‘Explosive’ Artist Draws Visit From 2 U.S. Agents

A computer artist who thinks it’s a blast to make celebrities’ heads “explode” got a little visit from the Secret Service.

Daniel Burford, 22, selects photographs of famous people he dislikes--Bob Dole, Rush Limbaugh, Boris N. Yeltsin, Bill Gates and Tom Hanks--and blows them up on his World Wide Web page in comic-book fashion.

“Chop out the parts of the head you want to explode, paint in some fake blood and there you go!” he said Friday.

But not everyone gets the joke.

Two Secret Service agents showed up at Burford’s workplace, Virtual Visions Inc., and asked him to come down to headquarters for a little chat.

“They asked me if I’d ever owned a gun, how I felt about Bob Dole, if I’d ever been in a mental hospital,” Burford said. “I guess they decided I wasn’t a security threat.”

His exploding heads Hall of Fame, indexed under both “tasteless humor” and “political humor,” attracted 10,000 browsers a day when it first appeared in December and draws about 4,000 to 5,000 now, he said.

His exploding heads Hall of Fame attracted 10,000 browsers a day when it first appeared in December and draws about 4,000 to 5,000 now, he said.