The City of Gears Kids Comics Online

HEY APATHY! Comics Online!

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

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

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

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

Alternative Comics 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 Animation Stills

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics!

Still plugging away at the apparently endless ( unlike the finances) pile of drawings for the new animations. Also found some time this week to get the next pages of the online comic ready and handled most of the bureaucratic chores which bog down the unrepresented artist.

Alternative Comics Sound and Visions (Update)

HEY APATHY! SURREAL COMICS

Some new music for the City of Gears timelapse video. This film shows a day in the life of a street painter following a 3.5 hour, 12 x 12 foot mural. The drawing was made on the corner of Queen Street and Soho , downtown Toronto in 2007. I’ve used various different scores for the presentation of this video but, like the animations, have been struggling a lot with sound issues.

I like this track because it was programmed entirely into an old synthesizer keyboard enabling me to add it to the video without any editing or degenerative interference. With my limited technology, or at least limited knowledge there of, I can’t seem to get a professional sounding recording consisting of more than one track.

This loop was created for my animation reel which will be featured at this years Nuit Blanche festival. It worked  so I thought to add it to this video as well. Sort of a theme song, but really it’s the only clean recording I have right now. There will be more. Music by Narsen Osutei, Mark vanZyl, and me.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS New WEBCOMIC

HEY APATHY! Surreal Webcomic

This is page 2 of the new Surreal Webcomic I'm making over at HEYAPATHY. The series is set out as a bunch of one page weeklies that sift in and out of a bizarre and terrifying larger story arc. New oneiric experiments  every Friday ( or early Saturday Night).   

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Magazine

HEY APATHY! SURREAL COMICS

Made this logo for the HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics Magazine. I've been posting all my new works from 2010 on my website in a sort of chronological yet haphazard manner so now that the year is almost up, I've started to clean up  the webpage and decided to turn it into a Weird Tales style magazine. The magazine features a weekly webcomic, a series of ink drawings entitled Creature Visions and 13 illustrated stories ( I think there are 7 unedited ones postde so far). Thought it would be fun to present t work as such.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Interiors #4

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Interiors #3

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

A potted tree and the robot gardener.

Alternative Comics Surreal Streets, Buskerfest 2010

I just got in from my second day at the Buskerfest. I'm filthy, exhausted and have been painting for 11 hours. It will probably take just as long to get the black grit out from beneath my nails. The thing was a freaking party, amazing music, thousands of people, 30 foot tall rampaging dinosaurs and the most striking venue I have ever had the pleasure of performing at. Can’t get the pictures off the camera, am to tired to recollect the events any further, and I get to do it all over again tomorrow, good night!

Alternative Comics Weird Interior #2

HEY APATHY! SURREAL COMICS

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

Alternative Comics Weird Interior #1

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

A handsome sum was paid in advance not for the tickets themselves but for information regarding whereabouts of the ticket agent . The amount paid by the ticket holder is somewhat open to speculation though it can be ascertained that if you aren’t aware of the price for such things, you simply do not have that kind of money. Having said all that, the stubs are checked and a small unassuming door opens. Behind the façade lies a room of the most peculiar sterility. Metallic panelling and the large overhead structure of lights and wires from an operating room are only embellished by a festive curtain covering the unseen subject. No one knows for sure upon entering , and absolutely no one breathes a word after exiting, about those unusual items which entertain the most elite. Beyond power, beyond violence, beyond carnal, cruelty and beyond reason, lies the horrific atrocities which have no function but to combat cases of multibillion dollar ennui. Pen & Ink 4x 4 inch detail  This is one of the panels from the Surreal Webcomics cover I finished this week. Thought I'd take some time to do  write ups for all the little panels in the drawing over the next few days while I get to lettering the story which I will start posting next week.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal City Nightmares

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics!

