MONSTER COMICS SURREAL ANIMATION
FLIES HOLES AND ROACHES ANIMATIONA MONSTER COMICS ANIMATION! An indistinguishably strange humanoid figure conducts a self inflicted invasive surgery only to discover the most unusual of internal organs. As it peels open it's own belly to ponder a peculiar stomach ache, the non-descript monstrosity discovers an entirely unexpected universe. Within the open wound a gathering of almost recognisable bodily components begin to dance around playfully to the beat of a pounding pulse. In an hallucinogenic frenzy the microscopic community morphs into an extraterrestrial ballet sharing both insight and messages of macrocosmic proportions. Shocked at it's findings the humanoid embodiment faints dizzily and falls to the floor. Fortunately the experience was meant as educational as opposed to fatal and the orifice incision safely sealed up on it's own.MAKING MONSTER CARTOONSIT'S WHATS INSIDE THAT COUNTS was one of several short monster comics animations made based of the Chapter 3 ink drawings entitled Flies, Holes and Roaches. The test films were all entirely hand drawn and originally shot as 16mm stop-motion film strips. Each of the short cartoons involved a minimum of one-hundred small drawings made with technical pens and large markers. I avoided using any loops or cell techniques in my initial animations in order to best test and develop the possibilities of the art form.
The most interesting aspect of the process involved the multiplicity of the images were by I experimented with animating several aspects of the character all at once. In the earlier exploration HEY APATHY! OF CIVILISED DISCONTENT, I primarily studied the motions of a single figure as the subject of the narration. For the Roach cartoons I put more emphasis on the process of moving numerous areas of the drawing simultaneously. This meant that I had to mentally keep track of copious amounts of minute movements for each of the stills especially in the case of any two or more objects passing each other. The result of this enhancement being the strange and intricately organic psychedelic effect displayed in the creatures chest cavity.
In each of my early animated investigations I used an entirely hand drawn stop motion technique. This means that each and every frame of the cartoons in fully rendered (usually about 2.5 x 3 inches) and absolutely no short cuts or computer generated assistance is involved. Of coarse the artworks are painstakingly tedious and time consuming to create but the process maintains a unique quality unobtainable by any other means. The stop-motion method permits a freedom and spontaneity particular to the dream like motion of these surreal vignettes. I also felt the technique was the most hands on method of familiarizing ones self with the media. The combination of man made and technologically driven artworks also presents itself as a major thematic signifier throughout the entire HEY APATHY! mythology. BACK TO CHAPTER 3 MONSTER COMICS
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