ALTERNATIVE COMICS Committed Myself to Asylum today....

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

After many years of constant internal chattering, an incompatible disposition, and perpetual deliberation, I finally committed my self to the asylum today. However the strange impulse inciting the occurrence differed drastically from any which I had imagined. I never once attempted suicide, or took arms nor acted violently. In fact it were almost as if I'd never left my senses at all. It was actually the revelation of the utmost clerical, mathematical, and quantifiable of revelations which induced my resignation and the drug addled state of being I feel grower stronger in my blood with each word  I am now typing.

Fortunately, as my time is running thin, the explanation of my position happened very quickly. I had left my home early, as I do everyday. Nothing peculiar happened, and all my routines were in order. Over breakfast I was irritated by the flimsy sound bites on the radio news. During the morning traffic I became aggregated at the music, not only on my radio but from the pounding bass amps in others. I was pushed and shoved through the subway and finally arrived at the office to listen to people talk about dreaded reality shows from last night. My office was in shambles and with my desk top in the shop my boss knew nothing better but to embarrass me with menial chores.

After work I went to the book store and was hideously appalled. Worthless words on every self and the most ludicrous propaganda as the window display feature! The film began at 8 and as usual I was home by half past. I've grown sensitive towards movies customarily walking out nauseated. Then at last I reach my home computer and the web. I search and search every night for some worthy entertainment. I search in vain. It's even worse in here than it is out there! All sorts of miniscule languages have irrelevant conversations about all the things the news, radio, TV and pictures showed us! Thus every night I fall asleep in anger at the ignorance of the world!

But this morning when I awoke, I had the most insidious of notions. I tried to deny it and ignore it, but the mathematical skills of even my untrained feeble mind had finally done the calculations which sent me to this cell. I finally realized that so infuriatingly out numbered, it was mathematically impossible for everyone else to be insane. Therefore as I peered out from my bedroom window I realized the truth. My perception of reality, one were people might remain polite dignified , educated, and creative, was a delusion. Every moment of aspiration and inspiration I'd ever felt was entirely an hallucination and not of right mind.

Unfortunately as clear as the truth is now seen, I cannot bring my insane suggestions to silence. I still firmly believe in them despite factually knowing otherwise. I still dream of a powerful novel like those of times long past, or for a musical innovation that actually involves music, and of a cinema filled with unbelievably photographed narrations regarding topics of importance, and of a place where it is uncommon to find aggression as a regular part of life. Since I cannot separate these wild fantasies from the world in which I must function, I have decided the only sane thing left to do was to see if any treatments or prescriptions can help me someday retrieve my sanity and return to society.

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ALTERNATIVE COMICS TELEPATHIC BATTLES AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESOLVE

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS ART OF WAR

"Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that lies in the heart. Be one in self-harmony, in Yoga, and arise great warrior, arise".Bhagavad Gita

In the entirety of my memories, and more so as of late, I have found myself in perpetual struggles against my fellow man. Now that is not to say that I've led a violent or even particularly aggressive life, but rather one of constant defence. It would seem that no matter how miniscule a personal space I require, some one is compelled to invade it either intentionally or otherwise. Oddly enough, as I've witnessed opposite reactions in others frequently, I always fight for my space if it is rightfully mine. Whether it be for a bus seat occupied by a package, or a cafe territorially inhabited by fiends, I rarely subside though the exertion is trying.

No I do not derive pleasure from the aggravating confrontation and am always left with an uncomfortable pulse rate and embarrassing hue. For I time I questioned whether I secretly coveted encountering ignorant and inconsiderate villains, but soon realized that there was absolutely no escape. I tried many new places all over the globe but the situation was always repeated. Some one somewhere would infringe on my space. If I tried to picnic, a team of Frisbee players would set up game less than a foot from my food. If I tried to buy vegetables someone would push past my place in line. When I opened a book a guitar started bleeding, and when the guitar sounded exquisite construction began. These mild trivialities on exemplified the worst of the intrusions through their persistent restless pestering in between larger incidents.

I will no go into the sordid details of these larger events for they alone hold the key to my preservation and authority, but I will share a brief and unusual experience through which you will understand why the details are classified. As I mentioned these unwelcome encounters have accelerated in the past few weeks. The disequilibrium affair became a regular occurrence between myself and a large network of up and coming gangsters frequenting my neighbourhood of the Gear.

I'd little regard for their illicit activities. What difference is to me who buys and sells drugs? However it was the boisterous and offensive impulses of the social unkempt crew that haunted every aspect of my routine. Not only had they infected the shops, parks and cafes with continuous loud music and fist fight displays, but they sat on my buildings doorstep for 8 hours a day. At any rate I took numerous counter measures eventually dispersing the hooligans from all of their hangouts thus bringing peace back to the community, Although most of my tactics were subversive and dirty, I was concerned for my anonimity after falling into public words with several offenders.

Earlier today those concerns came to light. I had left the shop early and followed my regular routes. Only this time I felt vibrations. I could see the thugs and dealers on many building stoops and I knew that their attention was directed at me. I caught a number of brief glances and was twice knocked had in the shoulder by passer before I reached the cafe. Here I saw a crew of rough individuals scatter quickly the moment I arrived. After purchasing my coffee the streets seemed clear. Not only did I see no marked enemy, the vibrations had ceased.

Sitting down in the sun, I put a book on the grass when a sudden compulsion over whelmed my calmed mind. I envisioned a surprise attack in which several unknown street dealers started kicking my as I sat in the grass. When I say envisioned it, I mean I felt it and saw it and was swooned despairingly with remorse at my helplessness. Turning around I surveyed the park and sure enough I was casually surrounded by more than twenty of my new voraciously oscillating friends.

I made eye contact with the one who I 'd toiled with earlier and locked glares with insistence. With the squint of his eye I knew they had something to prove. I meditatively replied by running scene through my mind. In a single beat I thought of all the names, faces and places I'd gathered against them and of the webpage I'd hidden which could relay the information. My nemesis flinched and I knew he'd understood for with a cussing sound from his teeth the entire group disappeared. I was no longer in fear nor do I expect further trouble, but as sure as I opened my book in the sun, I was hit in the back of the head by a Frisbee!

visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS A Fashion Soot turns MONSTER

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Fashion Show turned MONSTER!

Although I have been entirely unable to gather any proof of the anomaly, and whilst many systematic fingers have pointed at me, the fact remains that my youngest sister, like numerous others in the downtown of the Gear, has gone missing. Without a trace, nor notice and resistant of any clues, women of a certain age group seem to be being mysteriously swallowed up whole by the city. The first reports reached us when the epidemic disintegrations peaked at 13 in a single night, but one must wonder how many vanished before the phenomena was considered en vogue in the news.

