Interrrogation: Happiness Bastard.

I'm pretty picky when it comes to designer toys. Happiness Bastard's Pewkies kicked me in the groin with delight. Kewpie dolls mixed with Universal horror icons; what could be sweeter?

Unfortunately, Happines Bastard's toy runs are super duper small and he sells out quickly. I'll do my best to post when the new Pewkie colorways hit his shop.

Thanks to Happiness Bastard for taking the time to answer my questions.

1. Who or what is Happiness Bastard? Are you a squad of hearty toy-making soldiers or a single badass? Where is your HQ?
Happiness Bastard is me, Bernhardt, just Bernhardt like Prince or Cher.  I chose the name because I saw it as the title of some old pulp paperback and love the thoughts is conjured up, I also think it may have been the name of the ultraman hero on this show called Shin Chan (I think that's the name).  I made my first toy (Shedorah) when I moved to Louisville Kentucky about 2 years ago.  It had been in the works for awhile but I was too broke to pull it off until I got settle in Louisville.

2. Talk about the roto-casting process. What materials do you use? Was it hard to learn or are you a roto-casting savant?
Roto Casting is a great process, it allows you to use alot less material than a solid cast would and eliminates the need for a vacuum pot.  The final product is a hollow cast piece that is pretty close to something that you get produced in a factory.  I spent at least one solid year studying casting in general, I poured over the mold making handbook on lunch breaks at a string of jobs I hated, and would stay up all night planning in my mind a good way to execute a great mold.  I found that Smooth on made a starter kit which was a huge help.  For about $80 dollars you get all you need to pull off a decent silicone mold, I had too buy 2 because I tend to think big (Shedorah is about the size of a bowling pin).  The resin I use is made specifically for rotocasting because it gels and then hardens, I am starting to experiment with other types and so far the results are great.

I don't think it was hard to learn the process, but I studied and planned and tried to really have the bugs hammered out in mind before I began.  Like anything you learn as you go, I still make mistakes and will always be my worse critic.  Either way it always ends with me having a cool new piece of plastic.

3. Who are your toy/art influences?
So many!!!!  I really love bootlegs and old dimestore toys.  The shabby and random paint jobs and mismatched colors and generic packaging are a huge inspiration for what I do.  The Pewkies were actually inspired by an old toy called Monster-niks, they are basically a troll doll with the head of Frankensten, Wolfman, and King Kong.  I had always wanted to do something with the soakies and I had wanted to make kewpies with gross heads so it just came together that way.  I am big on Kaiju, love the bizarre old ultraman characters and the like.  

As far as art goes the list is long and varied, I have always been a fan of Charles Burns, I would love to produce something like the teenage plague figure he did years ago.  I also really like Archer Prewitt's  Sof' Boy stuff, and definitely am inspired by the packaging and goodies he made up to go with it.  The prints I make, I like to think are half Gilbert and George and half Famous Monsters of Filmland.  I like to gravitate towards things with bright colors and dark subject matters, anything between garbage pail kids to Ivan Albrecht.  I see and consume so much that it is hard for me to settle on one particular. I have new favorites everyday. 

4. Can you talk about your 4" Vagina Mary? Who was the model? It really is a thing of beauty. The marbling is fantastic as well.
With the Mary there isn't much to say, its a found piece that I recast and has sort of took off.  The original is plaster with metalic paint, I can't find another one anywhere or any info on the original, its too good not to be put out there.  I am really happy how the marbled ones turned out, I think the marbling matches its texture very well.  I have thought about making them scented also but that may be too much.  

5. Universal monsters, talk about them.
I think the universal monsters are almost a gateway drug for counter culture.  They have been around forever as far as our generation is concerned, my grandmother is almost as old as Frankenstein.  They are fairly accessable and from there god only knows how far a horror kid can grow and in what direction.  

