Alternative Comics Brain-Worm-Thing

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

Many of us who've taken an interest in the weird development known as progress, often ask our selves a variety of questions concerning man's limitations when travelling through land, space and time. Just such a query was tempted my way this morning as I received an email notice that a local company trading in technologies was about to unveil a new device. The advertisement invited those selected to join in a midday presentation and at a chance to purchase the product at an unbelievably low introductory price.

I'd nothing much better to do than to investigate further so I attended the presentation with little debate. The new electronic was introduced although no a member of the crowd could have guessed it as the tiny computer looked an awful lot like a worm. The spokesperson held proudly in her manicured hands a small cup of fishing bait expecting our applause. " This little computer will change the way we travel. It's amazing capacities are beyond any of last years lines!" The model slipped in her excitement and toppled the container sending some of these "worms" reeling to the floor. There was a bit of a disturbance as some security blokes rushed to the stage. However a few seconds of whispers and shuffles restored all composure and the presentation proceeded as though uninterrupted.

The announcer began describing the prowess of the worms. She told us that it's virtual simulations bordered on reality. Claims were made that the device would be faster, infallible, and of the utmost import. As the speaker continued I could almost imagine the effect. Instantly the surroundings started fading away and I found my self on an island of tropical decent. The sun started shining and birds passed the sky as I felt a new relaxing sensation warm me up more than beach.

Information passed my unconscious in a flickering script and before I could enjoy the euphoria I knew that my files had been sorted. All of my office work for the next three full years flashed through my mind's eye and were orderly complete. Then I watched movies in a half of a second. The entire film cohesively was implanted in my brain. And as the experience became joyous when I connected with friends. Suddenly there was everyone that I'd ever met. We were all on the island chit chatting away in near perfect utopia when the strange sound began.

I was laughing uncontrollably in the ecstasy as the piercing began. At first a soft ringing, but growing steadily louder, the noise started aggravations before actual harm. Eventually I forgot all my hallucinatory fantasies falling sweaty to the floor red faced grasping my ears. Louder and ill-pitched by the second I felt the urge to scream loudly but couldn't bare another sound. Hands started on my shoulder trying to hold me and I saw shuffling around at my feet. The noise blacked out my vision and I heard the announcer's voice trying to calm the obviously distressed onlookers.

When I awoke I was in my apartment completely free from all pain. I'd no idea how I'd gotten there nor much recollection of the time in between. Of coarse this left me rattled so first I went for a short walk. After breathing some fresh air I returned to the computer. The email notice had been deleted from my files and though I contacted the tech company no one seemed to know anything of the worm. Now once again acting naturally I laid on my bed, another bad dream perhaps or only a story? It was just before passing into a slumber that I resigned to belief in these logical explanations. That's when I heard the other sound. It was all bass and liquid completely different from the nightmarish pitch which rendered me unconscious but it came from the same source. Deep within my ear the noise ruggedly escalated but before it evolved to terrifying volumes a large squish signalled it's end .The little metallic brain-worm-thing excavated itself from my cranium slopped on to the floor an escaped into a crevice beside the internet wall jack under my desk.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS the hole

HEY APATHY ALTERNATIVE COMICS

Following a productive morning cleaning and a relaxing mother's day afternoon with both my mother and sister , who is also a mother, before returning from the quiet east end to the hustle of the Gear. On my journey back, during on of those brief above ground stretches of the subway track, I noticed the sun had made it's way out for the first time today. As any weather watching opportunist knows that the sunshine in the city is scarce, I got off the train a few stops early and decided to take to a stroll.

The oddest thing happens before I could reach the sun. The exit to the subway was guarded by yellow tape and where there once had been stairs there was now only a hole. The empty and seemingly bottomless black cave like anomaly laid horizontal and circular in place of the steps. The opening was approximately 15 feet in length appearing simultaneously deep and impenetrably solid. There were thin black lines shooting off from the edges, some of which had coiled up the walls suggestive of an explosion. However I was certain there was no such catastrophe as the aura of the thing scarcely intimidated me. I have been to places were bad things have happened and although I am not a superstitious, mystical or even remotely spiritual person,. I promise you that a telling residue stains tainted places.