I just finished the gatefold cover page for the upcoming SURREAL WEBCOMIC. The image features  an attack of the amorphous glob techno verse on a group of unsuspecting denizens in a high rise building. On each floor, and the ground below, other strange events are unfolding. Some of the images are from the first story arc but several of them never existed before. That means I probably have to incorporate them into the mythology or else this would be one of those crappy covers that shows things which aren’t actually in the book. I had originally planned on a cover image featuring an amorphous globular attack inside a mad scientist’s laboratory but my desire to draw some mock-perspective ache texture resulted in the sky rise landscape instead.

Thematically I’ve been toying with the idea of a high-rise cross section for many years but have never actually taken the time to try it in the studio before. This was a good test run as I plan to use two similar scenes in the new comics. Through this first attempt I worked out a lot problems and will have a much easier time render the future artworks. Two of the biggest problems I encountered have to do with the size of the original drawing and the resizing of the image for the online portfolio. First I learned that an image of this complexity requires a large drawing surface. I tried to do the image at 11 x 17 inches but found some of the small rooms in want of finer detail. There are eight rooms cover ¼ of the surface. For the most part an entire comics page would have a maximum of nine panels and would have been drawn at almost twice the scale I used for this piece. The second major, major, major, problem I have to deal with is scanning. All of my detailed and smooth line work is turning into ugly Lego block pixels when I post them online. I have to deal with this because most of my work looks a lot crappier than it really is.

SAMPLESOF MY BAD SCANS, the lines are all pixelated

and get worse as I retrieve the original tones

I’ll be starting the weekly instalments of the new web comic next Friday. Hopefully I’ll have my scanning issues resolved by that time but the show will go on regardless. The Weird Tales title is just wishful thinking but really helped me put my own project in perspective. I now realise that I really need to edit my writing and adjust my low quality images before I’ll be happy with my new Surreal Comics series. more at http://www.heyapathy-comics-art.com/

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Strange Day

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

ALTERNATIVE COMICS Surreal Monsters of Time

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Today was a day of revelation. Often times in our lives we mark occasions with celebrations as a signifier of growth, change, existence or triumph. Although us westerner’s seldom openly attach the quest for satori to our festivities, like a first nations adolescent seeking a spirit guide our rituals also conjure new perspectives, thoughts and ideas. Does the newly appointed CEO not feel a surge of super-humanity following the announcement and subsequent round of drinks? Strangely enough though these ceremonies seem to have an equal tendency to resurrect feelings of despair as they do joy. Take for example the New Year’s Eve ceremony. While many look forward, shedding past misfortunes and breeding future prospect, other’s still are forced to wallow in shame for missed opportunities or paths mistakenly taken. As the ball drops lover’s mingle, entrepreneurs plot, children stay up late and a few of us who can’t take it anymore send the old year off the side of an unguarded bridge.

As the surface water breaks with a crescendo splash, one can only wonder if the party was actually so dull as to instigate the early exit. However, from what I have observed it is seldom the physical affair but rather the psychological implications regarding the celebrations which initiates despair. Of course there are many whose social anxieties and fear of coloured balloons have sent them over the edge ( Party Clowns seem also to be notorious in this fashion), but for the most part it is the comparative significance of judgement exemplified by a predetermined ideal lifestyle which brings about the darkness. That is to say that each festivity marks a certain stage in the subjects life whereas a certain number of specific achievements should have been accomplished. A two year old should talk, the eighteen year old should drive and the twenty seven year old must be wealthy.

These sorts of standardized expectations are intrinsically attached to almost any celebratory event, whether it be consciously or otherwise. Enter the more horrific of them all the dreaded birthday. On this lovely day several people get together to share stories, gifts, and marvel at the fact so and so hasn’t been hit by a bus yet as so many of us had anticipated. Here the victim of nature gets an entire day with which to grade his or hers success in life up to that point and in comparison to others who’ve lived as long and done well for themselves. At first these days appear joyous but as the years role by the weight of ones past failures begins to gain mass. And this is where I have found myself and unsettling revelations, today.

