Thirteen Stories, forbidden tales of the apocalypse

HEY APATHY! Independent Comics and Art

A plant has attacked a corporate office, a mad scientist and his twin assistants have set about replacing people of varied societal positions, a centaur is still chasing the supermodel, amorphous nightmares runs rampant through the streets and the city of gears spins on! The past year has been, well different, but it always is. One of the most significant of these “differences” has been my dedicated, though feeble, attempts at writing stories. As a street artist, 2004-2008, I had little use for the written word managing all my interactions verbally and with an experienced eye for unspoken communications. The streets are all about the eyes and body language which I would then perceive and create a verbal approach accordingly. Around the fall of 2009 I started building a website and all of a sudden there were none of these options forcing me to use the only means available for online communication, words.

I made a number of failed attempts at essays and descriptions for my site but found the work overwhelming, scattered and ultimately poor. I put that project on hold and started with something smaller, little blog blurbs, but on a daily basis. I made sure to do about 200 words everyday and started working with little structures. I’d do 100 words on the story in the art, and 100 on the story behind the processes. Soon the word count doubled, and while still not satisfied with the finished paragraphs, the ordeal slowly became easier and was soon a regular in my daily routines.

Prior to this it must have been 10 years and the only writing I’d done was papers for an art school. Nevertheless what choice did I have? On Tuesday April 12, I ran out of things to say and started making things up. At this time I’d never actually written, or properly considered writing, a stories with words. When I “write” graphic novels I do so directly with the ink on paper. They are basically composed like silent films and the dialogue/text are the last thing on my mind. Animations are made the same way, I just make it up as I go along. Telling the stories on the streets is again, entirely contradictory to the written version. For example I can change my choice of words on the spot depending on the demographic of the viewer. You can’t do that online or in printed text.

The process of making things up proved immediately gratifying. Although I have been putting a some efforts into producing drawings this year, my primary focus has been on developing new animations. These things take for ever and you don’t really get to think about the narrative developments because so much attention I required for every 2/22 seconds of the film. Basically in the same time it takes to illustrated a single panel artwork telling a world of stories, the animation might only get the characters from one scene to the next (if I draw fast). Knowing full well that I can’t make animations and comics at the same time, the written stories really fulfilled a need to produce ideas rapidly while engrossed in such a technical process.

So I decided to write 13 stories with illustrations to use on my site. I think there are 7 posted and few more hanging around the blog. I maybe only edited 2 of them properly but I won’t start inserting scolding coat hangers in the veins beneath my toenails if that doesn’t happen before the new year. If I can get all thirteen ideas into pages, I’ll be satisfied for now. I’d love to see the work published in a little black hardcover entitled “Thirteen Stories, forbidden tales of the apocalypse” or something like that.

WEEKLY WEBCOMICS

Alternative Comics Street Art and Performance Video

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Just finished putting together this video of street art, performances and mural painting. The video will be projected tomorrow night on Queen Street West as an unofficial part of the 2010 Nuit blanche celebrations. Officially a selection of my animations will be included in the outdoor installation taking place at the main entrance of 401 Richmond Street ( a huge arts complex featuring galleries, studios and office stuff.Here's the write up for the video:

HEY APATHY! is an ongoing investigation into the monstrous metropolis. In the earliest works the city was announced as a giant gear propelled by an endless sea of faceless denizens. In order to best understand the phenomena in question I developed a particular artist's process involving outdoor festival performances, public murals and street art. By means of this unconventional interview I have since talked to thousands of people from all over the globe and of all walks of life. As a result both the artworks and myself have evolved immensely. Today my comics still depict the city as an ominous gear, only now it is up to all the strange and unique characters, not anonymous cogs, who fuel the machine.

This video features several timelapse documentations of my live performances and graffiti work as well as a little animation. Artworks 2002-2007, video by Slavek Smeigel and Craig Boyko. Experimental Soundtrack by Narsen Osutei, Mark vanZyl and Mike Parsons. All new surreal animations, weird comics, and cursed contemporary art at  http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/



ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Interiors #3

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

A potted tree and the robot gardener.

Alternative Comics Strange Faces

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Alternative Comics a Surreal Noir

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics!

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

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Stories

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

The new HEY APATHY! Surreal comics are basically a side project while I work of the upcoming animation. In order to keep practicing comics while otherwise involved the recent drawings have primarily been created on a small scale and in sketchbooks. The works suffer technically from time restraints and materials but do however offer an unique approach to story telling and imaginary investigations otherwise unobtainable.

