Pen and Ink Illustration "Holiday Crowds"

HEY APATHY! Pen and Ink Drawings of People

Stomping feet dressed in red and black casually filled the downtown core on this fine Boxing Day 2010. The bright sun and absent winds helped to combat the brisk winter temperatures and the city came sort of alive with tones of bargain hunting suburbanites. I am not really a shopper, and tend to avoid crowds unless I’m performing, so I had no reason to partake in the bizarre commercial energies flowing through out the city. However the seasonably beautiful weather compelled me to take a stroll and since I’d no personal involvement, I thought it might be interesting to observe the crowds. It’s a lot less stressful when you aren’t worried about you dream product being out of stock or wondering if you have spent enough money in order to save on the deals.

The majority of the city was as quiet as any cold winter Sunday. Kensington was almost closed and Chinatown was barren. Nevertheless when I got down to the main strip there were people in every direction, even some line-ups in front of stores. The crowds consisted mostly of young people all giggling and struggled with hands full of purchases. There was some family activity but mostly teen shopping. Luckily it was cold enough to slow things compared to years gone by, but nice enough to pack the streets to a comfortable capacity.There was a free and friendly stream of pedestrian traffic. Oddly enough I saw  a great deal of festive red colors popping out from all the drab black and dark browns Toronto is accustomed to. It was a joyful and courteous mob, and I was very pleased to see so many happy humans. The sun in our faces and not in front of computer screens, in fact I don’t even recall seeing any cell phones, the peoples were shopping in groups.

The majority of the city was as quiet as any cold winter Sunday. Kensington was almost closed and Chinatown was barren. Nevertheless when I got down to the main strip there were people in every direction, even some line-ups in front of stores. The crowds consisted mostly of young people all giggling and struggled with hands full of purchases. There was some family activity but mostly teen shopping. Luckily it was cold enough to slow things compared to years gone by, but nice enough to pack the streets to a comfortable capacity.There was a free and friendly stream of pedestrian traffic. Oddly enough I saw a great deal of festive red colors popping out from all the drab black and dark browns Toronto is accustomed to. It was a joyful and courteous mob, and I was very pleased to see so many happy humans. The sun in our faces and not in front of computer screens, in fact I don’t even recall seeing any cell phones, the jolly peoples were shopping in groups.

It made me temporarily hopeful to see such kind human spirits. It’s a shame it is only a euphoric reaction to their gluttonous expenditures and pre-programmed inclinations towards fulfilling manufactured desires through the perpetual purchasing of useless, damaging and utterly ridiculous things. The quick sketch above was inspired by my anthropological wanderings and born out of guilt because I didn’t actually do any real work today. Read the Webcomics!

Free Weekly Comics Online! Page 11

Alternative Comics Online

Two unusual character’s dressed in surgical garments have been sneaking around replacing denizens with laboratory-made duplicates. In this segment, “The Banker” the strange assistants face their fiercest foe to date. Follow the surreal art misadventures every week as both the  audience and the author try to figure out what the hell is going on. READ THE WEBCOMIC!

I drew some of this pen and ink comic page on the train while travelling to my parents for the holidays. Not the most ideal place for a perspective interior rendering, or really any kind of drawing at all, so the page ended up kind of muddled. I really wanted to pay more attention to the line work, hoping to improve on last week’s image but kind of ruined my chances with the rush job on the bumpy track. I doubt anyone would even notice if I didn't mention it, but the dark planter on the right hade side, second panel, used to have all sorts of little details until I smudged the whole thing suddenly at a railway stop. Oh well there is always next week! HEY APATHY!

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!

Toronto Art

HEY APATHY! INK DRAWINGS

HEY APATHY! Toronto Artist Gallery Drawings. These are some shots of large HEY APATHY! Ink drawings collected at the Cambridge Galleries. The Show featured a wide range of thematic explorations regarding the metropolis, chaos, people and the apocalypse. Most of the works were created with a hand made bamboo drawing instrument and black India ink. The drawings range in size from 2 x 3 feet to 10  x 16 feet. This exhibition also included an animated installation presented on a television screen embedded in the wall.  This exhibition was curated by Sascha Hastings in 2006 and remains one of my most elegant presentations to date. FULL EXHIBITION HISTORY HERE

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS

Surreal Comics from the city of gears! A subliminal addiction leads to a horrific simplification as a young denizen turns technologically sentient whilst texting a friend. The victim’s eyes and mouth are transformed into computer screens completing the electric assimilation. This is a panel from a short entitled “ Eyes turned Square” based on the old warning that our mother’s would give when we watched too much T.V. . The comic is part of a collection of stream of conscious stories I’m gathering inside my 8.5 x 11 inch sketchbook. As I am currently in the middle of a large animation project, funded by the Ontario Council for the Arts, I have little time for drawing comics but am happy with some of the shorts have turned out. I’ll publish them all in the fall when I have more time to do the lettering and scans.

