MONSTER COMICS SURREAL DRAWINGS p. 2

MONSTER COMICS AUTEUR THEORY

FLIES HOLES & ROACHES Monster Comics and Ink Drawings 2002

The entire collection of “HEY APATHY!” comics and ink drawings, reveals a simultaneously sociological and autobiographical examination of the metropolis, the monsters and worst of all, people. With each new artistic investigation both the my drawings and self have become increasingly immersed in public affairs. The “FLIES, HOLES & ROACHES” monster comics exploration was no exception, as the humanoid depictions were inspired by my physical re-location downtown, and subsequent re-examination of the subject from an entirely new vantage. Although still crude and cryptic, a distinct co-relation between the level of intricacy in the comics, drawings and my tangible investigation into the city was already apparent in these early ink scribbled monsters. Having left the seclusion of my parents suburban home, I opened up a small basement live-in studio in Kensington Market, and shortly thereafter began researching, creating and exhibiting the artworks persistently in public venues. I completed my first large scale mosnter comics public showing at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition 2002. It was the combination of my new situation downtown and my first “unconventional interview” at the T.O.A.E., which compelled the creation of the "ROACH MONSTERS” as well as the monster comics multi-media presentation techniques that I used to present them.

THE BASEMENT STUDIO

As both an artist interested in the mechanics of the metropolis and a young introvert in search of socialization, it became a dubious necessity to relocate to the big city. Oddly enough, despite my strategically calculated attempts to control the advancement of my scientific monster comics investigation, the experience proved as mystically coincidental as it did overwhelming. With the aid of my extremely supportive parents, I managed to locate and acquire a large & affordable basement studio, not unlike the one I had back in Scarborough . The new studio was, of coarse, a sort of a pint-sized metropolitan doppelganger of my home only buried under stacks of the indistinguishably inhabited compartments of other city dwellers. Instead of an entire ping-ping table drawing board ( a large childhood game table I had since starting using to create large artworks on) , I was only able to fit one half of the surface in the new studio without relocating by bed and few possessions. The height of the ceiling was the same, and although less than a third of the square footage of my parents basement, the entire studio was very similar in size to my actual working area in the old homestead. In Scarborough I had designated a working & entertainment “room” by sectioning an area of the basement off with coaches. Here I stored all my small ink drawings & tools, my library of monster comics, books, films, and music and subsequently spent most of my time. Behind the coaches lay sprawled out numerous large artworks, my ping-pong drawing-table and an abundance of supplies. The new studio in it’s entirety was barely equal in size to my old sectioned sitting area and had very little storage space crammed in the back. However the likeness in shape and sensation was absolutely uncanny. The entire experience seemed quite natural, and I felt very comfortable trading the luxuries of home for the monster cockroaches and surreal transit grumbles of my new studio.

A NEW GEOGRAPHY

The bizarre sensation of my experience extended beyond the mere familiarity of my new studio. Although I had been travelling frequently to and from the city since I was quite young, I had absolutely no real sense of the metropolis’ geography. In my mind, I had compartmentalized various areas of the city according to the specific intent of my visitations. For example, I knew how to get to the Art College and A.G.O. from a class trip and some friends in high school, and I also new how to get to the Silver Snail in order to purchase comic books , and I had also been to the legendary Kensington Market, an artistic and fashionably old fashioned little oasis of creativity in Toronto. However when I moved into my new studio, on the corner of Dundas & Spadina, I had no idea how close in proximity each of these places actually was. In a matter of extended strolls, the entire metropolis decreased in size and mapped itself out as an organized and accessible web of concrete wonders. Within fifteen minutes of my home, I found almost all of the locations I had visited, yet never understood in my previous travels. The most striking discovery came to me a few days into stay downtown when I decided to walk North from the studio for the first time. It took about 30 seconds before I looked up and saw the cafes, fashions, and restaurants. A saxophone player started howling on the corner, and the hilarity of the situation finally dawned on me. Although my apartment was advertised as Dundas & Spadina, I was actually standing in the miniature and mythological marketplace known as Kensington. Infamous for it’s hip, creative, musical, party, and community oriented atmosphere, I had been to, an often imagined living in the Market. It was a place for the creative intellectual, Toronto’s two & half block answer to Williamsburg, and without even realising it, and me and my monster comics had just moved in.