I looked down to the ends of the plat form but oddly enough not another soul had got off. And there were no alternative exits on my side of the tracks. With no other option I crossed the yellow warning and peered into the tunnel. It was as if the tunnel was now vertical and opened directly in front of me when with a flooding gust of the wind pushed me enough to force a proper stance. I heard strange sounds and squealing as of the next train, only with inhuman reverberation and coming from the hole. The wind stop instantly turning my defensive foot hold against me and I sent my self off balance and forward into the black hole.

The lighting was nearly indescribable for only a foot in the cavern turned pitch black beyond belief, yet I could clearly see the station behind me brightly lit like a movie. None of the exterior rays had penetrated the hole. All the laws of light and physics were contradicted by the precise separation from this world and the other. I turned back to the blackness after examining the divide with a curios compulsion to venture farther ahead.

Before I took three steps I saw a little light and a strange sort of jelly floated into my path. The jelly was only about 4 or 5 inches at any length and it was perpetually morphing and jiggling around. I recognised small human faces and features in the amorphous creature and as I became aware of them mentally the forms grew more complete.

I tested this coincidence and found the my theories true. What ever I imagined the strange monster would mimic. I thought of trinkets and comic characters and music and art and with each and every thought the parody was perfect. I thought of cats and an elephants when just as I started to master the process my mind started drifting. I wondered what time it was and whether the sun was still out. The jelly turned into a clock then a sun symbol. Harmless enough but then I pictured the streets and when I saw them in front of me I accidentally imagined war

The terror of my stray thoughts only instigated their wanderings and many horrible visions twisted among the suspended glob. With my meditation broken all the layers of mind poured out. I could see myself thinking about thinking before the thoughts entered my mind. I saw my best childhood memories mix with my previously unconscious dreams. fragments of news casts, weird stories and theories presented themselves fleetingly but with the utmost of accuracy. The shapes shifting faster than my vision could handle but aside from the nausea, I understood each and every form. After all they were merely reflections of the things I had thought of.

I froze in terror at the actualization of my brain waves. There were so many images and ideas more abundant than I imagined. For the first time I could hear all the levels cohesively and was struck by a monstrous notion. I thought about reshaping the world as easily I reshaped the morphing moulds. This was too much for me to handle. Sweating and shivering I nearly gave out. My only hope of escape lied in deep concentration.

Summoning all of my will and holding my breath I focussed on the first safe image which came to my mind. I am sitting on the subway. I could see the orange seating and the neon glow. I concentrated on the feet of the passengers in front of me. For a moment my own image was seated just across from me and for the first time in my life I could see from another’s eyes. The transforming subliminal organism vibrated with anger. The form started personifying and grew two devilish horns. I know not what it did next for I realized that through these observations I would certainly start another runaway train of thoughts. The orange seats, feet and glow, seats, feet and glow, the subway came to a jolt and I awoke at my stop. There was no hole in the underground the hole was in my head!  

 

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS STREET ART!

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS The STREET ARTIST

HEY APATHY! is a cross genre anthology of interconnected tales from the monstrous metropolis known as the city of Gears! The entire is told from my perspective as a tiny street artist exhibiting and documenting in the middle of the madness. The entire series simultaneously introduces us to the imaginary City and shares my unusual experiences as a public performer.

When I first documented the city I rendered it as an ominous gear propelled by an endless sea of faceless denizens. In order to investigate the situation further I set out to the heart of the downtown core and started doing street art exhibitions and live painting demonstrations. During that time I met many a weird denizen and peoples from all over te globe and of all walks of life. I also developed an extraordinary skill by which large format ink murals appear instantaneously in front of large audiences. As a result of these public experimentations both the artworks and myself have evolved immensely. Today I still draw the city as a giant gear, only now it is all the unique and crazy people, not faceless cogs who fuel the machine. HEY APATHY! is an explanation of the unexplainable absurdities of urban existence and my internal debate between the world of comics and facing reality..more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS STREET ART PAINTING PERFORMANCE