I had taken little interest in the media's paranoid exploitations but was unabashedly thrown into the mystery upon my sister's involvement. The police searched every inch of our house and questioned me and my father to no end. I hadn't thought them particularly threatening or offensive as the tough facade was meant to over compensate for the fact they had nothing else to go on. They left the house in a mild state of disorder and promised our family that they would do their best.

I was asked to tidy my sisters belongings as my mother could not bare to enter her room. I knew the chamber well as had I had snuck in many times in my youth to steal change or play pranks. Sitting on the floor was pile of magazines and some overturned make-up cabinets obviously a resultant of the investigating officials. Pulling up my sisters chair, I leant forward to tidy the items.

The magazine seemed unusually crinkled and exhumed the rotting stench associated with road kill. In darting my nose away from the magazine, I came to notice the large billboard advertisement situated out side my sister’s window. How times had changed. When we moved here only 15 years ago there was a tree in that view. At least there was no advertisement. Today the giant billboard featured only a blaring white blank video screen not unlike the sunset it had so obtrusively denied us. I noticed the rotting smell again and realized it was emanating not from the periodical but from beneath my sister’s bed.

I shuttered at the odour, and lifted the mattress cautiously as careful not to poke my nose any nearer than necessary. There I uncovered a glob of composting apples, salads, half eaten candy bars, and entirely untouched whole meals, all grotesquely festering with flies.

Again the smells moved me to jump away when my eyes happened to notice a page missing an article hanging from one of the magazines. The page had been obviously tampered with as small section was cut away with scissors. The remainder of the page bore a solicitation for a new modelling agency missing only the portion revealing the locations and contact information. I thought to my self how humorously detective and coincidentally presumptuous of me to think any more of a random cutting from one of dozens of magazines. I instantly surmised that it must have been a habit of my beloved sibling but later found that every other publication remained fully intact.

I went downstairs for the supplies necessary to clean up my sisters horded food. When I returned to the room I found the mess was already removed. Momentarily unnerved, I thought to myself that someone else must have smelled it before me and rushed to clean the mess. I then sat down in the chair worrying about my sister as the moonlight reflected off the face of the billboard. What happened next was so fleeting, yet disturbing, that I was compelled to write it down in this journal, in case the visions is just a dream that might easily be forgotten.

The billboard lit up and featured a long line up of young women. They were being pushed through a studio and decorated in strange costumes. A line of sentient mirrors reached forth reshaping and stretching the decorated teens. Suddenly the models were at a party were tall Orge-ish aardvarks removed the tops of their craniums and drank their intestines like wine. The extended and fanged snouts sucked the victim’s blood dry until only a rubbery flesh and extravagant dress remained. The drained plastic figures were then quickly draped over metallic mannequins which stretched and shifted the women to the desires of an unseen photographer. Suddenly dozens of flash bulbs flickered until the billboard blew out. The entire experience lasted less than three seconds. I mean I knew  this was all of the imagination, but the brief surreal animation appeared to be so real.

This however, is not the worst of my situation. As a full night has passed since examining the room there is still no word of my sister, and stranger still no one will take responsibility for cleaning up the food wastes under her bed. Finding this peculiar I went back to the scene but was utterly disappointed at the extent of it's cleanliness. No food, not even magazines and the cosmetics were no where to be seen. I sat, for the last time ever, in my sisters chair and watched the contractors paste up a new sign. I was now certain I’d been dreaming at that no such sinister modelling agency existed responsible for the kidnappings. As I resigned my heroic aspirations of solving these weird crimes, the workers unrolled the enormous advertisement up, along, and across the giant billboard smoothly revealing the face of the new cover model. Now, no one agrees with me, nor has mother ever even attempted a glance, but I'll swear on my life the image was hers! There on the billboard all stretched out and rubbery was my poor missing sister, who no one seems to remember anymore, sprawled out with a manufactured magnificence and smiling with glee!

 

visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Line Ups to Nowhere Now Here!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Nightmares from Nowhere

 Perpetually obliterated by futureless and mundane routines, a large group of strange denizens crowds together forming a line. Each lost little soul waits patiently for advancement as the world all around them fades to a white out and fills endlessly with flies. Decorated with obscured and misplaced blackened orifices the crowds wallow in anonymity.

The bleak conglomerated hypnotic conformity briefly subsides as the result of a distracted young citizen who inadvertently holds up the line. Boisterously exposing his amorphous and teeth ridden malformed chest cavity, the foolish adolescent initiates agitation through this breach of social etiquette. Unable to concentrate on the holding his place in the line, the daydreamer opens his mouth, as to yawn, and begins to spit flies. Once again his deviant behaviour is reprimanded by the pushy and passing members of the now moving line.

After what is deemed an eternity, the anticipation suddenly subsides. "NEXT" bellows aggressively from a figure just ahead. In an instant the subject snaps out from his mesmerised and insect infested contemplative regurgitation. The receptionist, a tall refrigerator type looking marvel wearing radiation proof gloves ands showing only his blackened teeth, demands a numbered ticket from the next person in line. Astonished the young pupil bursts into retaliation angrily declaring that he'd heard nothing of a number system and had already been waiting forever. With the authority of an occupying force, the receptionist conducts the lost and mistaken individual back to the back of the line.

As he walks slowly into place, and his senses fall depleted, the tiny little teenager sifts off into dreams. In the visions he recalls having had been here before . This white backdrop, the mutations, and the line up itself all prove horrifically recollective and in a despairing moment of weakness, he bows his head in defeat. As the line keeps on creeping other members resign in similar fashion . No attempts at escape nor the prevention of flies, nor any unusual observation is transmuted as sound. One by one the people forget, regret and accept, turning first into monsters and then to machines.

 

 

I spent the whole day fixing photos and writng stories for my website. This one is going part of an old horror anthology that I made. I've finally scanned and corelated the pages so you can see the whole comic at www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/surreal-monster-comics.html  

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Scene from the LAST OPTIMIST

It has been an extensively uninterrupted and subsequently productive day at the drawing table. I spent most of the morning and better part of the afternoon working up some stills for the new animation. I created a 3rd of a second in approximately 5 hours. Sounds a little ridiculous I must admit, but the scene I'm working on involves an enormous crowd of characters and will probably only last for about four seconds. In my broken animators brain that translates to about 60 drawings. Those 60 drawings can then be compartmentalized into individual aspects, such as 60 drawings of the buildings, and 60 drawings of the skyline. Those 60 drawings can then be divided into 60 renderings of each window and 60 black fills on those buildings which are dark. The algebraic tortures continue onwards at which 60's upon 60's of images and touch up all come to a head on a tiny little particle representative of my sanity and mocking me for not choosing a simpler method of expression. But I've done this before, and probably will to some extent again, worked on stop-motion hand drawn animations and the result is always impressive for at one moment the tasks may seem endless then all of a sudden the cartoon comes to life. I let you know when that happens probably some 60 plus 60 or maybe 60 more days from now. The sooner I stop counting the better.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS MONSTER SKYSCRAPER ROBOT DRAGON!

