I was reading an article on Pink Floyd’s The Wall the other day and I noticed something. The artist that created the animated characters for the album cover and later the movie, Gerald Scarfe, actually resembles the Schoolmaster character he created. Gerald was a well known British political cartoonist in 1979 when he was asked to invent visual versions of the characters from the album. And he had to do it quickly because the album was getting ready to be released.

According to Gerald via his interview with Uncut, Roger Waters and Nick Mason had seen a film he’d done in 1971 called Long Drawn Out Trip. That was good enough for Roger to want Gerald on board because Roger thought Gerald was “f--king mad”. Gerald did some other work for Floyd for the Wish You Were Here and In The Flesh tour, but its his characters from The Wall that he’s probably most recognized for. He actually designed the album cover on Roger’s kitchen table in France.

But what I found really interesting is the resemblance between the artist and one of his most famous creations. Here’s a picture of Gerald for reference.

Compare that to a few pictures of the famous Schoolmaster cartoon, and inflatable character from the tours.

Here he is in action in concert.

And here’s from the actual movie The Wall.

And here they are side by side...it’s not a perfect match by any means but there is definitely a resemblance in my opinion.

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