Showing posts with label cartoons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cartoons. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The City of Gears Kids Comics and Cartoons

HEY APATHY! THE SERIES STARRING


Robots, Monsters, Superheroes and the City of Gears! A group of artists and musicians battle strange technological terrors in the City of Gears! I spent a few hours this evening working on these character studies for the imaginary television series. I did a quick concept sketch for this before Christmas and promised myself that I would work it up a bit after New Years. Well it’s already the sixth of January and I hadn’t found anytime for this yet, which resulted in a guilty little nagging voice acting out as a constant subconscious reminder of my unfulfilled commitment. I finally caved, boiled up some coffee a made the time I’d committed to, to work on the pitch. I made drawings of 5 of the 7 team members and did a lot of meditative orginazation of their origins and the story,. Anyways I’ve got some commission work, and appointments to do deal with tomorrow and I am so close to finishing a scene in the animation that I’ll probably won’t get to finish this roster ( and all the villains) until early next week.



Here’s a quick breakdown of the kids comic book characters shown above

1) Instructor Howie- art teacher, zen master

2) Timmy- young artist, tablet can project 4-dimensional avatars the Timmy draws on the screen

3) Argenta- computer witch can communicate and gets along with any electronic/digital/ artificial intelligence. In the City of Gears everything from the sewer system to the skyscrapers is automated, giving Argenta abilities surpassing the greatest of history’s sorcerers.

4) The Robot- a strange computer chip is corrupting peaceful robots. When Argenta discovers and removes the chip the Robot tells her that it not only had the device made him do bad things, it also made him feel bad. Thankful for his freedom the Robot re-programmed himself to join and protect Argenta and her friends.

5) The Flutist Gale- music instructor and majestic flutist whose notes conjure nature and whose music battles the machines….



That’s it for now, damn it 3:49 am and I have to be a train station tomorrow by 9! Good night. HEY APATHY! FREE WEBCOMICS




Thursday, December 23, 2010

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!



Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Toronto Artist


HEY APATHY! Toronto Artist
Getting ready for a long winter in the studio.


What a beautiful winter’s day for a stroll. The winds are blowing a white dust around. The ground is slippery and slushy but repeatedly painted white, as was I after ten minutes with a coffee on the corner bench. The computer says it is – 8 with 44 mph winds but it doesn’t really matter I made my way obtrusively through all my chores. These obstructions slowing my route had nothing whatsoever to do with the weather but merely mistakes and poor planning on the part of myself. I made way to the pet store to get crickets for my lizard forgetting of course that they are closed every Tuesday. Half way to the art store I remembered using up my supplies but realized at that moment I’d not brought enough money. I made my way home through the snow and back to for the supplies, another quick coffee and I was settled in the studio by three. I actually enjoyed the mild weather making the travels rather pleasant. I hate being cooped up no matter how productive it can be. At any rate yesterday my face froze in minutes and I couldn’t travel without a protective hood.



The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and organizing all my upcoming projects. Throughout the pleasant seasons I tend to carry very few supplies and travel around creating work. It is really keep track of my materials this way but obviously affects the kind of work I can produce. Now, as the freezing imprisonment approaches, I find myself working on multiple tasks and all the equipment gets scattered. Today was my third three hour session in three days of tidying and I’ve finally got all this stuff together. When you need a ruler or eraser, it is really convenient to know where it is.



The next few months are going to be divided between three primary tasks. The first is more animation. For this I use two pens, two brushes, a light table, one stack of 8.5 x 11” blank paper and another with finished drawings. Because of the magnitude of this project I have (now) a small area dedicated to this production. It is always set up so anytime I feel inclined I need only pick of the pen. The second endeavor is the ongoing weekly webcomic. For these drawings I use the same two pens and brushes but work on larger illustration board. I only do this once a week so I’ve got the boards and long rulers stored in a easily accessible and visible place. The third, and somewhat terrifying, winter project is working on the website. I cleaned out my computer and have all the hard copies, photographs and drawings ready by the scanner. Found piles of unlabelled cd/dvds to go through also. (The picture above is from one of the mystery discs) I’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do. A large portion of my site was built before I even knew what miniscule bits I now understand about the computer. Anyways it should look a bit better than it does now.



That’s enough about my boring life. Probably a little hyper from all the coffees today but I think this little ramble helped me sort out my own mind. Hopefully tomorrow will be consumed less by trivial duties and more with the new animations. In the meantime check out the HEYAPATHY! comics online.



Thursday, July 22, 2010

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.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

ALTERNATIVE COMICS A Heroic Assimilation

HEY APATHY! Alternative comics

Flicker, flicker, the gigantic screen transmits sublimated imagery faster than a speeding bullet. The repetitive yet ever so slight evolution of the messages bombards our homes, the streets and the theatre offering us heroic salvation with each flashing new scene. The superhuman, having arrived from a far off star , brings promise of hope and freedom as he expends his supernatural abilities in the name of justice. As his presence brings joy to the world with each new adventure, the attention mounts tensely and all eyes turn towards the alien.


 At first he was publicized as an enigma, and shortly thereafter mimicked, but despite all his triumphs the man receives no solitude. He had devised a secret home far from civilization but the documentary crew sought it out for use as a stage. Forced to reside in among men of the city, the hero falls upon financial hardship. The monetary rewards for the dispersion of evil were few and far between until the sponsors stepped in. Running shoes, capes, band aids and ice packs and any and every other product under the sun would come to bear his likeness and dignified symbol until the media madness began to take it’s toll. After missing the opportunity to thwart a fascist power due to a photo-op worth millions the hero underwent an alarming change. Realizing that his battles proved far less profitable and that the villainous regime was disempowered just the same, the alien turned towards more commercial endeavours all but forsaking his predestined quest.


