Reilly (FOX News) face fabrication charges
American Sniper is a huge hit
Pentagon opens all combat positions to women (depicted: first two female Rangers)
Iran Nuclear Deal
Greece's Debt Crisis
Pizza Rat
Ant Man released
New Horizon probe completes a Pluto flyby
Nepal experiences deadly earthquake
Birdman wins Oscar
Grantland closes
Kobe announces retirement
New Star Wars film: The Force Awakens