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 APOCALYPSE

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS

An unseen hurricane type blast sweeps across the hordes of faceless little denizens splitting the tomb like tower and heaving it’s top through the sky. The apocalypse was originally a part of the first HEY APATHY! drawing series. The complete environmental installation included over 250 ink works ranging from photo to mural sized. The series featured seemingly infinite skylines filled by grave stone buildings and crowds upon crowds of anonymous dwellers coupled with images of the nuclear type annihilation of the repetitive metropolis. The drawings were originally exhibited at O.C.A.D. in 2001 but this week I am working on completing an animated version of the strangely iconic parable. The picture above is a collection of stills from the new cartoon.  The entire animation, funded by the Ontario Council for the Arts, will be about two minutes or so and feature many of the designs developed in the HEY APATHY! drawings.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Technologically Natural Mutations

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics!

On the left two people can be seen growing and flourishing among the plants and foliage, peacefully moving through wondrous cycles. As a distorted reflection their counterparts lay entangled, dressed in suits, amidst a metallic cluster of technological tentacles. Each side embraces it’s unusual predicament yet in the center the two worlds collide with evolutionary results. The vines and computers meet head on, mixing and mutating into a strange new form. As the opposing developments amalgamate in bizarreness, one of the electric tentacles breaks free from the form. Swinging uncontrollably through the air around the newly conceived creation the wire persistently spews black liquids throughout the open sky. more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS A Robotic Romance

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

In this part of world, a strange as it is, there is little room for anomalies and everything is pretty much the same. All the houses are similar, the cars and the schools. And since the library only has online books now a days there is little left to remind us of the past. There is however one odd piece of land north about an hour drive through the suburbs from the city. Up there the whole landscape has been developed into homes with the bizarre exception of a few tiny acres. Surrounded on all sides by new homes and backyard fences sit’s a little farmland untouched and still used. An aging old man gets up every morning and works in the fields as though nothing has changed. He doesn’t care that all our food come from laboratories nor does he mind that he is able to produce very little. It seems that it is the habits and chores that he loves and has stuck to his calling for longer than I remember.

The man rarely leaves the grounds except for a Sunday mass and breakfast. Only a small convoy of trucks have ever entered which transport his goods to the hills. No developer, nor lawman, or even a guest was ever welcomed into his small private land. That is until recently. Lately the farmer has been seen relaxing a bit in the company of a young woman. Rumours have it they met at the diner after church. She was a charmer and apparently from a family of farmers so the old man was taken and took up a friend. Within weeks of her presence the farm started changing, the grasses grew longer and certain area’s turned unkempt. The farmer and the lady were seen more often in town and the eventual marriage came of little surprise.

After the wedding the farmer resumed his regular chores while his young wife seemed to scold him secretly and spent all her time on the phone. It was a hot sunny morning when the situation had escalated and the whole town had known of the newly weds incredible fight. Witness, and there were a lot of them given the houses around the farm, saw the women running across the fields yelling after the man as he near unconsciously ploughed. She was citing certain legal phrases no one else could understand and the farmer snapped out of his daze looking fearful and angry. That is when the accident occurred. His wife fell forwards and landed close to the plough which caught her hair violently shaking her about. When the farmer pulled her out there was no blood, nor bodily damage but her face had removed revealing a mechanical shell! The wife was made of metal and wires! Nothing more than a machine! Some of the witnesses claim that she even had electric tentacles under her false wig of human hair.

Nevertheless the couple have been in court ever since attempting to sort out the details of their inevitable divorce. It would appear that with out prenuptials the robot women is entitled to the farm though the farmer has taken up arms and refuses to finalize the divorce. At best he may win half the land but these proceedings get quite complicated and his case is a rather difficult one as the laws of robot right are still vague and open to interpretation. But for now the farm is quiet and still sitting in place. The farmer is tending his fields and the neighbourhood is watching curiously and wondering if the new houses destined to grow beside them will be bigger and better equipped than the ones they already own.

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS More Samurai Charater Descriptions

HEY APATHY ALTERNATIVE COMICS CHARACTERS

AUDUBON was once a great ranger and protector of the fabled Green Forest. With the aid of a Jungle Cat and a team of aboriginal and volunteers, Audu fought off poachers, disease, development, and disaster until the government withdrew his funding and sold the land. Once an endlessly resourceful land of mystic wonders, the Green Forest is now but a mere fabrication. Disturbed into silence, the near mute Audubon left the forest by foot, crossing the Continent until fatefully stumbling into the Old Man's Repair shop where he took to menial chores and has resided ever since.

The Street Artist. Mike Parsons is a little street artist and performer who sets up on the corner across from the Old Man's repairs shop. Although he'd won several scholarships from the Art Institute and was featured on the covers of magazines while exhibiting his drawings in galleries, Mike walked off of the glamorous path and took his investigations to the streets. Compelled by an unearthly desire to actively initiate intellectual discourse on a mass scale, Mike sits on the streets observing and talking to people while he draws enormous and almost instantaneous ink murals.

The Old Man owns and runs the computer repair shop. Once a legendary Guardian of the City of Gears, bureaucracy has since sent thte hero into hiding. Unassumingly working in minor cybernetics, the Old Man has built an adopted family out of some powerful, unique and unusually gifted employees. He always knows more than he says and is likely assembling his new family against future aggressions no one else has predicted. more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

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 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 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 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 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 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 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/