One of my favorite toys as a kid were the 4" Remco universal monster figures and I pined for the whole set of aurora monster models.  The soakies seem to be the next logical step for that collection.  I would really love to do a Dracula soaky head based on the Remco figure, Dracula isn't really my cup of tea but that figure has a great expression.

The old toys were simpler and much cooler than the highly detailed figures they put out today. They were fun and had imagination, not to mention marketing was not as sophisticated as it is now.  Todays toys are so protective, They wouldn't release a bubble bath bottle with a wolfman dripping blood from his mouth for a kid to have at bath time and are based on movie or TV show and then are gone as soon as the movie is gone or the show is off the air.  The Universal Monster toys didn't really start happening until long after the movie was out of the theater and its still going strong today for kids and adults alike.

6. What is your favorite possession?
I have alot of really great stuff, art, toys, etc., I love it all, but my favorite thing to come home to is my dog Belvedere.  He is awesome!

7. What is the next project for Happiness Bastard?
My head is always full of ideas, right now there are some new colorways in the works for the pewkies, I am really excited about the frighting lighting set.  Also I have some new Pewkie heads in the works that are based on a series of cut out prints I did last Halloween that should fit well with the original sets, as well I am dying to make a gorilla head to fit on them.  I did do a set of small one inch Pewkies as junk mold that I may release.  As well looking for some artists to collaborate with for some painted versions and packaging.  I am also working on a figure called fright wig based on an old skull pencill sharpener I have and love.

Tim 'n Eric talking.

 

Do you get tired of comedians keeping up their schtick during interviews? I sure do.
Tim and Eric have done some really funny interviews over the past few months. They have been promoting their Billion Dollar Movie, which opens in theaters today.
The elusive, comedic, interview was getting a bit tired. So, I was more than pleasantly surprised to read their short interview with Mr. Beaks over on Ain't It Cool News this morning. The interview is HERE.

Wareheim: I think one thing we're also noticing is that Tim and I have lived in this weird vacuum for the last seven years making our own show where this kind of thing is not out of the blue. We've had these kinds of sex scenes and gross poop jokes, but now that the movie is on a larger scale, we realize we're exposing people to this alternate universe that is kind of normal for us. And people are like, "Whoa, that's pretty intense."

Beaks: With alternative comedy, there's often a feeling that "the right people will get it". How do you feel about expanding your audience? Is this something you're trying to do?

Heidecker: There's a core of our audience that you could expect: a sort of younger, college-educated, hipster, alternative-style kind of people. But we run into people all the time that are like housewives and people's parents... just normal people. I don't necessarily think that our stuff is designed to exclude people. I don't know what it is about somebody who doesn't like it that makes them not like it.

Wareheim: I valeted my car the other night, and a maybe, like, forty-eight-year-old man took my keys and said, "I promise not to shrim in your car." I just wanted to sit with him and be like, "How do you know about the movie? Why?" But we love expanding our audience. That's not our primary goal, though. This movie is really made for us. Luckily, the fans like it, and hopefully others will like it.

Heidecker: I think it comes down to... it's a really easy thing to say in journalism and criticism, "Well, if you're not a fan of these guys, you might want to be careful." I don't know if anyone's ever done any research to say if that's the case. That just seems like a simple, logical thing to write, but it might not be true.

Roger Ebert is not a fan of these guys. He hated the film so much that he stopped writing his review halfway through. It's a funny read, HERE.

Interrogation: Hartter.

 

 A couple of days ago I posted a retro-phony baloney poster for Ghostbusters. I attributed Hartter as the artist. I was wrong. Another artist had swiped his concepts.

I went to Hartter's site and was amazed at the breadth of his projects. He's got a great eye for creating retro posters and a unique art style for creating wholly original pieces.
I tried to grab a few of my favorites and ended up saving over twenty pics. Just get your booty over to his site and check it out, HERE.
Thanks to Hartter for this short notice interview. 
1. I blew it and posted some other fellow's work with your name. Sounds like a lot of people made the mistake. What went down?
Another artist did an alternate universe movie poster gallery, In that gallery and elsewhere online, he had directly swiped two of my poster concepts, pictures and all. The first poster is Ghostbusters starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent  Price and Woody Strode. The second poster is the Matrix starring Bruce Lee, Sidney Poitier, Peter Sellers and Pam Grier.