HEY APATHY! A technological monstrosity from the business district!

A giant technological terror manifests itself in the financial center of the City of Gears! Raging like a rapid komodo, the aggressive energies generate a lizard like form. The Ferocious Dragon magnetically adapts mechanizations as scales, towering over the denizens with a reflective, electric, armoured flesh. A tiny superhuman soars over the monstrosity curiously considering the crisis at hand. Looking closely at the escaping devastation, the Hero sees a strange organic matter connecting the beast to the surface below. It would appear as though no matter how fierce or enormous the Business Dragon might grow , it cannot escape the grasp of nature below.

This 20 x 30 HEY APATHY alternative comics panel was drawn with fine point pen technical pens and black India ink, I did this drawing while working as a street performer in downtown Toronto. During my last season as a full time street performer I made several of these organics vs mechanics themed artworks. Using very small point refillable pens was ideal for the streets as dipping instruments such as brushed or nibs, can get really messy and markers are a waste of time and money. The tech-pens allow for intricate archival line-work similar to the quill technique but much more travel friendly.

 

moer drawing and comics and stories at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Giant Robot Dreams

HEY APATHY! Alternative comics Robot Drawing

A Giant mechanized monstrosity works it's way through the streets. With it's clambering heavy movements and predetermined coarse, the twenty-five foot, six thousand pound Robot subliminally forces the flow of pedestrian traffic. Herding the denizens along unseen patterns, the machine omits toxic fumes, has claw like appendages, and uses it’s impenetrable posture, dubiously prodding citizens in and out through the shops. Upon extensive examination one might still believe that these tracks appear random, however the answer can be found in the divisions apparent when surveying the crowd. For in front, the machine grasps at people with unbiased ferocity, while those who stand behind it, always appear more piggish than human. As of the Robots cast shadow, a crew of heterogeneously boar like beings gather, reaping the rewards and the refuge of the cybernetic aggressor. Looking only towards future days, the massive Technology mercilessly advances through infinitely spiralling City of Gears.

This 15 x 15 inch open and ink illustration was one of the first drawings I did for the CHAPTER TEN of my mythology. It was created while I was working as a full time professional street performer and made on site as I witnessed the mechanical monsters and it’s cult business following. The original small drawing took about an hour to complete and was later revisited in performance as a 6 x 4 foot street painting. This was the only drawing in the series that did not get a background landscape because it started to rain abruptly terminating the outdoor session. 

 

MORE ALTERNATIVE COMICS

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Between Superheroes and the Underground

HEY APATHY! Subliminal Superheroes

The HEY APATHY! alternative comics are a concomitant amalgamation of both mainstream imagery and underground ideologies. The stories feature popular icons including superheroes, samurai, monsters, and robots, yet present the adventures in a metaphorical manner. In Book One a symbolically stereotypical tale of superheroes and robots is used as a vessel for an unusual fable. The superhuman rises in resistance to a mass technological hypnosis. The moment his individual actions are detected, he is attacked by three Giant Billboard Robots. Whilst retaining an engrossing pace and dealing with the fantasy worlds in a tradition comic book style, the story secretly questions the nature of commercial homogenization and the increasingly difficult task of being oneself. The goal of this alchemic concoction is a book that while suitable for young audiences, remains intellectually provocative to the learned reader. Plus it’s got some really cool pictures in it!  

more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS ALIEN INVASION

HEY APATHY ! ALTERNATIVE COMICS

AFTER THE HARVEST...The communications came like none any of us ever imagined. There were no vocal sounds, no translators, no telepathy, not even in dreams. It was like everyone, everyone still alive that is, had known it as common knowledge since generations past. We all knew how easy it had been for the extraterrestrials to over take us and we all knew of their mocking narration.

With sciences far advanced from those here on earth, the aliens had spotted our third rock telescopically approximately 200,000 years ago. Despite their superior equipment the images took longer to return than initially expected. However, by extraordinary marvels of deduction the beings were accurately able to predict man's evolutionary coarse. Although the flight to planet earth would last millennia by our calendar, our attackers had planned to face man as you see us today, a fully evolved, intelligent, organized and potentially destructive creature.

Their method of assimilation would require much subtlety for a radioactive planet would prove of little use to these sentient vegetations. The strategy was as follows, first they would hide under the earth’s surface and infect our crops. A chemical agent was produced capable of removing all nutrients from our menu. The affected supplies would look brighter or bigger, and prove highly addictive. These cosmic intruders would also introduce new habit forming potions and rituals. These vices would provide vast and extraordinarily pleasurable experiences upon consumption while secretly proving depressive and fatal.

Once the masses were physically diminished, the populace was to under go a widespread mesmeric plague. The second stage of the invasion involved the transmitting of singular and reductive reasoning in all modes of our media. Through excessive exposure to repetitious sounds, light sources and demeaned typeface, the human mind could be reduced to incompetence. The final initiation before conquest was to then turn all men against each other for divided planets fall. This they planned on accomplishing by allocating our wealth inappropriately, depleting our resources, and inciting racism through propaganda.

Once all this was achieved, our visitors could grow unstoppably enormous, sprout from the grounds and settle right in. While their predictions were amazingly accurate in regards to our physical progress, even these humourless creatures laughed when they arrived. There was no need for caution nor extenuative plans! The beings were not required to brood underground whilst painstakingly softening and poisoning our health. Nor were they inclined to subversively infiltrate landside to fret with our minds. No, in one single movement, extraterrestrial vines the size of New York fell from the sky. These terrible monstrosities simply took over the globe and there was nothing to be done! We had already well prepared ourselves for the almighty harvest!.

visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS SURREAL SHOPPING SPREE...

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HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics A Surreal Horror .

..

Today the metropolis was blessed by a beautiful sunshine and warm springtime humidity that I found it some what difficult to resign to the studio. Pushing my papers aside and unplugging the machine, I grabbed a little cash a set out for the streets. I'd barely any plans, likely an organic brew, but I knew the inkling that my excited activity could only be nourished by some sort of shopping spree. I often find the act of searching through products and stores to be an invigorating and amusing pass time. I haven't any friends and no business to speak of, therefore my inclusion in spending gives me a deep sense of purpose.