I was born on this very day at this exact moment 159 years ago. Obviously I’ve not lived my life accordingly as one, I’ve been alive far too long, two I am not yet showing my age, and three I never followed the rules known and accepted by society. No instead of following the regular treatments, my life has been entirely devoted to the pursuit of dreams. Not once, in all of those years did I compromise my hearts desires in order to achieve what most claim as success. I never studied anything I wasn’t interested in, I’ve never worked a job I didn’t want, and I have never succumbed to the mass systemic programming which passes for satisfaction in the guise of purchase. I have taken and extended all my of life to practice and perfect my dreams.

As rewarding as this may sound, it has also become of the most terrifying significance on this my 159th birthday. Despite all my dedication and devotion today I have finally accepted the final fact, these dreams will never come true. For all my hours in the studio I still cannot write a poem, sing a song , paint a picture or star in a movie. I’ve tried, lord knows I’ve tried, but in 159 years of attempts not a single success. Not even in private. In fact rarely did I ever see fit any of my “talents” to introduce them to the outside world. Not that I’ve ever cared about fame mind you, only in the perfection of the art. The attention could only be a resultant of exceptional work and never the goal itself. Perhaps therein lies my downfall? Regardless no matter how skilled I became a small voice in the back of my mind kept repeating “ you’re just not good enough”.

I never really listened to the voice nor assigned it’s criticism any merit before but today, today, my bliss has broken and my ignorance shattered. I’ve seen people rise and fall, and even rise again, over and over while, stubborn as I am, I kept practicing, hoping to someday live out my dreams. I don’t know why but today the dreams passed and I came to an intolerably monstrous revelation. It’s like for a long duration of my life all the people of importance were older than myself and I would one day grow to be one of them. There was potential in my youth. Now, and seemingly suddenly, I am over 125 years older than almost every person of note and have never done anything noteworthy, or at least I shunned to share any of it with the outside world.

So the deep dark revelation that has overwhelmed me as I stand on the edge of this unguarded bridge is age. Time has passed me by regardless of my decided inability to acknowledge it. Today I have a wrinkled forehead and tomorrow I will be dust. Today I am no one and tomorrow I’ll be even less. No stage, no band, no movies, no museums. There is nothing to be done about it though for I’ve tried everything I ever wanted to try. It simply didn’t work. 

more alternative comics

alternative Comics Surreal Nightmares of a technological nature

HEY APATHY! SURREAL COMICS

Oh how sad a day it was when on this, Friday the 20th of August 2010, the heat finally broke. For weeks now the city has been sweltering under a blazing sun and suffocating humidity. The effects of the climate on my own little existence have been vast and varied as my studio apartment has been less than tolerable during the hot season. Despite air-conditioning, several fans and attempts at an open window, this top floor lodging refuses to resist the extreme temperatures which were amassing outside. In fact on numerous occasions I nearly passed out at the keyboard, dripped sweat over animation stills, or simply gave up and had a nap. For the most part however, I resigned to developing a work schedule accordingly so as to remain productive throughout this summer spell.

As a street artist’s I paid particularly acute attention to the weather. Alas the livelihood of a busker or vendor depends on the sun. Shoppers are like weeds, if the conditions are right their bags just grow and grow. I’ll never forget the time one of my prints went into a London tourist’s large plastic bag which had two other items in it; Frank Zappa’s Orchestral Hit’s and a Spider-Man comic. What an honour to join such magnificent purchases (there is no escape). At any rate as I worked the streets for five consecutive seasons, I became quite familiar with our city’s weather patterns. Each year, between 2004-2008, Toronto would suffer a brief humidity strike reaching temperatures in above 40C heavily influenced by humidity. These waves always lasted for about two weeks before a more reasonable climate would settle in. Oddly enough this summer set out in a common fashion, only at the end of the two week duration always haunted by the heat wave, we saw little relief. I can estimate that the wave started around July 10, and only let up in the past couple of days based on my journal entries. Since the city and my studio heated up I have had absolutely no desire to write and can trace the forced paragraphs back to the aforementioned date. Not to say that the writings are any worse ( how could they be) than those written before the humidity, but they are shorter, generally technical and inspired by commitment rather than by muse. This entry marks the first time I’ve gotten an “urge” to actually do this in quite a while.

