The City of Gears Kids Comics Online

HEY APATHY! Comics Online!

Maybe today was one for dreaming, but something about the holiday season, and in particular my 2year old nephew, has got me thinking a little more about comics for kids. As a public performer I have been interested in communicating to both the intellectual and younger viewers. Prior to my street and festival interventions, the artwork had a tendency towards a bleakness and horror much more nihilistic than the playful monstrosities I draw today. The last time I made something that was really geared towards younger audiences would have to be HEY APATHY! Book Two. While Book One, using superhero type imagery to tell a silent and symbolic parable, is vary borderline and can likely be appreciated by all audiences, Book Two was modeled after kid’s comics and cartoons. This sort of story telling might alienate “artsy” audiences (one artbook publisher laughed at me for making kid’s books) but they are not nearly as interesting or exciting as kids are anyways.

A little time before making the Samurai Comic (Book 2), I scripted and sketched out a children’s book entitled “The Sound of the City” based on one of my ink drawings of the same name. Although I haven’t gotten around to working on it yet, the script keeps making its way to the top of my pile of things to do and is really tempting. I think this book will happen soon.

Yesterday I did some drawings for my nephew. He likes to tell me what the pictures are,” Fish! Truck! Mommy!” and so on. It is really fun. These scribbles got me thinking and I decided to give a quick whirl at designing a “HEY APATHY!” kids cartoon. I did the sketch (above) in about a half an hour during which time I pretty much sorted out all the details. To make a long story short, these superheroes are basically vigilante law enforcement in the over-industrialized imaginary City of Gears. The city is on the brink of annihilation, though the denizens don’t realize it and the team has to fight various evils villains trying to destroy the metropolis. Sounds dull I know, but I was inclined to approach this as though it were a real show. This means within a set of rules and formulae. The fun will be in the symbolic narratives which I are festering in my sick mind.

The team consists of two kids, an artist and a book-worm computer whiz, a superhero, the old wise one, a female adult with musical magic, Audu & Jungle Cat (from Book Two). They have a giant robot which, once a diabolical business drone, has been reprogrammed for the better of mankind. The Robot is a key representation of the necessity to use, and not combat, technology despite all the inappropriate programming. The MachineHead corporate villain is continually trying to over-do consumption frequently threatening the well being of the city. Lastly the heroes know that they can not disturb the flow of the city for fear of chaos and must work entirely in secret. Blah Blah. Anyways I’m having fun with this today. I think I’ll flesh it out with some more drawings the next time I have free time. I think it would be cool ( and likely wise) to have a whole television series worked out. You never know when  opportunity might arrive and more importantly this is  just something I always wanted to do. READ WEBCOMICS!

Alternative Comics GERM WARFARE

HEY APATHY  SURREAL COMICS

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the quality of my blog posts have been directly related to our strange Torontonian weather. During the summer heat wave I found it difficult to spend time at the computer but got inspired again as the temperatures cooled to a reasonably wam level. However since that time things have been topsy turvey and the temperatures fluctuated between a hot humid forty and a cold wet 25 several times during the course of one week. And like this journal, I was heavily affected by the weather. I have been so sick, fevers, coughs, conjestion, joint pains, you name it. This is the first time I've brought the fever down enough to actually type something. Damn it's tormenting to be ill when there is so much work to be done. New Surreal webcomic post tomorrow regardless of my health.  

Alternative Comics

DRAWINGS


ANIMATIONS

I hace been learning to write some html by decoding the codes in the Edit HTML section of this blogger site, then using them to fix the HEY APATHY! homepage. Thus this weird assortment of unrelated text links and photos. I'm just going to leave this as is and call it a post.

Alternative Comics Weird Interior #2

HEY APATHY! SURREAL COMICS

Following a round sample of a fashionably alluring strange elixir the board members slip into euphoric state awaiting the presentation. As they slouch into a woozy oblivion, the meeting room shrinks from comprehensive perspective take the shape of a small stage with the table as a platform while the southern drywall ripples like a drawn curtain. As the lights lower and the pit orchestra moans, an oddly unfamiliar rendition of Punch and Judy begins. Groaning ferocious the deviant headmaster reaches from behind the drapery, and from beyond the wall of sleep, demanding a living sacrifice from the disillusioned jester and his arsenal of hench-creatures. The horrific ceremony unfolds and the drug breathes a stimulated relaxation into the the beings of the board/ Without a second thought a conversation erupts and intoxicated means of marketing the weird terrors a hand fly freely from the brainstorming sect.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Strange Day

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Alternative Comics Surreal Talismen

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Some weird talismen/tapestry type things from the amorphous globular macroverse. Spilled water all over these drawings but amazingly the computer perserved the wrinkle scibbles. On the streets it use to rain on the work from time to time, so I've gotten use to this sort of thing and the ink never runs, and the paper can always be dried and restetched.

