"Knock-off merchandise, brand crossovers, cosplayers, fan art depictions, Darth Maul tattoos and face paint - it's all in here. It speaks to the popularity of Star Wars, the (the 'bloated Disney-owned franchise' as J.A describes in the zine), that just one character could amass such an avalanche of cultural cache, in all of their low-res JPEGs, plush dolls and flowery pieces of fan art (some of which where he appears uncharacteristically in love with other iconic characters)."
""As a mid thirties millennial, Darth Maul is an icon from a nostalgic period in my life," shares J.A. "Prior to the film's release, his face was completely inescapable due to the gargantuan marketing campaign where they teased his face on every possible surface imaginable for what felt like years before the movie came out, but the title character had two speaking lines and just over 6 minutes of screentime before being sliced in half.""
Mauled To Death is an eccentric photo-zine that assembles cultural ephemera related to Darth Maul, including knock-off merchandise, brand crossovers, cosplayers, fan art, tattoos and face paint. The project began during lockdown as an effort to collect every Maul-related media item online and evolved into a sprawling visual compilation that interrogates fandom proliferation and commercial fandom culture. The zine highlights how a peripheral film character amassed disproportionate cultural cache through marketing and merch, despite minimal screentime. The collection underscores nostalgia-driven consumption at the turn of the millennium and the franchise's corporate branding shaping fan production and commodification.
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