Vic Rattlehead
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In reality, Dave Mustaine sketched the original drawing of Vic for the cover art, but Combat Records lost the artwork and improvised a completely different result. [1] The original artwork was supposed to be recovered and placed on the re-issue of Killing Is My Business...and Business is Good!; however, this never came to pass.
Redesign contest
On January 29 2006, an official contest was announced on DeviantArt to redesign the Megadeth icon. The contest stated:
After two decades of rocking, the heavy metal band Megadeth’s mascot Vic Rattlehead needs a facelift and the band has commissioned DeviantArt to redesign him!! Not only do you get the chance to redesign a mascot whose image has appeared on several Megadeth albums as well as a myriad of band merchandise, you can also win the BIGGEST prizes we've ever offered for a DeviantArt contest!
The prizes were three different ESP electric guitars. The contest ended on February 14 2006, and was judged by Dave Mustaine with the results posted on DeviantArt on March 15 2006.[2]
Artists
The artists for the various incarnations of Vic include:
- Dave Mustaine (original band logos)
- Hugh Syme (Countdown to Extinction, Youthanasia, and The World Needs a Hero)
- Michael Mueller (Megadeth edition of VH1's Behind the Music, Blackmail The Universe concert tour shirts, and the 2002 remastered edition of Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!)
United Abominations
Recently the cover art for Megadeth's new album, United Abominations, has revealed a redesigned Vic, using artwork from John Lorenzi one of the DeviantArt contest entries, albeit not a winning entry. Vic now appears as an elderly man rather than a skeletal figure, albeit with traits of the Four Horsemen mentioned in the album and shown inside the CD case--he is accompanied by an angel wearing white with blood-stained wings (an allusion to the Pestilence Horseman), has long black hair and a black cloak resembling the black horse of Famine, is wielding various firearms like the sword used by the War Horseman, and has pale, veinous-looking skin like that of Death, and is, of course, shown dealing death on a large scale.