I find the sequence of events necessary to make a purchase quite thrilling. I'll leave my house, move through transit, and arrive in a place where other people are. It makes me feel happily human. Then when I get into the shops, all the colours and choices! I can reject and collect whatever I fancy. I may file through records or racks of new fashions or purchase some food stocks or maybe an improvised treat. The shoe store is fun but not so much as the general  centers. Here you can ask people questions and peruse to no end. It is absolutely exhilarating when a package jumps off of the shelf and lands in my hands. Only some amount and 99 cents with all sorts of wonderful graphics and promises!

Sometimes I don't even bring my new toys home. If I've forgotten their importance or they become to much to handle I'll simply toss them aside and wait for my next inclination. Isn't it wonderful enough to just buy things! Some of the stores even play loud music and have sparkling lights with magazine cut outs inviting you in. If you come across such a magnificence you simply have explore.

I happened upon one such outlet on this afternoon's adventure. It was an enormous mega-establishment specializing in products with fancy packages all of which were either endorsed by celebrities or as seen on TV. I knew that this was my station. I strolled past the electronic greeter beaming with the utmost of confidence. Here I would shop and impress all that could see. I was certain that my social standings were about to be greatly enhanced as a result of my boisterous and skilful consumerist display . Yes, I knew how to shop, of that I was most confident.

Entering the isle ways I was quickly taken aback by a striking design. It appeared like a golden boulder sitting upon a pile of dull gravel. For a moment I worried that this was too good to be true and concerned myself deeply that my shopping may have ended to soon. Yes I wanted it, I'd heard of it, it was original, unique and entirely for me! No other parcel, nor package on any of the other shelves retained visibility. It was like me and the product were alone at a decadent ball. The muzak accelerated with a strange symphonic majesty and all of the lights in the store seemed to dim around us. I reached out in an instant, that lasted forever, and took hold of the box with the most joyous delight.

With the product now firmly gripped in my hands the entire store around me and my purchase turned pitch black. Standing in awe of the spotlight and my discovery, I surmised that this must be one of those retail promotions and that I had been made a champion. The proprietor and the public witnessed my extravagance and intended to reward and praise me for my expert consumerism. I knew that someday my genius would be celebrated for I was a shopper among shoppers in the highest degree!

The excitement crescendoed nearly beyond my control as electric currents surged from the insides of my teeth. Then in a kaleidoscope frenzy of logos and promos the entire room disappeared.

I saw a factory full of peoples from far away places.

I saw an armed soldier shuffling them in

and out through wired gates.

 I saw a smoke stack and a river coiling with fear.

 I heard the engines of planes, trucks and trains bursting my ears.

 I saw a group of suited creatures, situated around a long desk,

each laughing and arguing with uncensored jest.

 Then I saw the studies, and findings of man,

mass hypnosis, manipulated senses and of the wars in their plans.

 I saw my product reproduced and purchased by many

  and finally a garbage dump and transference of each penny.

 The metal money was melted and churned into weapons

 and before my purchase expired ten new ones had crept in.

Dizzily stepping backwards I bumped into another shopper who grunted at the unintentional obtrusion. I politely apologised excusing my self and turned towards the lines. Everything seemed normal again. I resolved that my vertiginous spell was likely caused by an empty stomach, unconsciously attempting to refute any possibility of the event being a side effect of shopping. Proceeding to the cashier I placed my purchase on the counter. "Cash or Credit?”. I hesitated,  looked down at the product, and before I could answer with  I found myself running down the wet and thunderous streets in a state of cursed  terror frantically seeking an advertisement-free route home. more art at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Alternative Comics SURREAL INNOVATIONS

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics SURREAL INNOVATIONS

I had the unfortunate mishap of losing an entire nights sleep after perusing several catalogues in search of a phone. The research ended early enough but the possibilities left me hyper sensitive and excitable to an extent preventing slumber. I had, for the first time, just heard of this strange and absurdist device which actually permits people to take their telephones outside. At first I laughed and envision an endlessly obtrusive stream of mingling wires leading back to their ports with polite pedestrians lifting them up so others could pass. I thought of skateboarders getting stuck and flying vigorously head first while jay walkers would be frequently towed down the roadways like a hero from a run away wagon in a western. Ludicrous! Phones that can go for a walk! What science fiction will perverted capitalists try to sell us next?

Asides from the improbability of such a phone, the more pressing question seemed to me to be why would anyone want to take a phone around with them. Understandably others, unlike my self, do have communications of a social parameter and often appear to even enjoy the company of others. But still, to have one’s associates able to find and talk to you at any given time? Absurd, not even the loneliest nor most talkative people in all of the lands could have such a desire or so much to say. Besides is not the phone primarily a tool for discovering the whereabouts of meetings and business?

At any rate I found the additional features of these "phones" quite startling as well. Some of them played music and others viewed films. I have used the telephone to make concert and theatre reservations but how on earth could it be used in their place? The device also promised to deliver me mail, let me surf the net, excel at social networking and replace my aging epidermal covering with that of an eighteen year old!

 On top of all this the phone could play games, a handful of math puzzles and extensive collection military training programs were a part of the deal! My phone would even be a book as long as it wasn't a controversial, independent, or good one. And for an additional monthly fee and a subliminally increasable rate, this new technology could regulate my diet, eat and digest all of my food, find my true love, and replace the English language with a newly improvised simplification entitled "texting".

So you might surmise that as a result of discovering all these amazing innovations I became excited to the point beyond rest. But alas I must say that it was not all this fictional nonsense which kept my mind racing all night but it was in fact a creeping revelation dredged up from the study. Only a few minutes passed before I started  putting the pieces of the mystery together. I started thinking about all the unusual people I'd seen out on the streets. There seemed to be more and more crazies talking to themselves these days. I had also noticed a strange affliction in which the denizens of the gear were rendered in an awkward position, holding their hands to their ears with bent over postures. I had disregarded both of these peculiarities many times over assuming that Toronto was simply insane or that the elbow to ear epidemic was a side affect of SARS, MAD COW, or some TERRIBLE FLU. I even disregarded the perpetual ringing of alarm clocks that I'd heard at the movies and on the tram as some sort of hip new musical trend. So why was I thinking about these things? How came it that incidents I'd all but forgotten had tenaciously resurfaced after reading up on futuristic phones?

My eyes burst open and “E equalled MC squared” as, in a feverish sweat, I leaped to my window. Pulling back the blinds I glanced out to city. I squinted my eyes at those strange human afflictions I'd so readily ignored and low and behold they were not of diseased mind, nor body, but each and every last person was holding a phone!

more surreal satire and strange comic strips at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMCS HARD RAIN

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics HARD RAIN

I am working on some  stories and statements for my website .I already posted Chapters 1,2,3 but am going to write up Chapter 4 tomorrow,here's a little gathering of words to help me prepare for my essay in the morn....