Alternative Comics Strange Faces

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Skyrise

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Alternative Comics a Surreal Noir

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics!

Another creepy comics panel from the upcoming web presentation. This noirish wanderer is plagued by horrific visions of a monstrous metropolis engulfing the seedy city he’s  so accustomed to. The whole collection will include a number of one page stories and about three extended adventures. I had no intention of expanding the comics beyond a single page but  funny things keep happening. After I finish the short I start thinking more about the character’s backgrounds and futures and little histories start to evolve. I don’t have time to draw them all so many are forgotten or written poorly as prose . Well one thought led to another and a couple of the strips escaped the single page infecting any where from three up  five others. These extended shorts however, still follow my original literary attempt at single page stories and can be read either compartmentally by page or as a collective vignette.

To sum up what I just wrote, Surreal Comics! is a collection of single page comics in which some of the strips are connected narratives and the entire catalogue reveals yet another story. It as though there were  strips inside of shorts hidden in a graphic novel, kind of surreal. Just wrote that for fun. More ALTERNATIVE COMICS

ALTERNATIVE COMICS through Amorphous eyes

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics!

Another weird panel from the unpredictably disturbed Surreal Comics visions. This one is about those strange peripheral creatures that creep around behind us every time we aren't really looking during those long hours at he office. This on  I ran out of animation paper this afternoon so I spent a little time on line getting my site ready for the weekly posts in Sept. Follow ther above link to see the changes I made to the New Artwork section. Just because I was going I also built an ANIMATION page, once again in preparation for the upcoming new film. 

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Split

HEY APATHY!  Surreal Comics!

A surreal split instigated by a technological interface splicing communicative devices with organics, genetically separating the various facets of a human mind into individual physical entities. Hey what do expect from a web comic called Surreal! This is another panel from the ongoing collection of weird stories I’m making in between extended sessions at the animation stand. One of the bonuses of making the comics in a sketchpad is that it the book travels easily allowing me to enjoy some of the nice summer weather while remaining productive. The animation, on the other hand has to be produced in the studio and it seems unhealthy to be inside to much when I know that it will eventually be winter again. In the future I am going to schedule the comics in the summer time because I can make them out doors, and save the animating for the long boring indoor season. However this animation is being funded by the Ontario Arts Council and was created in accordance with to their granting schedule. Back to the drawing table… more HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS!

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Broadcast to Oblivion

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

When we last left our celebrity news broadcaster (yesterday's post) he was entirely occupied by his own image. Spending hours upon hours, in between telecasts, the reporter watched tapes of his performances and practiced in the mirror. He starred at his reflection and videos with such concentration until one day he realized that he himself was the reflected image and not the actual man on the news.

Some more unfinished 8.5 x 11 inch sketchbook comics for the upcoming HEY APATHY! Surreal Web Comic. I really should try to keep up with the lettering as it is I have twenty pages to write in. When I work on paintings or even comic books full time, I like to work on one piece from start to finish. However when I am producing large quantities of drawings, such as animation stills, I will often divide the process between numerous artworks.

For example in a scene consisting of two characters, one black and one white. I might draw the white character 100 times, return to the beginning draw the black character 100 times, then start over again to paint the black character in 100 times. It’s like a factory production line. The problem with this technique is that the most mundane and repetitive parts of the process always get left, in abundance, until the end. On the positive side of my ever growing pile of unscripted comic pages, my lettering leaves much to be desired right now and a good solid week of practice should help me tighten up my cartoon calligraphy. 

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

Alternative Comics The Mad Scientist

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

An unfinished comic page in which a demented scientist experiments on himself. Having devised a solution capable of unleashing the most powerful of evils, the doctor is determined to wield the energy. He has grown tired of military experiments and human specimens and thirsts for something more hideously thrilling. Shortly after the injection the patient dissolves physically melting into a puddle of gore on the floor, yet instantly is reconstituted with terrifying force as one of the worst creatures in existence… himself! 8.5 x 11 sketchbook comic from the slowly evolving HEY APATHY! web comics.


 The web comics are a bunch of shorts based on the characters, themes and imaginary landscape featured in the full length HEY APATHY! alternative comics. I’ve got 17 pages like this one done, without the lettering, but haven’t got the time to finish and post them properly so I’ll start that up in the fall or early winter ( whenever the animation is complete) . The only concern I have about stock piling these comics is that it gives me an opportunity to censor the works as the fables progress. I already feel displeased with some of the earlier pages but am going to try and resist editing them out. I feel the possibility of re-examination can detract from the experiment of a daily surreal comic because some of the disorderly weirdness that makes life so interesting might get cut out. I’ll do my best to keep all the comics and am looking forward to doing a daily online this winter.