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS STREET ART PERFORMANCE

HEY APATHY! The City is a giant gear propelled by all the different and crazy people moving through it. In order to investigate the monstrous metropolis and it's diverse and absurd denizens, I started setting up large black and white street art displays in downtown Toronto. By exhibiting and experimenting in public, I was able to learn many things about architecture and others having talked to thousands of people from all over the world and of all walks of life.  This video is a time lapse documentation of a typical day in my life on the streets. The 10 x 12 foot ink mural features an iconographic City of Gears and was made in 3.5 hours. Time lapse Photographed by Craig Boyko. 

Close-up of finished CITY of GEARS street mural. During the busy and seasonable summer weather, I often would often set up on the concrete and get to work. In 2007 I made 27 of these giant performance drawings but have since been spending more time on comics and animations.

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

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/

Alternative Comics "CHAMBER MUSIC" and Online Comics

Alternative Comics Page unlettered montage of artistic process'

The beautiful sunny start to the week continues as we reached a moderate +14 today and expect even higher temperatures tomorrow. The spring weather always means a heavy workload. I was it contact with both a toy designer and the co-ordinator of the annual buskerfest this morning discussing future projects. Then I took the mid day off to see a free classical concert at the new Opera House on Queen Street. The free show was advertised as a CHOPIN tribute and I pretty much just went to check out the hall with a friend when much to my surprise and delight, the tribute was declared an homage and all three pieces were contemporary compositions by up and coming professionals. I saw a few elderly folk exit after the first piece and a child blurted out "this sounds crazy" in the middle of the second orchestration. The stuff sounded more like Stravinsky than it ever did CHOPIN, and I laughed to myself at the disappointed, yet utterly mislead audience.

I got back to the studio, barely escaping the urge to read in the park,  finished two pages of online comics, posted one of them on twitter, and scratched away an hour at the Gary Bartz portrait. With the new projects coming I have got to wrap the jazz caricature up. More art at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

Alternative Comics Studio Tour and Commissioned works

OASIS ALTERNATIVE HIGH SCHOOL TOUR at Wolselly Street...

Another extensively exhausting day in the life of an Alternative Comics artist. This morning I cleaned studio because I couldn't find my pen cap, blank drawing boards, or ink refills or just about anything at all! This place was a mess. Then two o’clock I met up with a group of students from the OASIS Alternative School here in downtown Toronto. I took the Kids on a tour of EXTEMPORE STUDIOS a shared workspace and gallery were I hold  my business meetings. I showed them how the co-op works and shared with them all the advantages of working with a group. Then we got into the comics. I told a bunch of stories and the kids asked a lot of good questions. They really got into it, I haven't had this much fun since the streets!

OASIS STUDENTS at Extempore Studios

Following the studio tour we walked through graffiti alley and I took the group over to the Wolselley street mural (first picture). The class is focussing on public art and murals for the next few weeks and will studying the likes of Diego Rivera and Freda. I think they enjoyed seeing a large scale local monster-piece as an introduction to there new studies. It was really fun to take them over and show off the wall. After the March break I'm going to go into the alternative school and do a little lecture and live painting demonstration. It's going to be really wild and the kids, a rowdy as they are, seemed to enthusiastic towards the HEY APATHY! ideologies.

Following the question and answer sessions I made my way back to the home studio (where I do most of my non-business business) to get some drawing done. I worked on the Gary Bartz portrait throughout the afternoon and got enough of the outline done to post a picture below. More updates on Gary's construction and new pages of the online comic are on board (in ink) for tomorrow. I'm extremely tired!

 

Gary Bartz portrait in progress

Street Painting, Sunny Days, and Alternative Comics!