On the one hand I’ve no time to develop the scripts and the sketch book paper does not lend itself to fine detail. The drawings are restricted by the size of the book and the type of paper being used. 8.5 x 11 is approximately half the size of a regular comics page. The paper also has a tendency to bleed slightly which, in combination while the scale, makes it nearly impossible to render intricate imagery. An obvious example involved drawing the eyes of the character. In the sketchbook the addition of the iris always results in a blurred mess around the pupil. Therefore the new strips don’t have any iris’. The sketchbook medium frees me from technical and conceptual concern. Even though I’m going to post these strips, it really doesn’t matter what I draw. There is often a pressure associated with creating works for exhibition, publication, commission or on expensive materials. None of these factors apply to the sketch book. In fact the finished drawings become of little importance and the imaginary scenarios take precedence. (Which is weird because none of it makes any sense).

Despite the technical restrictions the sketchbook permits an immediate, intuitive and meditative approach to the pages. Often stories that are to weird to think of, or would never have been made upon further deliberation, come to life regardless. I devised a sort of literary device. The format follows that each page functions as an entire story, like a news paper funny, while simultaneously revealing a larger narrative. This technique works as a guide for the drawing and story telling and is intended as a weekly web comic in which each instalment is self contained and continuous. I also pack a lunch and go to the park which, although technically problematic, is a very quiet and productive place for me. Once I get there I really don’t have any thing else to do but work. These elements, in combination with the oddly beneficial limitations, really allow me to attack the blank pages and dive deep into the world of the weird. see more Alternative Comics

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

A continuation of yesterday's office place hallucination.

Alternative Comics an amorphous globular experience surreal

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

 This is a little scene from the upcoming surreal web comic in which a somewhat unsuspecting shopper experiences the most horrific of hallucinations, maybe. This amorphous globular thing is one of the major symbols in a lot of my recent works. I won’t reveal it’s meaning here because it would spoil the fun and is clearly apparent in the short stories. The Surreal stories are illustrated fables combining comic book style imagery with the written word. It was really just a way to be creative when I was too busy to actually draw  comic pages last winter. Though I still don’t have the time for full explorations, some of the stories are being featured as vignettes in the new strips. The drawing posted above is based on the short story “ A Shopping Spree Nightmare”. Keeping this sketchbook of comics while working on the major animation, has really helped keep my mind flowing while tackling the enormously repetitive task of drawing the cartoon.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Broadcast to Oblivion

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

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

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

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

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

A coulpe panels from a strange story about a person suffering from multiple pesonality disorders. In order to calm the contradictory voices the patient is prescribed a regimented diet of television, telephone, and text conversations eventually nulling the mind to the point where thoughts can no longer harm it. 8.5 x 11 inch pen and ink drawings from the all new HEY APATHY! alternative monster comics adventures. Full postings coming in the fall.

Alternative Comics The Mad Scientist

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

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


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

Surreal Alternative Comics

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Stories

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

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

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

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

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

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

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

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 Malformed-mutation

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

An attempt to heighten animal senses among the business sector by way of implanted technologically advanced animalistic inter-skeleton proves a complete failure. No matter what characteristics they attempt to apply the strange denizens continue to think only of themselves and act not like lions, hawks or giraffes but only a mice, confused tiny mice trapped in a maze. 8.5 x 11 inch pen and ink drawing.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS TELEPATHIC BATTLES AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESOLVE

HEY APATHY! ALTERNATIVE COMICS ART OF WAR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Alternative Comics of Dreams and Intuition

HEY APATHY! Alternative Comics

"of DREAMS AND INTUITION"

The following set of observations will be made without reference nor in depth research in regard to the subject at hand. Therefore the article you are hereby presented with will be of little literary or scientific value. However the anecdotal experiences which I am about to share, pertaining to notions beyond the vocabulary of language and of scientific models, may retain some pertinent information. I perceive that by expressing this wholly internalized hypothesis I may incite a dialogue involving like-minded experiences or open those unsatisfied with their own interpretations to new possibilities. The ultimate goal being to improvise my immediate reactions to the topic of dreams opposed to intuition unfettered by academic influence. A second stage of this analysis will to be the eventual research and discuss these notions in order to solidify any probable theories. But I digress, having now wasted an entire paragraph explaining that this post is a fact-less editorial, fit only for the news, I will now divulge my opinion on the matter.