The artist, Peter Stults, apologized to me a number of times and took the two posters down from his site and credited me with the idea, but not before the images were spread to a number of websites that he has no control over. It just got away from him, he never thought anything would come of it and definitely didn't think I'd ever see them. I don't have any ill will towards him. I'm sure he's going to still make new posters. That's cool. More power to him. We're different styles anyways, I'm more of a wonky 60's and 70's exploitation poster guy. Anyone can use the images and ideas we both used, but my point is, with limitless resources available to you in the modern age as an artist, why on earth would you exactly mimic someone else's interpretation of  a concept?  There's more than enough unused ideas floating around. Ideas are all that an artist has. That's why I got so protective of those posters when I saw someone else directly ripping them.

2. It seems you have an equal number of completely original poster designs and retro mash-ups. Talk about your process in creating each?I don't use other posters or layouts wholesale. I'll take a "WIDESCREEN" or "IN COLOR" logo or maybe a tagline of an old poster, but that's about it. I have like 20,000 fonts so I like picking and choosing those. I'm just goofing around really. I hand draw, I do photomanipulations, I do almost construction paper cutout type art in Photoshop.. I do all kinds of stuff. On some projects I veer away from using any pre-existing materials to compose, and for other projects I just comb the internet and do pastiches of things I find, and that becomes its own self sustained concept. To me anyways. It worked for Andy Warhol.

3. The number of images and projects you have on your site is staggering. How did you get into this?
I've been drawing my whole life and have loved old VHS covers, LP covers, posters, postcards and the like my entire life, too. It wasn't until the early 2000's that I started working for newspapers and magazines, doing everything from movie reviews to political art, short comic book stories and pinups for indie comics. I exclusively did hand drawn stuff until maybe 2007, when I first started tinkering with mashing photos and things together. I try and do all kinds of art I'm capable of equally now. Both fortunately and unfortunately I have had a little more time on my hands the past few years, I have leukemia and its made me sick enough to where I can't work a regular job job like I have for 20 years. No one knows how much time they have, so why not maximize that time doing thing you love as much as possible.

4. Do you collect film posters?
You'd think that I do, but I only have a couple posters, an original 27" x 40" of Tim Burton's "Batman", a "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" one and a reprint of Alex Ross' "Battle Of The Planets". My son has a killer 27" x 40" "the Spirit" drawn by Frank Miller. Our favorite comic book artist.

5. If you were asked by the Smithsonian to contribute one of your poster designs for a big show, which one would you choose? Why?
I'd say maybe my fake Mario Bava's "The Batman Of Gotham City" one. Its the one thing people have responded to the most and it looks like a genuine old poster, it even fooled Batman artist Jerry Bingham. He posted it and asked why he'd never heard of the film before. I thought that was cool.

6. What is your favorite possession?
My book collection. My trade paperback collection? Or my movie collection. I read a lot and watch a lot of movies. Actually right now it could be the Boba Fett bobblehead my boys got me for Christmas. Yeah probably that.

7. Can you talk specifically about the tools you use?
When hand drawing I use pencils, copy paper and thin point Sharpies. I have a tablet but rarely use it. I do all my coloring and photo based art in Photoshop cs3.

8. Which of your poster have been printed and where can we get our dirty mitts on them?
I briefly sold posters out of my home but a) I was legally advised not to and b) with my health issues I really couldn't keep up with demand. I have a CafePress t-shirt store. Generally I do commissions and send them to the client digitally for them to print up or use however they are going to use them.

