MAD Toy Design’s “Mad Money” series was created as a collectible art-print extension of the Modern Hero universe. It uses the visual language of engraved currency to explore the character’s endless pursuit of status, control, and survival. I illustrated and designed the piece with the detail and ornamental structure of traditional banknotes, replacing familiar symbols of wealth with MAD Toy Design’s own mythology. This includes the Modern Hero figure, branded iconography, custom numbering, decorative borders, and the phrase “Embrace the Madness.” The original AP edition presents the artwork in stark black-and-white, emphasizing the linework, engraving-inspired texture, and satirical tone behind the concept.

The series expanded into four distinct versions, each shifting the meaning of the same core illustration through color, finish, and symbolism. Big Money reinterprets the artwork in green and cream, referencing standard U.S. currency and the cultural obsession with financial success. Blood Money transforms the piece into a red, dripping edition that suggests the personal and moral cost of ambition — the choices, compromises, and consequences that can leave “blood on your hands.” Oil Money uses a darker palette to represent the influence of large corporations, energy, and systems of control that shape modern life, often with our awareness but outside our control. Together, the editions turn a single illustrated banknote into a layered commentary on money, power, creativity, and the burden carried by the Modern Hero.