Of dreams one often believes the midnight movies from the back of your mind to be one of three powers. Some of us see these visions as precognitive warnings presenting inescapable scenes from the near future, Others feel that the stories are mixed up puzzles meant to deal with ones inadequacies or confused state of being. While many others still,  think they are nothing but nonsense. In my experience the dreams are none of these things.

As of late, during my sleeping hours, I have been tormented by endlessly black feelings of helplessness and despair . Although I can recall but few details (such as the lizard dream accounted in the blog only days ago) the terrifying sensation of depression lingers long after my deep rest. Not to say that I wallow in my nightmares throughout the day time, rather that a small inkling of the desolation can be recalled at a moments notice when I think of the night. I know there is some terrible fate lurking not far from my conscious mind. Fortunately and in direct contrast to the darkness, nothing has gone wrong in my waking life, and especially nothing in particular has fallen out from the dreams and into reality ( I use the term "reality" freely and loosely).

When I dreamt of a car accident, there was none. Where my pet and friend lizard suffered, she remained healthy. Although my lover had proceeded to chop me into little bits which then churned into cubes of a thick blackened ooze, my body remains intact. The more monstrous the dreams become the less likely they appear to actualize. Of coarse it is more than likely my lover will one day butcher my physique but the hances of the fragments turning into tar blocks in highly unlikely. No these dreams do not reveal the future, nor am I secretly concerned about my ultimate demise nor the obvious bet on how it will occur. In some cases ( once again I refer you to the lizard ream) the grotesque consequences imagined were little more than exageratted reminders of mild anxieties.

I have paid attention to the symbols and attempted to co-relate them to the present and to the future. I have even attempted to dismiss them as utter fiction. But alas I cannot deny it. The visions appear only as indulgent and excessive tortures devoid of meaning aside from there own existence. They simply express the darkest places and derive a fuelling inertia from the pain inflicted by their presence. They mean to hold us down. I say "us" because I know you all have them too. The truth is dreams are pure evil, a truth both derived from and reflective of existence, pure evil.

Of intuition I am familiar with many definitions, interpretations and modes which popular culture has classified but science has dismissed. Generally one either believes in intuitions or one does not. I must disagree with the opposing ideas and say that it is both.

Over the past seven years I have taken a great interest in certain quantifiable intuitions. The first is the sensation or thought of someone you know followed by a surprise surfacing of that exact person. I found the incidents to be in high numbers and above coincidence. I had the notion that it was not some strange intuition rather a heightened animal sense we all share but remain unaware of. Could it be possible that I actually caught the scent of these friends or acquaintances long before I was consciously aware of their presence? To test the theory I plugged my nose from the insides so as to be able to roam the public streets without attracting attention. Although I often thought of particular people at particular moments, the phenomena of "oh my, why I was just thinking of you..." ceased to play a role in my daily routine. In fact I ceased bumping into any people thatI knew at all! Could it be that our social connections are telepathically communicated through an exchange of chemicals secreted from our noses? I dare not take the plugs out, just to be sure.

The second intuition that has never failed me in my ability to guess exactly how much money I was entitled to acquire on any given day. Almost always around 11 am, the beginning or the retail hours, a number  pops into my head, $300, $600, $5000, or whatever and sure enough when I count the till at seven the amount always matches. Unfortunately the number isn't always an optimistic one but it is correct. Again I hypothesized the notion of extra-ordinary senses and decided that through these senses and experience that I was actually able to predict the figures based on the weather, the news, the local events, and a little unconscious algebra calculating all these factors which obviously affect consumer traffic. To test this theory I had myself blind folded, beaten dizzy, and dropped off at work with out any of the hypothesized information necessary for the equation. On repeated attempts I failed to guess any sensible numbers and in fact broke into a brief fit of amnesia in which I even failed to guess my name!

So in conclusion to my experiments and experimental opinions I believe that dreams are nothing but nightmares and that intuition is in fact a provable entity borne of faculties of the senses which popular theories and the human consciousness utilizes often but is currently unable to identify. Regardless of this drivel I can promise you that no numbers regarding he lottery have ever appeared in my mind's sight but I do have a sinking intuitive feeling that there will be dark dreams again tonight.

 

 

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