All sides are revealed at once as the monstrous metropolis is stained, twisted and deformed by the horrors of war and fables of inevitably battles to come. Thrust out of our daily routine by the cataclysmic aftermath of a vicious attack, the denizens dawn blackened appendages a take the place of the imaginary bombardier. Buildings crumble, peoples are lost, the clouds mock faces and skeletal creatures are relieved from the psyche taking on physical forms. Confused and detached from the chaos below, the citizen bombardiers continue to plight there unseen enemies. Like all of us, these little soldiers can't help but feel responsible, yet sincerely detached from the destruction of places far off from their own.

The Hard Rain drawings were created in the 6 month period following Sept 11 2001 and were exhibited during the first week of bombings in Iraq. The series explore the dark side of guilt and the power of fear. During that time we all had so many questions and concerns for the future, all of which revolved around a despairing uncertainty regarding the probable developments. In order to capture this terror I created a large scale cityscape installation utilizing sculptural building stretchers and intricately draw layered illustration of any and all insecurities which I could process in my mind. The project was a great critical and actual success fully realizing my initial vision and exhibited complete with red gallery walls. The entire show featured 250 small works, 13 large murals, and an animated comic. The Hard Rain drawings are included in Chapter 4 of the unusual and experimental monster comic website http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Hard Rain cover story from NOW Magazine

Rain Murals at the Cambridge Gallery's HEY APATHY Retrospective exhibition.

Alternative Comics CUSTOM LONGBOARD!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Skate board!

The city is a giant gear propelled by all the weird and crazy people moving through it! Over head the ominous SEEING TOWER watches as a giant billboard robot attempts to annihilate a tiny super hero! Fiercly flying forth with Eyeballs on his cape, Studabaker Hawk retaliates representing humanities lost in an increasingly technological empire! This black and white monster comic was hand painted directly on a prototyped custom made longboard last fall. The design was produced by the up and coming Toronto skateboard company Longboard Living and has just gone into mass production. We got the first proofs of the reproduced limited edition board this weekend and they look crazy. More details on the availability of the product as we work them out. I guessing the board will be limited to 100 printings and will be sold by both Longboard living and at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/.

 HEY APATHY! MONSTER LONGBOARDS first two proofs of the series at the longboard Living studio. These were done on wood decks but the actual product will have a white background.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS NO POST TODAY read why ...

HEY APATHY! NO ALTERNATIVE COMICS TODAY

I must apologize in advance for the following dog-ate-my-homework type excuse but there will be no blog post on this the 18th of April 2010. Although I awoke refreshed and complimented by a beautifully shining morning, my regular artist's rituals were interrupted by the most peculiar event. When I stood up, thirsty yet enthused, I noticed a glimmering pool of a opaque liquid had spilt across my bedroom floor. At first I assumed that a bottle of white book binding glue had toppled in the night. Slightly frustrated, as I forgot to hydrate my self, I set forth to examine the damage and potentially clean up my mess.


As printmakers and painters, and carpenters alike all well know, an upset bottle of glue across wooden panel floor can be disastrous. If the glue has settled, the likely hood of removal is certainly nil. I knelt down to touch the puddle and was instantaneously taken aback by the depth at which my fingers had submerged. While the substance sat only millimetres from the floor, I easily fit half of my hand into the now inexplicable spillage.

In my less than alert state, only just out of bed, I was barely able to process the occurrence. Inhaling a combination of shock, surprise and alarm within a singular breath, I felt a sinking depression of the senses as of one who is malnourished upon receiving the most traumatic of news. Instinctively I pulled back my moist covered hand when the white sopping ooze lifted whole in it's shape and flew up with my arm engulfing the room. All at once I was surrounded by an odourless and tasteless air constituently heavy not entirely unlike a gelatine or white glue. For a second the atmosphere was suffocating but as the substance filled my lungs, and then all of my airways, I was overtaken by a sanctifying calm.

I floated, or sank, through the thick globular nothing for a duration which felt as rapidly exasperating as the passing seconds of a movie montage spanning millennia. I heard the sounds of many keyboards tapping when a minute blackened orifice opened in the opaque space out in front of me. First a hand reached from within, then another and another exited the shapeless salutation. The figures peeled back the thick liquid white and the sounds became louder.

Before me were thousands of people all morphed one seething tar soaked entity, each individual barely coherent except for the nature of their tasks. In one clustered area of the mingled anomaly there were people eating, and people preparing the meals and people preparing the animals for the meals. A crowd of onlookers gathered and gawked, even cheered at the slaughter, while other slaved like an army and others still gorged. In another region of the glob people were building things and simultaneously destroying them. There were liars and thieves, and saviours and scholars all curiously defined by their meaningless chores. People-ish forms laughed and danced and ran and typed . Oh how they typed.

Many words in many languages could be seen sprouting out in mingled fonts only to be enveloped by the blank tar periphery. Lost almost as soon as initiated, thousands upon thousands of stories, communications, essays, and articles, appeared and disappeared along the gelatinous surface of the weird white air. There were many, many, many blogs. All of the texts were jumbling together simultaneously complimenting and refuting one another. Most of the information blended and blurred in the atmospheric pudding. A handful of these writings stood out from the storm. Their authors received much celebration and adoration from all districts of the seeping strange form. Their words were boldly animated and appeared larger and clearer than the rest. But alas of these few, even fewer had anything to say.

I heard the sounds of ten thousand radios mixing repetitions with ads. The terrible static beat and faceless harmonies turned my ears in unto themselves. A snippet of every horrific tune ever written set a torturous train of thought to work on my psyche. The experience could only be likened the time when one has an unwanted melody playing over in ones head but cannot remember all the words, and thereby is trapped perpetually cycling only a most irritating half-chorus. It was like that, only it was every song that had ever pestered me all mixed into one. For a brief moment the amalgamation of noise cohesively recited a line from Tina Turner's Private dancer.

At this I was broken. For the first time since observing the inside's of the goo, I was stricken to panic. I tried to scream, tried to swim. tried to claw my way up but the sounds just got louder and the amorphous pile of humanoid figures drew nearer. I could feel the black fleshy bubbles and the gripping of hands on my ankles when, with a sudden jerk, I fell out of the space and into the thick swamp public nebula. Politicians were screaming, and children were screaming! Advertising executives were laughing, purely white people chinked filled glasses with indulgence, and young soldiers trained for battle. Long monotonous rows of hands trapped in singular motions produced boxes upon boxes from nowhere that other hands grasped for and instantly unpackaged. The opened receptacles were then discarded and subsequently collected by another line of figures partaking in a similar, yet entirely unique, repetition. Mediocre celebrities built a fortress in the desert separate from the glob and teenagers ate celebrity magazines which in turn caused them to vomit up their used souls. I saw artists abrasively rubbing their faces against such magazines, yelling "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" and I watched a film crew violate the verse of magnificent authors who'd died without fame. The overall affect of the grotesque embodiment left little clue as to distinguish the cries of horror from those of ecstasy.