Surreal Alternative Comics

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

A Kid and his War Toy. This 8.5 x 11inch sketchbook comic features a little boy with small strange devices attached to his temples powering a giant mechanized war machine complete with multiple fire arms and monstrous tentacle legs. Basically I just felt like a drawing a robot and my mind started sifting through all my childhood toys, and eventually to the more modern ones and those strange Japanese kids shows where the children fight robots like sports. Any ways I  added three more panels and made up a narrative for this image turning the doodle into a comic or something like that. It is an odd artist’s process but interestingly enough, though all my pictures have stories quite often I’d no idea of the narration until the work is all done. more HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Stories

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Since my primary attention is currently being given to the development of an extensive hand drawn animation (sponsored by the Ontario Council for the Arts) my current artistic practice is rather repetitive and mundane. It takes at least thirty similar drawings to make a character move for a couple of seconds, so you can imagine it can be days of work before the concepts or technique evolve even slightly. However to keep my imagination from slowing to a factory like pace I am producing a number of short comics in my sketch book on the side.

These comics are turning out to be really fun. I have often kept a comic-sketch book as a means of stream of conscious expression. The idea is basically to use up a sketchbook entirely with comics so that the completed book could be presented as a work of art ( wouldn’t that be funny?). I tend to use a single page technique wherein each page is a whole strip or series of funnies. The cheap sketch book works well because it eradicates any intimidation freeing me of all preconceptions of what the drawing should be. I know that these cartoons have to be done quickly and are on low quality paper , therefore I needn’t bother with planning, revisions or technical fidgeting. The work just really let’s me explore my weird brain, letting whatever happens happen and try to figure out what it’s all about later.

I’ve done this experiment at least four times in which I produced two volumes of STUPID COMICS, a tastelessly twisted homage to Crumb and the underground comics movement of the sixties, three issues of DOWN, a surreal creature feature about men as monsters as well as machines, and a large graphic novel entitled THIS DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE. For the most part these books are compiled of single panel or page cartoons involving specific thematic and technical explorations using an unplanned free form approach. One of the most interesting aspects of each of these projects is how that despite being entirely unscripted and often plotted as individual parables, the books always end up stringing together chronologically to reveal a hidden narrative. I say hidden because one, the larger story-arcs are not always easily apparent and two, because I didn’t even realize I was writing them at the time.

The panels I’ve posted today are about the Mad Scientist and his two strange Assistants. The Mad Scientist started about a few weeks ago in a single page strip wherein he experiments on himself. It was just supposed to be a silly short comic but oddly enough the character has perpetually resurfaced. The Mad Doctor, now with two unidentifiable medical assistants, seems to be meddling in the affairs of some of the other characters. I don’t really know why yet or what the purpose of these re-occurring characters, but I’ll admit Im kind of interested in the outcome my self. Can’t wait to get back to the drawing board tomorrow so I can find out what happens next...

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Mad Science

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

Another panel from the surreal comics slowly manifesting itself within the pages of my apparently innocent sketchbook. This one's about a twisted doctor, his two assistants and some terribly mutated experiments.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS nature vs technology

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

A nightmarish battle begins between nature and technology while a captive business man in forced to the front lines. This strange and hallucinogenic parable from the world of dreams is part of the new HEYAPATHY! Surreal Comics. The series is a sort of underground approach to the subliminal, the psyche and the monstrous metropolis.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Another unfinished one pager from the surreal sketchbook. I haven’t the time to work on full scale comics so I decided to keep a sketchbook of weird short comics. The project is really fun because of it’s freedom. Though the sketchbook sized works sacrifice the detail and the smoothness of fine paper drawings the interesting part is that it doesn’t matter what I draw. When I work on a HEY APATHY! Book, I’ll do a script, some preliminaries and research but these strange cartoons are just off the top of my head. Free form comics just start drawing and hope for the best. The only rule I am following is that each page tells one story. What is also of interest, and entirely unplanned, is that all of these vignettes are started to connect together in a larger plot. I want to revamp my Surreal Comics page on my site and add these comic strips but that won’t happen for a while.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Ornamental Talismans

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

Most of the day was spent hovering over the light table and animation stand, although I still did some comics sketching in the park and finished these little ornamental talisman's designed for wrap around like on a mug or a biohazardous chemical waste cannister. From top to bottom the symbology is as follows; the machine as being, the black arts, the face of the metropolis, a surreal incident, and life and death in the city of gears.