ALTERNATIVE COMICS in the STREETS! HEY APATHY! The sun is shining and the temperature is rising, and soon it will be time to hit the streets again! A major part of my monster comics and art is the inclusion of my unique brand of street intervention. Each spring and summer I pack up my gear and head out to the public walkways to display, discuss, and create my artworks in front of and interacting with the general public. This aspect of my artist's process has proven invaluably influencial and entirely particular in the development of my visual vocabulary. Improvising all my creations on site allows me to experience the people and the metropolis in a manner unparalleled by the studio environment. On the street things actually happen, I derive imagery and story-telling from the strange and unpredictable occurences offered by the pedestrian and commuter traffic. For example some one might approach me and engage in dialogue concerning their own life and times or the latest newsand the exchange becomes a muse sending me off in new directions otherwise unimaginable. As the only professional street artist in the entire city of Toronto, these moments of inspiration permit me to express and examine not only my personal concerns and interests but those of the community and even the globe. Monday mornings are notoriuos for attracting tourists to Queen St. West as no one who actually lives here ever wakes up before eleven. For the better part of the past six years I have worked full-time on the sidewalk and gathered an unbelievable wealth of information regarding the lives, motivations, and goals of others. This year I won't be working the streets on a regular basis, but will still be performing at numerous outdoor and comic book festivals as the time has now come for me to combine and  document the extensive research accumulated over the years. I will certainly be performing some more public interventions ( as I miss it dearly and can almost taste the reflecting sunshine on the concret) but will be more selective and reserved in my presentations, simply because it is really difficult to produce sustained artworks, such as comic pages, out doors. Enjoy this beautiful day Toronto and any where else it might be sunny right now!  

Altrnative Comics Welcome to the The City of Gears!

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS! In the distance we can see the city is made up of giant windmill-like cog wheels filled with an infinite spiral of faceless little bubble people. Endlessly filing into the monstrous metropolis the anonymous hordes fades forever into the distance representative of "the big city" and the perpetually lost souls. As we move in for a closer inspection the faceless denizens exit the architecture and begin moving down the concrete walkways. Here we realize that the Kierkegaardian crowds are not made up of an unidentifiable conglomeration, rather the streets are consumed by all the crazy and unique individuals moving through it! This 10 x 25 " pen and ink drawing was made on location, at Queen and Spadina in downtown Toronto. The drawing took about 30 street hours ( a street hour differs greatly from a studio hour as it includes set up and take down of a portable display, constant interactions/discussions with various passers by and numerous unexpected interferences such a by-law officers, rain showers, wind storms, car accidents, and short trips to the local bar to use their facilities ,not to drink) to complete and is probably my most popular representation of the urban beast to date. see more from HEY APATHY!

Artist's Resume

Another attempt to explain my self,  anonymous nihilistic metropolis (left) and the crazy City of Gears!  (right)

HEY APATHY! Is an ongoing artistic investigation into the dynamic relationship between functioning of the metropolis and the individuals of which it is composed. Using a multi-media amalgamation of popular culture and fine artworks including drawings, comics, animations, and performances, the project expresses a stern, yet optimistic warning towards our future. Primarily concerned with creating a visual vocabulary simultaneously intellectually provocative and accessible to viewers of all ages, the drawings utilize cartoon like imagery to incite dialogue regarding topics of great concern. The social significance of this anthropological exploration will be examined through a brief analysis of the projects overall development, current practices, and near future.

 

The entire body of HEY APATHY! artworks reads like an unconscious narrative inquiry into the identity of the metropolis. In the earliest drawings the city is announced as an ominous gear propelled by an endless sea of faceless denizens. At that time (2001) I was working out of the seclusion of a suburban basement and envisioned the urban landscape as a conglomeration of misdirected commercial and superficial ideologies. In order to better understand the phenomena in question, I hypothesized an unconventional interview in which an exploration of the lives, motivations, and goals of others would aid in my epistemological quest. I have since initiated this interview through a perpetually public process including gallery & festival exhibitions, wall murals and street interventions. Through this constant and aggressive public immersion, I have engaged in unparalleled interactions with peoples from all over the world and of all walks of life. The artworks are created, exhibited, and discussed entirely in front of live audiences presenting a unique, unusual, and uncompromising approach to artistic communication. In more recent artworks the city remains as a giant gear, only now it is all the unique individuals, not anonymous cogs, who fuel the machine.