Then I saw the technologies. My only excuse for not having already noticed must have been the suddenness of the entire experience for each and every one of these people-forms was equipped with a device. Varying in shapes and sizes from miniscule to monstrous the technological malformations seamlessly protruded from all surfaces of the blob. I looked up from the center of this thing I can never truly describe, to see all of the mechanizations were moving, not out of place but in a passing as a serpents scales do when breaching the surface of a dark heavy bog. The direction of the slither pointed towards a glowing bright light as of that of the heavens. However something deep and ominously inside of myself warned against that the light for it was not my salvation but of something indeed quite the opposite.

I fitted in panic thrice that of my first bout but the resistance seemed only to attract attention from the blindingly hideous glow. I struggled against the agitated black tar of humanoid forms and robotic tentacles but cold gain no ground. I knew not even what ground I'd hoped to gain? This was my last thought before the enormous screen of flickering fluorescence swallowed me whole.


Once again I was alone and surrounded by white. Only this time I dare not open my eyes for the brightness penetrated so fully my eyelids that I could already see as clearly as day. Everything went silent until I heard a deep bass voice speak up from within the farthest recess of that space and my conscious. " WHY? ". The articulation was unmistakable and mockingly perverse. In my mind I had answered, but the thought was so fleeting that I cannot recall it. The result of this forgotten response set the omnipotent presence into infuriated laughter. The laughter ensued and expanded shaking me all around. As the trembling exemplified the bellowing turned to coughing, then choking and finally resolved itself as a combination of choking and gasping. I can only guess that wherever I was, was probably the stomach of something and that the combination of my consumption and the laughter had resulted in that something's indigestion. I felt sporadic convulsions and was propelled upwards by an invisible ,yet tangible, sea of pebbled acidity. This burning reverse-fall lasted for about 5 seconds before I found my self standing back in my bedroom. For a brief moment my clothes felt damp but I soon realized otherwise. I looked to the floor but could find no evidence of the adventure.

My nerves have now settled, and after drinking a considerable amount of water I have decided to pass the experience off as pure fiction. I am, however, tainted by retentive images of the typography which had been written all over that unusual spilt glue tapestry beneath my bedroom floor. Only now, in my recollections, the words all say "WHY?" and I’ve come to realize that at present there are far more of these words than the world will ever need. Besides it is late and I am exhausted and have many tasks for tomorrow’s morn, so there will be no alternative comics post from HEY APATHY! today.
visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS HARD RAIN ANIMATION

HARD RAIN ALTERNATIVE COMICS ANIMATION

All sides are revealed at once as the little tiny bubble perrson finds himself dawning black armbands and seated in an imaginary bombadier's cockpit. Instantly the figure become aware of the chaos ensuing below and is over taken by an unusual yet extremetly detached sense of responsibility for the destruction, Based on the HEY APATHY  CHAPTER 4 artworks, HARD RAIN delves into the despairing catocombs of the macrocosmic experience. Are our actions truly so isilated? more at http://www.heyapathy-comic-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS CREEPY CARTOON

HEY APATHY ROACH CARTOON!

A creepy humanoid performs a self inflicted surgical procedure only to discover a strange universe exists within his belly. The shock of the dancing organs put the monster into a dizzy fit as he closes the wound and passes out cold on the floor. Based on the HEY APATHY! Chapter 3 drawings entitled "FLIES HOLES AND ROACHES!" 

more drawings at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS MONSTER ANIMATION

ALTERNATIVE COMICS "MONSTERS"

 A creepy creature consumes an unsuspecting fly only to be pastured by the perpetual buzzing from within his skull. One of several short animation test I did in 2002 based on the HEY APATHY! Chapter 2 Monster ink drawings. The illustrations were made entirely left handed and combined physical investigation with meditative processes in an attempt to express a hieroglyphic interpretations of telepathic communications, unspoken languages and the universal dialogue.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS ANIMATION

"Of Civilised Discontent" HEY APATHY Alternative Comics Animation 2001. A short cartoon regarding the perpetual pestering and eventual annhilation of a faceless little bubble person tortured by metropolitan vices and ideologies... Part of Chapter One "HEY APATHY! and the APOCALYPSE" THIS IS A TEMPORARY VIDEO LINK for http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/ (until I figure out how to directly embed the animations on the website).

ALTERNATIVE COMICS The Diabolical Business Demi-God Prevails!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Illustrations

Holding a billboard like a credit card, a diabolically monstrous Deity of the Financial District looms over the citizens of the City of Gears. Excreting medusa-like mechanizations from his open cranium, the fiscal atrocity attacks the minds, hearts, and souls of both unsuspecting and willing victims alike. The infinite onslaught of the technological tentacles perverts language and devolves social activities in a seemingly indestructible assimilation of mankind. The enormous distractions advertise a new world of techno-triumphs as they hypnotically influence the streets below. All encompassing and extremely well financed commercialization of humanities lost, can be found in the even the most miniscule and least travelled corners of the vast and spiralling routines known as the metropolis.

"The Villain" is a 20 x 30 inch pen and ink drawing depicting  comic book style personification of commercial influences and ideologies. Featuring a giant robotic business creature as an underlying urban entity, the drawing emphasizes the corruptive capacity of behaviours dictated by billboard advertisements. Of technical interest in this artwork is that while the majority of the drawing was done with fine point pens and extensive rendering, the billboard images reference my early street art and performance painting approach. The central advertisement shows an animated sequence involving a business mans head being removed by technological tentacles originating from inside the victims mind. These sequential storylines are made rapidly with brushes and often at a large scale infront of live audiences. The combination of the two techniques simultaneously permitted me to render multiple analogies within a single illustration as well as mark a point of reference in both the story arc and my own artistic development. more comics, myths, and art at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Technological Manifestations and Superhuman-beings!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

The city is a giant gear propelled by the endless spiraling of it's strange and diverse citizens. Centrifugally fused around the Eyeball of Consciousness, all of our thoughts, actions and routines are correlated amidst this orchestral frenzy. Despite this underlying humanistic entity, a surface mass assimilation of mankind is taking place. The urban landscape nutures a technological annihilation. Upon the face of the architecture a diabolic personification of the mass-media manipulation formulates. The giant mechanized alien growth gains momentum as  feeds and controls the minds of all who fall within it's shockwaves. The terrifying Billboard Robotics spew out technological tentacles in a well financed, researched, planned and aggressive attempt to enslave the metropolitan crowds. The horror of the homogeny incites one small individual to action. The protagonist dawns a mask and a cape decorated with eyeballs and flies directly into combat with the enormous flickering eememy advertisements.