WALKING THE BIG CITY

Walking the big city was already a common part of my observatory artistic practices, however the experience was transformed in many ways by my relocation downtown. Aside from my new found understanding of the geography, I was also able to access the landscape in previously unimagined capacities. For the first time I could easily explore all areas of the city and at any hour. My previous ink stained monster comics investigations were dictated by study and transit schedules which were no longer applicable. At first I started strolling the streets with a bag full of large markers and headphones, observing the proceedings to my imaginary soundtrack, and marking off the travelled roadways with hundreds of tiny “falling people” tags. The image was a simple bubble character derivative of my earlier ink drawings , “HEY APATHY! & THE APOCALYPSE" . I was amazed at how quickly I was able to move through the city, and with the great abundance of symbols I was able to produce. Inspired by the new found accessibility and increasingly intimate nature of my observations I started work on the third chapter of my monster myth, “FLIES,HOLES, & ROACHES.”

TORONTO'S MONSTER GARBAGE STRIKE

At this time the city of Toronto, like the monster comics, was undergoing a slow and hideous metamorphosis; our public garbage collectors had chosen to strike. Waste, news papers, cigarette butts and indescribable entities began piling up curb-side and slowly, and the city parks became inevitably uninhabitable. As a result of my first hand explorations of the transformation, the monster comics ink drawings, derivative of the distanced bubble people, presented an up-close and horrific description of the faceless denizens. Each figure, although despairingly mutated, like a picnic table in a garbage strike, bore unique features representing the individual‘s struggle amidst the conformity. As I got closer to the people, and the spent more time observing the streets, the city and it’s inhabitants grew increasingly identifiable. For the first time in the monster comics mythology, some of the creatures appeared as individual characters.

DEVELOPING PUBLIC ARTWORKS AND MONSTER COMICS MURALS

Simultaneous with the thematic restructuring, connecting and progressing previous symbols and ideologies, the technical development of the “ROACH” drawings was also heavily influenced by my new experiences in the city. Similar to the metropolis’ makeover and compelled by my ability to post public artworks, I began to developed this series of monster comics as single panel strips, intended as “paste ups” to be presented on various telephone poles, hoardings, and other public forums. However as the I refined the drawings and simplified the designs, I decided to abandon the photocopy project and purchased a few gallons of acrylic house paint instead. The images were quick and easy enough to reproduce that I decided to try my hand at some unsanctioned wall murals. I realized that my previous experiment of walking the streets with only markers, was partly born of my habitual necessity to travel lightly as I had always had a long commute to deal with. However, living in Kensington Market, this factor was no longer of any consequence. The new studio permitted me to move about the city fully equipped and I started practicing the monster comic Roach Murals in destitute alleyways and over offensive curse word graffiti. On average I could produce about 3-5 of these murals each night , and eventually created a 10 X 200 foot, long installation in two night. Again the extended mural was painted on temporary construction walls, even back in those guerrilla days, I never destroyed or defaced any one’s home or livelihood.

WELCOME TO THE CITY OF GEARS!

As a result of my relocation to the big city, I was able to progress my ink drawings both thematically, and technically, extending my language to include public murals and new hypothesis’ for experimentation. The city became instantly more accessible and identifiable, and I was able to instigate public interventions that would have otherwise been impossible. Thus the first steps in the development of my monster comics public processes had proven early theories regarding social immersion, successfully initiating my “dialogue with the city”.

MONSTER COMICS INFLUENCES AND INSPIRATIONS

ILLUSTRATIONS & INK DRAWINGS

In the winter-spring of 2002, while creating the “Roach” monster comics and ink drawings, I was primarily studying film and practicing animation. However it only took me a few minutes of research in my private library to rediscover the comic books and Manga that I was reading during that period. I had almost given up collecting books, as one often does when they have to start paying their own rent and sustenance, but was fortunate enough to purchase a few graphic novels at the Toronto Comic Book Convention. I rented a couple of tables in the independent artist’s section and sold a tonne of " MONSTER ” and “ROACH” ink drawings. Using a small portion of the rewards I purchased about 20 old E.C. horror comics, anything under $2, and bought myself a collected edition of the first volume of “GHOST IN THE SHELL” comics by Masamune Shirow. Both of these collections have inspired , influenced, and in the case of Shirow, even frustrated, me. (DAMN THAT GUY KNOW HOW TO DRAW!) The purchase and indulgent acquisition of the E.C. books was also likely influential as the “ROACH” scribbles presented a unique, yet derivative, “cartoon-horror” style aesthetic.

