Sadly, Lobsters Aren't Immortal - the story behind the coolest fake band's poster "IMMORTAL LOBSTER"

Immortal Lobster, possibly the coolest fake band to ever exist. I made this fake band poster off the back of a date, which a friend crashed. She got talking to someone at the bar who was an exchange student from America and she stated that Lobsters were Immortal. After a lot of research, it turns out sadly that they are not, but they are pretty cool regardless!

The misconception about lobsters being immortal isn’t a total lie. Lobster DNA works a bit differently from that of other creatures. Their DNA duplicates like the rest of us, but instead of having a defined degradation to stop point, it actually just keeps duplicating forever. This is the basis for thinking lobsters could be immortal, but theres more to it than this one (cool) fact.

With DNA duplication comes growth, with growth comes shedding their exoskeleton to make more room. This is a very vulnerable time for the lobster because they’re literally loosing their protective shell. It takes, as one could imagine, a boat load of energy to regenerate an entire outer shell, so a lot of lobsters after a series of molts end up dying from exhaustion, who can relate?

On my deep dive of learning about lobsters I found out some additional fun facts. They are a great source of OMEGA 3’s (so I turned that into their record company, obviously) and their blood is actually clear - until cooked, sadly. It made sense to me to turn these fun facts into part of the IMMORTAL LOBSTER band universe.

What use is an east coast tour without a tour name and some special guests? A lot of Forge’s work is based in wordplay and puns, and this whole activity was so much fun to create and muse on!

This poster and accompanying graphics were made for FORGE WORLD EDITION #7, the zine where I’m designing the world of Forge Forward. An alternate reality where silliness reigns, joy is paramount of everything is aesthetic. UNCLE RICO’s is another fake business that was designed for Edition #6.

You can grab a copy for FORGE WORLD edition #7 here!

This print is available in A5, A4 and A3, and I personally think it looks baller the bigger it is. It’s bold, funny and factual. Now you know the story behind the art work and have learnt some fun facts,  you can confidently relay to anyone who will listen, I know I do.