This 20 x 30 inch pen and ink illustration features three major symbols from the HEY APATHY! mythology. These signifiers are comprised of the Superhero, as hope, a Giant Billboard Robot, commercialized ideologies personified, and the eyeball of human thoughts and dreams. The entire landscape is spun around the Gear shaped buildings and is representative of man's struggles with both progress and humanity. The entire drawing took about 8 hours to complete and was made on location in the streets of downtown Toronto. more art and weird explainations at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS A Business Demi-God and the SNEAK

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

As the monstrous metropolis spins infinitely around the cenrtifugal eyeball of thoughts and consciousness, a diabolic business Demi-God perpetually attempts to corrupt the routines for reasons we could never understand. Seeping technological tentacles from his mechanically exposed cranium the villain aggressively annihilates, assimilates, and hypnotically intervenes with the lives of the citizens. His powerful influence knows no bounds. Terrorizing the young and old alike, the mass homogenization threatens even those apparently unaware. One such unsuspecting individual resides within a large billboard advertisement. Losing his head for a moment, the individual quickly grasps the top half and returns it to it's proper place. Unfortunetly, during that brief euphoric and headless state, a dripping mechanized eel-type creature quickly made it's way into the victims psyche. The SNEAK, a vicious minion of the Corporate Deity, has infiltrated yet another mind!

This 20 x 30 inch HEY APATHY! Pen and ink drawing was made out on Queen Street West during my street art performances. Throughout the busy summer seasons I would do all sorts of crazy rapid live monster paintings. The character of the business demi-god first appeared in one of these spontaneous creations. Inspired by the rapidly increasing appearance of hand held devices, ear phones, head sets, and the corresponding zombie walk, I developed the villainous figure as an embodiment of the technological terrors. At the end of the tourist season, I would usually stop doing live drawings and sit back in the beautiful early fall sunshine to work on more sustained versions of the performance based ideations splattered across the sidewalk throughout the hot summer days. This ink drawing took about three days to complete and was the first detailed depiction of this mass mediator and evil assimilator. lots more unusual art at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Alternative Comics The Samurai Vs the Technological Eyeballs!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics Samurai

As the technological monstrosities continue to assimilate the city streets, the appearance of unique individuals becomes extraordinarily obvious. Similar to the ill-gotten hero, StudaBaker Hawk, a trained and determined wandering Ronin rises up to take arms against the horrific homogenization. through many years of meditative focus, the lone swordsman reaches a heightened state of awareness. He alone is able to instantly determine the difference between the mechanically corrupted eyeballs and those of the true metropolis consciousness. Drawing his weapon the Ronin attacks the impersonating eyeballs in an attempt to maintain balance in the void. The diabolical business demi-god becomes irritated as he over looks the destruction of his hypnotic minions and questions whether or not it is time to face the warrior himself.

The Samurai Vs. The Technological Eyeballs illustration was the first appearance of my wandering Ronin character in the HEY APATHY mythology. I introduced the figure as a symbolic representation of old world traditions and Taoist values. In the drawing the Samurai can be seen in battle with a giant eyeball. The Giant Eye is the centrifugal element in the city of gears. The eyeball of our thoughts and consciousness lies in chaos center of the metropolis as an axis for the infinite spiralling of the denizens routines. However a diabolic over lord has developed technologically enhance eyeballs determined to manipulate the urban rhythms for his own personnel gain. The Samurai has detected one of these corrupted Eyeballs and decidedly taken action. The 20 x 30 inch ink drawing is an action packed allegorical narration regarding the balance of Zen and humanist philosophies and modern day commercial ideologies.

The Samurai figure has since become an important player in the HEY APATHY! mythology as he returned to signify the nature of humanity throughout many of the large street murals and illustrations. The character is also featured in HEY APATHY! BOOK TWO, in which a traditional type Japanese Western becomes a vessel for my subliminal stories from the City of Gears. In the comics I explain the Ronin’s quest, lineage and association with the Evil Eyeballs, thus expanding on both historical and future occurrences from of the City of Gears. The whole book is told from my vantage point as a professional street performer in which the images that I document on the streets become actual events within the comic (or maybe it s the other way around?)

more art at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Alternative Comics The Centrifugal Eye!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics from the City of Gears

Caught in the vortex of routine, the city spirals inwards blending billboards with reality and mixing method with madness. The faces blur together as each individual's actions exert macrocosmic ramifications. Made up of all the diverse, unusual and unique experiences the monstrous metropolis collides as a unified entity contradictory to the apparent divisions. The shoppers affect the commuters, the business people are related to the homeless, the young to the old, and this metropolis to all metropolis‘. No event, no matter how deceptively insignificant, is unto itself in the City of Gears.

 In the center of the order of chaos lies the centrifugal eyeball of consciousness. Surrounded by an obscured truth, the giant eyeball represents our collective hopes, dreams, goals, and unconscious. A this deep epoch of the gyre the solitary and the uniform become equally important and exemplified.

 But beware the technological tentacles have attempted and succeeded in many instances to attach themselves to the symbolic oracle. The technological tentacles have corrupted many of these giant eyes leading the spiral into oblivion instead of insight. 20 x 30 inch pen and ink drawing made on location at Queen Street West and Soho during my street art and performance exhibitions. The “eyeball of consciousness” has become a major symbolic character in the HEY APATHY! Mythology.

Alternative Comics in the City of Gears

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics illustration

Day in and day out each passing moment twists and spirals throughout the routines of the metropolis. Each individual experiences a cyclic revolution of activities designed to progress not only the private but public existence as well. Like an intrinsic web the insurmountable occurrences, no matter how miniscule, weave together affecting one another maintaining an unknowable balance. With each alarm clock, meal, commute, and exchange the city grows perpetuating enveloping the madness of the masses. The architecture takes the shape of an enormous gear as the infinitely rotating cast of unique and unusual characters continue to fuel the machine...Welcome to the City of Gears!

"THE CITY OF GEARS" 20 x 30 inch ink drawing is one of the major symbolic expression in the HEY APATHY! mythology. When I first started the series I would draw the city as a black ominous gear engulfing the horizon over an endlessly anonymous crowd of faceless bubble people. Upon completion of the initial body of work I pointed up to one of the large crowd scenes and told a small audience that one day I would fill in all the faces To be totally honest I wasn't even sure what I meant by that.