9. What are you working on now?
I'm working on some e-book covers for author Nancy A. Collins. I work all the time with horror auteur Hart Fisher and do weekly commercial bumper art for the Saturday Fright Special syndicated TV show. I've done that for two and a half years and I love those guys. I'm also a regular contributor to the website Retroist. They let me submit whatever I want, which is great, and I have collaborations with authors like Daniel Th1rte3n. I did a teaser poster for Scorpio Film Releasing and their upcoming film "Murder University". I'll do the final one sheet when its time to. Similarly I composed a handful of teaser posters for horror director Dante Tomaselli's film "Torture Chamber". I have a massive secret project I've been working on for three weeks but I literally can't say anything about it. It comes out very soon though.

Thanks again to Hartter for answering my questions. Here are a few more of his fantastical pieces.

Interrogation: Justin Russell.

We have featured Justin Russell's Death Stop Holocaust and his upcoming, The Sleeper in Daily Poster posts.
I was attracted to his films through the amazing posters.
I was excited about his films through the super duper cool trailers.
Now, I will finally get to actually see one of Justin's films; on August 16th, Death Stop Holocaust will be slashing it's way to DVD. Pre-order your copy TODAY.
I asked Justin six questions and he was kind enough to answer.

1. It feels like you finished Death Stop Holocaust a long time ago. The DVD is set to be released August 16th. What has been going on with the film?
Distribution works in a lot of different ways. We spent a lot of time just trying to find a distributor for Death Stop. Once Media Blasters picked up the film, late last year, they did a pretty good job with the turnaround for DVD. It has felt like a long time for myself as well.

2. Both Death Stop Holocaust and your new feature, The Sleeper, have incredible posters. Can you talk about that process and who is creating these VHS box-worthy pieces of art?
My brother, Aaron Russell, is responsible for all the art for my features. Unfortunately his wonderful design for Death Stop was not used for the final box art. Aaron and I have always shared a similar vision with the horror genre, so when it came to the design we both put our heads together and come up with a concept. He always blows me away with his style and ability to create such great retro designs.

3. The Kickstarter for The Sleeper did not meet it's goal. How were you able to make The Sleeper? Did anyone that contributed on Kickstarter contact you outside the site, to help out?
Kickstarter was a way to grab some extra money for the production. The budget was already in place for the film, but I was hoping that Kickstarter could generate some extra funds. Unfortunately it didn't pan out, but I just went forward with the project anyway.

4. The poster is clearly a play on 80's slasher films and I saw on Facebook that you were collecting props from the 80's. However, the color grading and texture looks less stylized than I expected it to be in The Sleeper's trailer. Can you talk about your aesthetic choices with The Sleeper in terms of lighting, post effects, and color?
In reference to the style of the film, I wanted it to look as classic 80's as possible. If you look at all of the Slasher films of the 80's, they were all muted and desaturated. Death Stop Holocaust is a very vibrant and colorful movie. With The Sleeper, I made the aesthetic choice for a muted, dark/grainy look. It fits the winter/slasher feel perfectly in my opinion.

5. Can you talk a little bit about the crop of 1980's throwback films? It seems to have taken off from Tarantino and Rodriguez's 70's throwback, Grindhouse, continued, in theme, with the "80's in spirit" Hatchet, and masterfully done with House of the Devil. What's the allure?
I think the allure of 80's style films in the last 5 years is coming from a lack of good horror being generated by Hollywood. I have been a huge fan of all the retro films, Grindhouse, House of the Devil, Hobo with a Shotgun, etc. The style and feel of the films from the 80's is something that has been lost by horror filmmakers today. I think audiences are ready for this retro aesthetic. A lot of horror fans will tell you the golden age of horror was the late 70's through mid 80's. As a horror filmmaker, I just hope to recapture some of that magic that was lost so many years ago.

6. Where are you at with The Sleeper? Any touring plans for the film? Distribution?
The Sleeper is currently shopping for distribution and has been entered in a few festivals. I hope to have a deal locked with the film soon. I am eager to show this film to the fans and hear whether or not I was successful in taking you back to 1981.

