Cronenberg’d Rick And Morty Concept Art

James McDermott, art director for Rick and Morty, has posted fantastic character designs and background art he created for the popular Adult Swim television series.

The first character designs are of Cronenberg Rick and Cronenberg Morty. They appear at the end of “Rick Potion #9,” the sixth episode of the first season, after the original Rick and Morty are forced to leave C-137 when they can’t come up with a cure for everyone getting genetically cronenberg’d. Cronenberg Rick and Cronenberg Morty come to the dimension because they accidentally turned the cronenbergs on their world into normal looking people.

The next character designs are for Prince Nebulon, who appeared in “M. Night Shaym-Aliens!,” the fourth episode of the first season. Using layers upon layers of simluated realities, parodying Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Prince Nebulon tries to get Rick to reveal the recipe for concentrated dark matter.

As for the background art, it includes designs for an infectious-disease theme park known as “Anatomy Park,” which is also the title of the show’s third episode, and Flu Season Dance, where the love potion Rick gave to Morty — so that he could win over Jessica — goes horribly wrong.

Concept Art Of Rick and Morty Cronenbergs

“The Rick and Morty cronenbergs were so fun to make and were some of the first couple to be nailed down,” McDermott explained. “We figured out early on that it would be intriguing if the cronenbergs were an amalgamation of various elements, i.e. what would your grandmother mixed with a baby and an alley cat look like. [The possibilities are endless. [Some] of the seasons best characters were generated for that episode based on that idea.”

Alternate Designs For Prince Nebulon

“Next are some quick initial roughs of Prince Nebulon, [who was] played by David Cross,” McDermott shared. “[The] one second to the left was the jumping off point for the final design.”  

Fun fact: Prince Nebulon was the leader of the Zigerions, a race of aliens that have an aversion to nudity, and David Cross’s Arrested Development character, Tobias Fünke, shared the same affliction.

Rick Potion #9, Antomy Park Concept Art

“[These] are quick rough concept sketches providing a starting off point for the design and color palette to get the mood of a sequence and get the conversation started,” McDermott said. “The [bottom] one is my favorite, the ending to the [‘Rick Potion #9’] episode in what looks like a hopeless post apocalyptic world. The next one was for [‘Anatomy Park’], a first attempt at the haunted liver, the stringy meatball looking monster was the start to what became of the tuberculosis character. The spaceship rough was started on the shape of a dumbell and ended up being the final ship design.”

More Rick And Morty Concept News

• Concept Art: Shoney’s And Seal Team Ricks Ship
• Concept Art: McDonald’s Sauce, Cronenberg World Jerry And Summer
• Concept Art Featuring Phoenix Person
• 5 Best Episodes Of Rick And Morty
• Promos From Rick And Morty’s Surprise Premiere

Rick and Morty is Adult Swim‘s most scientifically accurate animated comedy. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, it catalogues the bizarre misadventures of a bored scientific genius/drunkard and his socially awkward grandson, Morty. Their exploits tend to have unintended consequences for Morty’s dysfunctional family, especially his unfailingly mediocre father, Jerry. Watch Rick and Morty battle everything from interdimensional customs agents to Cronenberg monsters.

The cast features Justin Roiland as both Rick Sanchez and his grandson, Morty; Sarah Chalke as Rick’s daughter, Beth; Chris Parnell as Rick’s son-in-law and Beth’s husband, Jerry; and Spencer Grammer as Rick’s granddaughter and Beth and Jerry’s daughter, Summer.