It was about 3 years later, after performing in numerous public venues including renegade street art display in the downtown core, that I started to identify the hordes as unique individuals. By means of constant public interaction I started to gain a better understanding of the functioning of the metropolis. instead of a nihilistic conglomeration of superficial and commercial ideologies, I started to recognise the metropolis as an unbelievably vast culmination of minute experiences and actions. the good, the bad, and the homogenized all rolled into one amazing forum equally hope-filled and apocalyptically pessimistic. At the end of my second year as a street artist I sat down with a fine tip and some illustration board and penned this updated drawing of the City of Gears. visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Alternatve Comics City Monster vs Saxaphone!

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

Made up of all the cars, people, wires and energy of the metropolis streets, the City Monster rises with a booming crescendo of maniacal sounds. Screeching over the traffic the creature engulfs pedestrians and digests the denizens with routines and stress. As the passing clouds cross the billboards, a tiny little person wearing a noir suit opens up his case. Fastening the glimmering weapon to his chest the defiant performer breaths heavily. Upon inserting the reed, and taking a firm foot hold of concrete, out bursts the sound. Swiftly echoing through out the wind tunnels the saxophone slices through the chaos offering a hypnotic resistance to overbearing city sounds. A release removes worries the music makes the madness palatable for another moment. Such is life in the City of Gears!

“The Saxophone vs. the City” 18” x 24” Pen and ink drawing made live on Queen Street West. This follow up to the “Attack of the City Monster” was inspired by the amazing prowess of music to enhance our lives in the city. All throughout the downtown core people are enjoying music. Quite often a saxophonist will step out in the streets and play out for the entire surroundings. The magnificent power of the instrument combined with the shared public experience of a beautifully played song is always outstanding. This illustration places the heroic musician center stage versus the horrific metropolis.

I revisited this drawing as a 10 x 12 foot street painting/performance in 2007. That summer I did a large mural on Queen Street West almost every Saturday. When I was drawing the “Saxophone Vs. The City Monster” there was a large crowd of teenagers and adults hovering over the artwork. As I laid down the final brush strokes I could here them attempting to figure out what the painting represented. They had figured out the crowds and the city but were stumped as too the squiggly lines and figure. Then, just as a became concerned that I had botched the drawing, a little girl step out from behind the shopping bags and, tired of all the silliness, simply proclaimed “ it’s a Saxophone !”

Alternative Comics HEY APATHY!

HEY APATHY! more stories I'm drafting for the website...

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS PAGES. "Attack of the City Monster!" As the spring weather rises, the streets fill once more with seeming endless hordes of bizarre citizens of “The GEAR“. As a result of the bursting excitement, an underlying force beckons. Made up of all the cars, wires, people, and actions of the city, this unseen preternatural sensation adopts form. Composed of the aforementioned denizens and complied by means of an indescribable energy, a giant b-movie type creature rises from the concrete enveloping all affairs metropolitan. The unstoppable personification of the monstrous metropolis reaches up with it’s gargantuan extremities only moments prior to the opening of it’s ominous eyes. In the middle of the chaos, the beast grins with side walk stone teeth, as it excretes a blackened boiling ectoplasm tar from each make shift pore. Beware, for this is the Attack of the City Monster!!!

This 30 x 40 inch pen and ink drawing was made on location at Queen St. and Soho, downtown Toronto during my street performances fall 2005. Of particular interest to this study is that it was the first sustained pen and ink drawing I had attempted since I started working as a public performer. Most of the street art was made instantaneously and utilized a predetermined rapid gesture technique for the crowds scenes. The quick and sporadic process was designed for live painting displays in which the audience could witness the entire creation in a matter of minutes. This detailed deviation differed drastically in both the technical processes and result.

Contrary to the spontaneous spectacle works, this artwork took approximately 150 hours to complete. I was determined to pay specific attention towards each individual character in the drawing. Rather than quickly blending the masses into impressionistic crowds, as I had often done in front of large audiences, each and every figure in this piece is fully rendered and has a complete back story all of their own. For the first time intricate inclusions of watch faces, facial features, and unique fashions could be identified within the imagery. I intentionally omitted one character’s facial construction in the lower left hand corner knowing that I would eventually make a limited edition print of the image. I have since produced the full size poster and hand drawn unique features in the blank space for the entire edition.

Life as a street artist is never boring as I am always meeting all kinds of people for all over the world, but am also subject to various elements which do not effect the studio artist. While I was creating this drawing a German couple travelling offered me $500 for the piece once completed. They returned to Queen Street everyday of their visit to check in on the progress. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for them it rained on the last day of their vacation(the last day of the process) and they where unable to purchase the scribble. I had raced to complete the parable in time for the modest reward but I didn’t have a phone, never mind a website, back then and the clients and I were unable to locate each other. I said fortunately for me because similar drawings have since sold for 5 times what I almost let this one go for on the streets and I’ve decided to keep this urban creature feature for my own collection as it is by far one of my craziest pieces. see more at http://www.heyapthy.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS the City of Gears

HEY APATHY!  The City of Gears!

I have been and continue to promote my alternative comics and website at a number of events such as the Toronto outdoor Art Exhibit, and the Comic Convention and I keep promising people that I will add the stories to go along with the illustrations. So far I've got some of them up but keep getting sidetracked with all the other projects I've got going. So in order to get the ball rolling I'm going to start posting these stories here in the blog first. Generally I find this forum less intimidating and it allows me to come back and proof read the articles quite easily. I figure that these spontaneous rough drafts will help me organize my thoughts and permit me to pull the text together much faster than if I continually sweat and rework the paragraphs in fear of making a mistake. Some of these may have been posted in some capacity before but I'll keep trying until I get it write, I mean right. Here's the first story...

In the distance the city appears like a towering factory over an insurmountable and unidentifiable crowd of tiny faceless people. As the anonymous masses file into the architecture the gears of the metropolis begin to turn. The little bubble people are in the offices and stores, infinite spiralling , making the city go around. As the work day breaks the endless hordes exit the gear-like routines of the enormous buildings and begin to move down the concrete walk ways. In the foreground the bubble people present them selves and for the first time we come to realize that they are not faceless cogs at all. Rather the city is made up of all the different kinds of crazy people who move through it!

This pen and ink urban landscape portrait features a cartoon caricature of Toronto. The primary goal of the artwork was to compare and contrast the notion of “THE BIG CITY” a frightening and isolating mega-conglomeration of nihilistic and commercial ideologies with the my first hand experiences with the urban center as a place of diversity and culture comprised entirely of unique individuals and accomplishments. Drawn on location at Queen Street and Spadina in the heart of downtown the entire image took approximately 8 hours to complete. visit http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/ to see all the pictures and some stories