Like the disturbance of my daily journal, the heat has also dictated my drawing schedule over the past few weeks. In order to maintain a comfortable work environment I’ve had to rearrange my practice, location, and hour operation. During the day I retreat to a shady spot in the park were I read and sketch. Unfortunately the animation cannot be produced in an uncontrolled setting and I’ve had to limit my daytime drawings to short comics and small pieces for the website ( the ones posted hear over the past couple of months). Though nothing could be more pleasant than an afternoon in the park doodling, I often got frustrated by the limitations of the park process but could not bare the hellish studio. This problem was solved simply by rearranging my molecular structure and forcing my self onto an unusual sleeping schedule. After the park I tend to sleep a few hours off before dark. Then went the cooler night arrives I brew a fresh pot and hit the animation stand. These late hour have proved immensely productive but physically draining often putting me out of commission during the day. During those exhausted hours following a hard night’s work, I’d take to reading in the park as opposed to drawing. The days have had a tendency to work like this, 10 am rise, 11-5 sketch or read outdoor, sleep until 8 and work in studio from 9-4am. Weird? Yes I feel a little weird and sleepless but I’ve conditioned my self well and have been extremely productive.

So after all this complaining and inconvenience why, might you ask, would I mark the end of the heat as a sad day? Well, I suppose I’m really enjoying the freedom to work, read, sit outside, and create. So I’ve had to risk my health and compromise the work a little, summer air is fleeting and not to be taken lightly. The park weather will be gone soon and so will the money. Everything is about money. I made mine in the spring and soon I’ll have to make some more. Life is very different as a legitimate professional than it was on the streets. Sure I get up 50 time as much for some of the work but the money comes in distanced chunks as opposed to a steady flow. The streets were very reliable and constant, as long as the weather held. I guess the big difference between the two techniques of marketing could be defined by a sort of “putting your eggs in one basket” analogy. The streets offer multiple chances at reasonable rewards, if one day is bad you get to try again on the next one. Doing shows, on the other hand, often brings in much greater rewards although if a presentation fails, it could be months until the next one. As silly as it seems I spend far too much time selling and budgeting that sometimes I think it’s a wonder I get anything done. Stronger men than I would have choked and gotten a job along time ago, but I’m way to stupid to do that. Besides the shows always go well and I don’t stress nearly as much as I used to (flashback in my mind to me sitting on Queen Street selling drawings on a cold February morning 4 years ago) . On that note I’ll be performing / exhibiting at the Scotia Bank Busker’s Festival from the 27-29. I’ve never done the show before but am aware of it’s reputation and expect an amazing festival. Did anyone actually read this whole thing? Well I’m sorry if you put yourself through all that, I suppose I’ve been collecting a lot of ramblings behind my eyes and I’ll try to make a regular effort of typing again so this doesn’t happen again.

Oh yeah the drawing is a new illustration for the Amorphous Glob Macroverse, one of 13 stories I am  making as a part of the new HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics.

Alternative Comics Surreal Monsters

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Another Amorphous Glob talisman for the 13 stories. I think this one is going to go with the little poem in "The shopping spree nightmare". I have extremely limited knowledge and tools when it comes to web design so quite often the images are not fitting where I'd like them.

Lot's of improvising and compromising but sure enough the site is growing. It's not what I want but I'm learning. Eventually the damn cursed online representation of my life and art will actually look good, one day. Anyways spent most of the hot day scribbling in the park and took a rest from the animation, full force again tomorrow.

Alternative Comics Strange Plants

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Two diagram drwings of a strange plant assimilating human form from the HEY APATHY! 13 stories, A ciollection of illustrated works and weird tales from the city of gears. In my spare time between drawing animation stills I've been scribbling some small icons to enhance my surreal stories pages on the website. These images are from the SEEDS fable, one of my favourite ramblings from this blog I tried to edit into a story.

Alternative Comics Surreal Talismen

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

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

Alternative Comics Strange Faces

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics

Alternative Comics Creature Visions

HEY APATHY! Surreal Comics