 

As a result of my public experiments, the project has assimilated various multi-media presentation techniques. Facilitated by the necessity to communicate inclusively , HEY APATHY! incorporates animations, comics, fashion, and fine art. While the original drawings maintain the craftsmanship and exclusivity associated with the gallery setting, the accessible artworks and merchandising have permitted a wide spread dialogue capable of connecting with vast and varied audiences. In my current practice I am developing an online forum in which my public process and performances can be regularly documented and shared on a global scale. Using live streaming, social networks, and web comics, I intend to extend my intervention and exhibition processes in accordance with modern communications. Similar to my street performances, the online project will feature full disclosure of all creative processes including daily sketches, forums, and stories, weekly live paintings, and annual fine art exhibitions . The ultimate goal being the expansion of the alternative expressions I’ve presented on a small scale in the streets and galleries, to include a global audience. The internet exploration has the potential to invite masses of unassuming viewers into the positive, challenging and stimulating dialogue known as HEY APATHY!

ALCHEMY 101 mixing fact with fiction in Alternative Comics

Yesterday I posted a bunch of photos depicting the various stages of my days as a street performer. I never really expected any thing like this (but knew it all along) when I applied to the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2000. I had intended to study illustration in hopes of one day landing a job as a comic book inker. I always wanted to draw my own books also but thought that it would be a personal project that I could develop over time as I gathered more experiences worth sharing. Anyway several scholarships, gallery installations, and magazine cover stories later I found my self out on the street and painting theses huge crazy murals. I also mentioned yesterday that I had more or less retired from street performing ( on a regular full-time basis that is) in order to return to he only thing I ever really cared about, comics. The interesting accumulation of my strange journey is that all these weird art things that I did started adding up as not only my own style of interactive narration but an entire comics universe. As a natural continuance of my life long ambition, the new HEY APATHY! comic book series combines both my true life experiences as a street artist and the imaginary yet more concrete world of HEY APATHY! This picture shows me setting up a street intervention in the cartoon world on the left, and me getting to work on the painting on the right. As I get more proficient with my computer skills, I plan to integrate various live components of links such as stills, video, and animation, directly into the comics. Some of the real adventures are even less likely to be believable that the ones I make up. Is a metaphor made up or just a skewed fact? more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

HEY APATHY! Street Art, a brief history...

HEY APATHY!  For many years I have hauled my shopping cart full of artworks and supplies all over the city in order to set up shop and perform. My full scale concrete assault includes live 10 x 15 foot ink murals ( the above still is of a completed 3,5 hour study, Queen St. West, Toronto) and full line of prints and t-shirts, comic books, small paintings, an umbrella attached to a bamboo rod, and never ending conversations with strangers from all over the world. However, the study and perfection of these renegade interventions developed slowly, yet naturally, ove a five year duration. This week asides from some online comics panels, my primary goal is to write up a 500 word artist statement discussing my overall practice and plans for the future.Of the sort who prefers images, I sorted through my files in hopes of stringing together a visual chronology to help me organize the text. The following pictures narrate a breif history of my progress as a stret art performer.

I started drawing in the streets of Toronto in 2004. Having met some vendors who had been selling jewellery and pipes illegally from their small carpets, and after experiencing difficulties mingling with the social politics of the local galleries , I decided to take my investigation to the street. The early 5 x 5 foot display featured pins, some cardboard sketches, and photo copied zines placed on a black cloth, depicting characters from my Monster (http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/MONSTERComics.html )and Diamonds ( http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/monster-comics2004.html )drawings. The whole thing fit in a small tool kit and I started off making roughly $25 dollars a day. The above photo is probably from late 2004 as it shows a very primitive black cloth display but has a large performance drawings above it. I didn't any live painting until late 2004and was still using a handmade bamboo quil to do the slow and tedious work.