Thanks so much to Justin for indulging me. Now, I can't wait to get my grubby mitts on a copy of Death Stop Holocaust on the 16th.



Poster courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

Interrogation: Tom Scioli.

 

I wrote a post regarding Tom Scioli's Seneschal last week and promptly emailed Tom regarding my enjoyment of said work. The Seneschal story he posted was reprinted from Popgun Volume 4. The story is ten pages and moves quickly. The art is crisp and detailed. The pallette is beautifully milky, with browns, greys, and yellows.
American Barbarian is his ongoing, post-apocolyptic, online, comic series. He updates pretty regularly and the story is action packed and fun.
I asked him six questions and he graciously replied:

1. I loved the 10-page Seneschal story you posted on the American Barbarian blog. The story is simple and the art is Kirbytastic. Can you tell me a little about the Seneschal character? 

He's from Aval-One, the kingdom of R-Thurr. He's the seneschal of R-Thurr's lands, which is usually a boring job, but occasionally it calls for him to settle strange disputes that pop up on the kingdom's borders on R-Thurr's behalf.

2. What is the future of Seneschal?

I created him at a time when I was very obsessed with the Arthurian legends. Although I'm still a fan, my interest in them has cooled somewhat, so I don't feel the need to do more stories. I've done three total. I also found it to be a fun character to work on because I had a god-like character in 8-Opus, and I wanted to tell some stories about a character who depends on his sword and his wits instead of vast cosmic power. Right now American Barbarian is scratching that creative itch. You never know, though. I might wake up tomorrow with a story in my head that can only be told in a futuristic Arthurian milieu.

3. What are your short and long term plans for American Barbarian? What is your fantasy as far as that character and universe?

I have a large story that I'd like to tell, that will be collected in one volume. After that I have plans for two sequels, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do those immediately after I finish this first book, or if I'll work on some other concept next. My main goal is to tell a really compelling and complete story that will be a perennial, always in print.

4. You've experimented a bit with the art in American Barbarian, can you talk about those decisions? The art seems to have gotten simpler lately, why?

Well it's not really simpler. The linework is less labored, but I'm actually doing more work than on previous books. This is the first ongoing series I'm doing that I'm also coloring. Since I'm coloring it myself, I felt like I could minimize the linework to let the coloring carry some of the weight in terms of rendering the characters.

5. Can you talk about the specific, artistic process for creating American Barbarian?

I work on varying sizes of paper, some of it very large. I draw the pencils in the morning, ink the rest of the day, then color at night. I don't like to work on the computer while it's light out, although sometimes that can't be helped. Occasionally I'll get out the watercolors and do a painted page. Usually I just work in a single tone (shades of blue) and then lay different colors over it on the computer.

6. What are you consuming, artistic-wise, lately?

 Lots of stuff. Kirby. I just re-read Cap's Bicentennial Battles. I've been reading old He-Man comics, with art by Bruce Timm or Alfredo Alcala. I'm following most of the wednesday comics fare, Marvel's current superhero books, the occasional DC book, stuff from Image and IDW. Mostly I follow particular artists or artist/writer combinations that I've found interesting.

A big thanks to Tom Scioli for his responses. I called his artwork "simple" and feel like a chump for it. I will be clearer in my questions. I was the one being "simple."

Tom's work is enjoyable to no end. The man took comic book legend Jack Kirby's specific style, tweaked it into his own, and made it into a style. He turned one man's art into a genre. He turned the King of Comics into a deity.

Also, thanks to Tom for the above, super-cool Seneschal pic.

Mas Healey.

