The Zarchive: Goodbye & Good Luck

During the PHANTASM film saga, Jody Pearson left his brother Michael in a none-to-clear fashion – was it a car crash, or kidnapping? But more important than the details, to Michael, seemed to be the lack of goodbye. In this artwork, Jody waves goodbye in an iconic pose – genuine warm face, calm and relaxed, but half-turned, between where he’s been and where he’s headed. He waves in friendly fashion – no sense of hidden evil or ulterior motive as presented by “poker face” Jody in PHANTASM: OBLIVION. Jody’s sincerity is echoed by the vast open blue skies.

One of my favourite Justin Zaharczuk pieces. This is a variation of another piece, a full-body shot on Jody standing in the White Room with the lights turned off producing an inverted scheme. After the pictured variation, he would later alter it again to add a free-floating Roman mausoleum doorway in the desert just behind Jody, giving him a firm destination of the afterlife, or the next life.