Posted in: <a href="https://comicvibe.com/the-lanterns-experience-at-comic/” title=”The 'Lanterns' Experience at Comic”>Comics, Conventions, Events, Pop Culture, san diego comic con | Tagged: gus fink, sdcc
The Gus Fink Treasure Hunt Of San Diego Comic-Con Finds Success
The Gus Fink Treasure Hunt Of San Diego Comic-Con finds success for at least one friend of Bleeding Cool
Article Summary
- Gus Fink’s San Diego Comic-Con treasure hunt sent fans across the Gaslamp chasing 11 hidden Kreepy Cuddles originals.
- Fans met Gus Fink at The Tipsy Crow, scanned a QR code, then followed fresh Instagram and TikTok clues every 20 minutes.
- Bleeding Cool’s Jessie Rusu scored Boris, calling the chance to own rare original Gus Fink art a special win for fans.
- Gus Fink used cardboard for the hunt pieces, echoing his early DIY roots and return to San Diego Comic-Con in 2026.
Friend of Bleeding Cool, Jessie Rusu, joined in a treasure hunt with artist Gus Fink through the Gaslamp District of San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, looking for original paintings of his Creepy Cuddles series. Featured on his Instagram stories, you could stop by The Tipsy Crow bar to meet the artist himself and get a QR code to get the clues. The hunt featured eleven original paintings on cardboard, and he said he chose cardboard as the medium to represent the era of his career when he couldn’t afford art supplies, so he worked with what he had. Jessie tells me, “An original of Gus’s work is incredibly expensive, so having the chance to own one is really special for his fans. Fans like me! I’m thrilled to be able to take Boris home!”
The Gus Fink Treasure Hunt, photo by Jessie Rusu
The Gus Fink Treasure Hunt, photo by Jessie Rusu
The Gus Fink Treasure Hunt, photo by Jessie Rusu
The Gus Fink Treasure Hunt, photo by Jessie Rusu
Gus Fink is an American self-taught artist, writer, filmmaker, toy designer, and multimedia creator known for dark surrealism that blends creepy-cute, whimsical, grotesque, and heartfelt elements. You can find more of his stuff here. His style often features stitched-up creatures, wide-eyed oddballs, monsters, splatters, and themes exploring the duality of nightmares/dreams, weirdness as wonderful, transformation, and self-acceptance, drawing comparisons to creators like Tim Burton, Jhonen Vasquez, and Roman Dirge. He began in 1999 by turning pages from a discarded 1954 Webster’s Dictionary (found in a Goodwill dumpster) and other found materials like cardboard into his first sold artworks. He went full-time as an artist around 2000 after early struggles, initially selling through a punk/weirdo shop. After publishing comics in the early noughties, he moved into toys in 2007 with the likes of Boogily Heads, Stitch Kittens, and Gooli Monsters)Creep Kids, Creeplings, and Kreepy Cuddles plushies/figures. But in 2026, he found a reason to return to San Diego Comic-Con and the treasure hunt was it…
On the Friday of the show, GusFink invited fans to search the Gaslamp Quarter for eleven escaped “Kreepy Cuddles” creatures hidden throughout downtown, and every 20 minutes, Fink released a new clue on Instagram and TikTok, introducing another “Kreepy Cuddles” character and pointing hunters toward its location. If you found one of the original sketches, it was yours to keep…
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