Timothy Higgins brings Zombie Queen to life for 318 Forum

When local artist Timothy Higgins was asked to draw the illustration for 318 Forum’s cover story previewing Geek’d Con event, he knew he wanted to tell a story.

“I’ve never really considered myself an artist per se,” Higgins said.

“I’ve always been attracted to storytelling. … I just use art to convey stories.”

The result is a story centered around one of Higgins’ creations – the Zombie Queen.

“If Shreveport was infected with the zombie virus, what would it look like? If the Zombie Queen just came in to Shreveport out of the bayous and the swamps, and she wanted to take over the city, what would she do? She would probably turn people into zombies and take it over.”

And since the illustration needed to be related to Geek’d Con, Higgins chose to have the Zombie Queen control some of those who would appear at the event.

“Since that character is kind of associated with me, I just took it and put it on the cover, then took all the celebrities who are going to be at Geek’d Con and made them into zombies. Basically, I’ve got a big zombie hoard coming at you, and (the Zombie Queen) is kind of floating in the background, laughing sinisterly as the celebrity zombies are walking toward you.”

Higgins, who owns Swampy Sloth Studios, can do almost any project. But much of his work has a particular focus.

“It’s more or less the quirky side of Louisiana. The weird stuff. The voodoo stuff. Fantasy, as well as some of the wildlife stuff. Anything that is based in Louisiana is the basis for my work. I can veer off from there and do pinups and Amazons, but mostly it’s centric to Louisiana-type prints and art.”

To learn more about Swampy Sloth Studios, visit www.swampysloth.com.