In the spring of 2005 all of the jewellery and artison vendors that I had worked beside the previous season were replaced by a large group of artist. Joining me in my subliminal protest were numerous multi-diciplinary creators including painters,photographers,print makers, and illustrator and Toronto's Queen Street West was almost instantly transformed. It strange how a place can be a person, many people would stop and tell us pf other artists who used to work here dating as far back as the 70's but how it has been along time since anyone did it. The weird looking guy sitting on the left hand side is Neil Gibson, psycadellic artist extrodinaire. Neil makes the craziest black light installations I've ever seen and has been travelling the world showing his art for the past 5 years. 2005 was a wild time, I began painting 30 x 40 inch monsters with brushes and started to get really fast at it.

 

However, the more my display grew, the more difficult the streets proved to be. This picture shows Julii saving my display from a vivatious gust. One of many spontaneous and exciting occurences which differentiate the street from the studio. Did I mention bird poop? 

To combat the wind, and step it up a notch as I gained more attention, I started matting my display with various framed art works in 2005. These were all little hand painted creations that I would do as a morning chore, and then ,as the streets got busier, I would do live drawing in the afternoons. At this time things really started to pick up. My little black tool kit was replaced by a large shoulder sack that I would fill up with frames each morning before setting up.

At the end of the 2005 season I made my first large scale public ink drawing. The entire work took me three days to complete. "THE DEATH OF A HERO" shown above featured a strange looking figure dancing with a ballerina in the sky above of Toronto . Below them a full scale military attack assembles to assassinate the flying dancers. Inspired by Vonnegut’s short story "Harrison Bergeron", the artwork measured 10 x 12 feet, and was drawn with brushes and bamboo using black india ink. By this time I was frequently taking two bike trips daily to collect frames for my display and eventually had to switch to using milk crates and public transit to keep stock on the small artworks.

In 2006 I did my first  large scale live painting performance at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibiton. Following the success of this event I returned to the streets, but replaced all my small drawings with prints, published a new comic book, and started a regular line of HEY APATHY!  t-shirts.

By 2007 I was able to create large street drawings, similar in size and intricacy to the 2005 work "THE DEATH OF A HERO" in under 3 hours. The streets were busy, the art was flying and I was having the time of my life, produced another comic book and new poster sized serigraphs and showed in several galleries. In 2008 things kept moving and I was invited to perform at several gala events including this store front presentation at Toronto's Hudson Bay Co. Yonge and Richmond Street.(above photo) . The fall of 2008 was highlighted by a commissioned clothing design I did for the Art Gallery of Ontario. The image featured many of the real and imaginary character's I'd met on the streets over the years.

In 2009 the city of Toronto suffered a hideous ailment falling victim to the wretched disease known as " a Garbage Strike". Although disappointed by the impossibility of returning to my routine performances, I took the incident as a sign that it was time to move on and get back to what I really want out of life...to make comics!!!!

Okay that's enough rambling hopefully this little exercise will help me in constructing my essay. Back to work.

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

Alternative Comics And Music

STREET PAINTING TO MUSIC

scene from HEY APATHY! Book Two

still from HEY APATHY! time lapse video 3.5 HOURS with Mike Parsons

Yesterday I posted a few portraits of my musical heroes and mentioned some strange stories about playing their music in the middle of the busy streets. I have also incorporated this passion of mine into the HEY APATHY! comics. In the books I use a little seance machine (a portable radio) to summon the spirits of dead musicians. This little narrative device allows me to give clues as to what kinds of music I enjoy and permits me to intermingle or discuss stories about the the musician's themselves as I often do while performing. I consider the "ghosts" to be a representation of the internal imaginary dialogue I have with these artist's when ever I listen.

The first picture depicts the morning's routine out on the street, setting up , watching people, and pressing play... note the upper left hand corner of the panels and you'll see me summon one of my dead musician friends. The second photo is a picture of me painting out on Queen West. in downtown Toronto, the little black blur in the lower left hand corner is my ghetto blaster. Photo by Craig Boyko. I plan to post a web-page on my site dedicated to my artworks about music, but it's not a big priority right now. I did however complete sizing and pasting all the text for the first installment of monster comics and page 10 or something of the online comic book so a whole bunch of new comics are almost ready for you to read...