Soner Ön grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York in the early 1980’s. during childhood, the cartoons he watched had Scrooge McDuck swimming through gold coins and Richie Rich’s name glowing with gold and gems. This became a noticeable vast difference to the crack boom, street gangs, and poverty in his neighborhood.
In this ongoing series since 2005, Ön has been painting over the old comic book covers of Richie Rich changing his racial appearance. This alteration questions stereotypical assumptions regarding social class, identity, prosperity and how they are informed through popular culture.
Stray Rats has worked with Soner Ön on making a Richie Rich tee and gold lapel pin. Each tee comes with a 7 x 10″ (36 pages) full-color zine.
More work can be seen at soneron.com