INUIT DRAWINGS & PRINTS

Under the instruction of professor Viktor Tinkl, at the Ontario College of Art & Design, I developed a keen interest in the amazing artworks of my Inuit Canadian cousins. As a young teacher, Viktor had travelled to the great Canadian North to share his knowledge of print making with native artists and communities. I found this intriguing because to the best of my knowledge the Inuit were master printmakers, when in fact it was only fairly recently that city folk introduced the technique as a means of marketing the Inuit drawings. In Viktor’s case the mass production proved extremely beneficial to the all participants both spiritually and fiscally. I was fortunate enough to hear Viktor’s first hand accounts of the amazing people and experiences he shared while travelling North. His described a people of entirely different social and spiritual values, who operated on a completely contradictory, yet wholly logical, set of values to our own. The freedom of individuality and the strength of the community combined with deep rooted connection to the environment and nature he spoke of in his stories was also apparent in the artworks he brought as examples. The drawings ranged from crude to intelligent and disregarded any standard notion of perspective or composition. All of the images, likened to that of a child or otherwise, told a masterfully and indescribably overwhelming story! In each of the artworks, an entire world of mystical imagination and simplistic representation induced an indescribable sensation and understanding unlike any other I have ever experienced. The universally unspoken narratives and technical simplicity of the Inuit drawings were the primary aesthetic influence on the “FLIES, HOLES, & ROACH” monster comics and ink drawings. Sort of a re-visitation of traditional Canadian Art by an unconventional Canuck living in the Southern most peak of our great northern country.

FILM MONSTERS

Once again I can recall my past influences quite easily by tracing the purchases in my secret library. At the time of the “ROACH” ink drawings I only acquired a few simple artefacts from the 2002 Toronto Comic Convention . As well as the E.C. comics and Shirow book, I also bought two David Lynch surreal monster movie T-Shirts and a copy of Dario Argento’s Phenomenon. These subliminally bizarre and horrifically beautiful directors have influenced and inspired my aesthetic and narrative techniques on numerous occasions. In particular Lynch’s “ERASERHEAD” was a major aspiration in the development of the “ROACH” ink drawings. Two of the three DOWN art comics produced at this time were basically ink drawn scripts for short animated parables, and “EAT” was actually filmed as a really creepy live-action, black & white, stop-motion animation. I also transcribed several of the ink drawings as brief animations but have yet to develop any of the actual narrations. Although heavily influenced by the unbelievably incredible masterpieces of Lynch & Argento, my artistic intent differed drastically from theirs as my goal has always been to create monsters and artworks that are at times frightening, but still accessible to younger audiences.

MUSIC

As part of my practice , I created all the “FLIES,HOLES & ROACHES!” artworks while listening to music. I would wear headphones, a habit I have since dismissed, while painting the wall murals around Toronto at night. I can remember some of my new-found favourites included the Sid Barrett Pink Floyd recordings, and some computer generated dub music. I also recall revisiting a lot of the heavier & weird rock stuff I brought with me from my Scarborough High-school days, including Tool, Primus, Slint , and the always present selection in my eclectic collection, Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”. Although I spent many wasted hours in record shops, sampling the latest releases in almost every genre, not a single modern instrumentation could part me from my limited financial resources.

A DIALOGUE WITH THE CITY

Through a symbiosis of my personal experiences moving to the big city , my artistic intentions, and influences, I initiated some of the most aggressive statements in my ongoing “Dialogue with the City“. My physical immersion into the heart of the metropolis incited new revelations regarding both my ink stained narrations and means of public presentation. The “FLIES HOLES & ROACHES” monster drawings were able to express innovative ideological explorations as well as producing a visual language suitable for reproduction and large scale public displays. According to Canadian Artist and O.C.A.D. instructor John Scott, the large public Roach mural running along Toronto‘s Grange Park had “transformed the city” . The inclusion of alternative comic books at the T.O.A.E. also permitted me to distribute the artworks on a mass scale, primarily to people who had recognized the larger collection of murals from all around the city, and to discuss first hand, the concerns of the cartoons with a large scale audience.. Having developed, presented, and analyzed the drawings publicly, it became obvious that the “ROACH” ink drawings had indeed initiated some sort of conversation with the big city. BACK TO MONSTER COMICS CHAPTER 3

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