 

I posted about the ultra-cool work by artist David Healey, a couple of weeks ago.
I asked David 6 questions and he was gracious enough to respond.
1. Were the 3.75" mash-ups one offs or did you mold them and make multiples?
the 3.75 mash-ups are one offs. I make them to order if asked. To remake them I remash the original toys. I've thought of casting but no need yet.
2. Any of your work for sale?
yes work is for sale I sell the resin stuff at toy Tokyo. I like the work to be not that available. I prefer people to get in touch with me and work it out that way.
3. Specifically, what paint do you use for your mash-ups?
paint? What paint? I use mostly acrylic and a bunch of time. Sorry That's as specific as I get.
4. What brand of resin do you use for your mash-ups?
I've been trying different stuff for different projects. There are still a bunch I haven't touched yet.
5. What work have you been doing more recently?
as for recent stuff. Painting some new one off sets. Making a bigger figure hopefully for nycc. And right now getting set for San Diego. Excited for a collaboration that came together recently for comiccon.
6. What artists are you into right now?
artists...I don't specifically follow any artist. I tend to be more inspired by different elements of design.

So, David is going to be at ComicCon this year. Swamp him and show him some love.
Here are a few more pics of his mash-ups.

John Waters interviewed.

Bullett Magazine posted this short (3:26) interview with John Waters.

What does "cult director" mean?

Real violence vs. fake violence.

Nothing in depth but John Waters is so very charming, I hang on his every word.

A sweeter version of death.

REFLECTIONS: KAWS "A sweeter version of death...". from MATT BLACK on Vimeo.

 

Really cool interview with KAWS.

The sound is simply horrible. KAWS is soft spoken, the room is huge and echo-y, and it sounds like the camera's onboard mic was used at fifteen feet away. If you can get past the terrible audio, this video is well worth your time.

Director, Matt Black is doing a series on NY artists, I hope he invests in a lavalier mic. before he continues the series. Pretty please!

 

Merzbow on Merzbient.

In October, 2010, Merzbow (Masami Akita) released Merzbient, a twelve CD boxset comprised of recordings made in the 1980's. The set was released by Soleilmoon and was limited to 555 copies.

Musique Machine published an interview they conducted with Masami Akita about Merzbient, the other day. The writer mistakenly calls the project "Merzbeint," but it is a fine interview, nonetheless.

m[m]Please tell us a bit about what has been done with the sets recording when they were transferred from tape to compact disc? Have the been remastered or cleared up in anyway or edited?
Masami All the tracks were original on 2 -4 track cassette tape. so, all material was remixed volume and EQ of each channels. Next I dubbed it to CD and then used audio editing software on the computer and cleared up and re-edited, but there was no overdubbed or effects added. The  materials is very close to the master recordings, because I wanted to keep the essence of the original recordings much as possible

m[m]Please give us a full list of what you used to create the tracks on the whole of the Merzbeint release?
Masami Various scrap metals, various metals/ tin box with piano wires, various percussion by small objects, paper, stone, woods, kitchen objects etc.
contact mics, audio mixer, motor, electric fan, gas stove, guitar, violin, thermin, various effects. etc. but no synthesizer.

 

HERE is the rest of the interview.

I haven't heard the whole set. I wouldn't absolutely chalk the work I have heard up as ambient, but it is smoother, much smoother, than other 1980's Merzbow recordings.

Masami Akita also stated in the interview that a 15 LP Merzient set would be released soon, with additional material.

A lot of old Merzbow fans grumbled when Merzbow moved away from the contact microphone and turned to the laptop computer for creating noise. Cool to hear some old, new analog recordings from the noise god.

HERE is the Soleilmoon site listing for Merzbow. Scroll down a bit to find Merzbient.

Here is the Merzbient cover and a sample of the project.

MerzbientSAMPLE.mp3 Listen on Posterous

(top photo by Rene Passet.)

Robert Crumb on....

If you care what Robert Crumb thinks, his website has posted Crumb's thoughts on various celebrities and well known folks. Read it HERE.

It's a funny read. Much more thoughtful and open than most Crumb interviews.

I couldn't agree more with his take on Bob Dylan:

"It used to irritate me in the mid-sixties when he was worshiped like a god. I thought that was really annoying. I thought his schtick with his whiney voice was really irritating."