Over the course of a few months, several movies and commercials, the alien became fixated on a cola he’d endorsed. Supplied with a life time quantity the hero proceeded to devour first two, then three and as many as twelve cans per day. Oddly enough the reasonably harmless cola churned malice and addiction against the unusual extraterrestrials DNA. At first the consumption resulted in malaise but soon ate away at the soldier’s physique. His skin peeled off in a leprous fashion and his skeleton underwent painful malformations. His abilities subsided as did his will until there was nothing left of the once glorious figure but a zombie-like core. Fortunately for the corporations which proffered him wealth his deformations remain a secret to this very day and no one seems to miss the champion of the future because severak younger and palatable actors have filled his place.

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

Sunday, May 16, 2010

ALTERNATIVE COMICS The IMPRISONMENT



Well the last to days were nothing short of terrifyingly weird as a minor slip of the tongue ( or rather keyboard) cost me a brief incarceration and subsequent unimaginable torture. Fortunately my good friend Blackbeard got me out on a technicality and my imprisonment ended much quicker than it felt. On the advice of my rescuer and mystical attorney, I dare not go into details regarding who or why I was held captive for it was the simple act of identifying those responsible which first put me in peril. On the other hand I see no problem in my sharing the actual experience.

As I just mentioned I wrote about a certain something which is most forbidden to speak of, a heavily guarded and policed topic of concern. Before I'd completed discussing the story I blacked out and awoke in a tiny little cell. The room was fully furnished and carpeted comfortably but the unfamiliar surroundings left me in an unusual loss of control. I was dressed in a white shirt and a pair of Khakis and my hair had grown back full on, possibly plugs. My finger nails were manicured and my teeth had been cleaned yet without any recollection the improvements succeeded only in inspiring fear.

In the room I had a television which turned on in the morning with numerous smiling faces citing happy weathers and local news. When the program ended the prison door opened and a sharp piercing noise forced me to exit the room. There were no guards that I could see but my motions were predetermined as I felt forced into a reasonably luxurious car which drove itself to the work camp. Upon arriving at the labour site, an infinitely storied complex I was ejected politely from the vehicle with a shock. There was a steam of other prisoners all decorated similarly, shuffling their way past the lobby into tiny compartment. Many formalities such a hellos and small liquid refreshments were also subliminally inflicted upon us. After drinking the liquid I felt a narcotic sensation and was compelled to make strange phone calls and upload large files. Before I knew it. yet simultaneous with my exhaustion a bell rang and the building flooded out to the lots.

Bumper to bumper the cars all slowly moved along a barren stretch of concrete I hypothesized to be a great conveyor belt. My car dropped me back to the door of my cell only this time there were two baby's and a housewife and maid. As I walked through the door, which shut right behind me, the maid disappeared and the wife brought a drink. I sat down on the couch and noticed the room had gotten bigger, but despite the enlargement there was still no way out. The television news began reporting new stories, mostly about whether, charities, and the occasional foreign disturbance. There was a surreal conditioning to the air all around me and I began to get unexpectedly comfortable as I sank in the chair.

It was as the sun set that I lifted the bottle set out by my housewife and I nearly consumed it when I scratchy but familiar voice broke through the relaxing dream. "Don't even think about it" It was Blackbeard. He took the drink from my hands and poured peculiarly around the floor. The weird patterns that formulated from the spillage were bizarre beyond description. They were not geometric nor hieroglyphic, nor did they resemble any symbol or even stain. Blackbeard pushed me up from the chesterfield with on hand on each shoulder and leaned forward grunting the following instructions. " You've got to walk along those marks I made and focus quite deeply on everything that really matters and all of your hopes, goals, and dreams. Those marks I made are specifically different and no one routine or idea can retrace those steps. You're only way out of here is to break the routine and your only hope of doing that now is to walk a new pattern."

I remembered the comics and the aliens and unknown , so nodding to Blackbeard I jumped to the floor. The tracks were nearly impossible to navigate as no man, monster or ballerina could truly move their legs according to the steps. Forcefully turning my knees inside out and walking on parts of my feet I had never been aware of I found a way to move through the extravagant chaos. I must have broken two toes and severely strained my shoulder as the bruising has yet to even minutely subside. Nevertheless, all contorted and determination I made it and once the dance was completed I found myself home.

I am now back in my studio, totally bald and dressed in black, and a little bit stronger and wiser than before the insidious incident. But that is just how things tend to evolve whenever Blackbeard's involved. A horrible situation equals sincere revelation over and over as life rolls on. Thanks for saving my a-- again Blackbeard I'll find that book you're looking for first thing tomorrow.

Friday, April 30, 2010

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.


Thursday, April 15, 2010

ALTERNATIVE COMICS MONSTER ANIMATION



 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.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

INDEPENDENT & ALTERNATIVE COMICS!







HEY APATHY HEADS! I'm going to be performing live paintings and showing some new works & comics at the Wizard World Comic Convention http://www.wizardworld.com/home-toronto.html at the end of March! I haven't done any of these comic shows for awhile and am really excited to go back. Ever since I was a pint sized fan-boy buying evil dead and eraser head t-shirts I have always looked forward to hitting the comic cons. I exhibited at a couple of events in 2002-03 but sort of got sidetracked by the street performances after that. The outdoor interventions were amazing for many reasons, although producing comics was not one of them.As it stands things have come full circle and here I am headed back to the Comic circuit, my first and true love. It almost seems absurd to me now that I ended up as a performing artist exhibiting in galleries and producing work for places such as the A.G.O. and the HUDSON's Bay Company when all I ever really wanted to do was draw strange tales and Samurai comics. Well that's what I'm doing these days and I am pretty hyped up about getting the books out to all my freakishly bizarre friends and extraterrestrial fans at the comic con. See you all in March!