As of now I'm working on a book titled "Hob Bob" which is going to be between 600 - 1,000 pages. The story concerns a magician named "Hob" who is framed for murder by his evil twin magician/wizard brother "Zob Bob" who has him executed in order to steal a strange collection of eggs that he transforms into a horde of monsters to destroy the world. Hob is decapitated and his body escapes into the wilderness. The book revolves around the weird adventures Hob's decapitated body, his head and Zob Bob get into. While I'm keeping the story simple and without words, it's more an excuse to show off an incredibly detailed fantasy world and all the strange inhabitants that exist in it. This sketch shows Hob's headless body wandering over a rock formation as a tribe of creatures that resemble giant paint brushes pass along the ground below.
I have another book project titled "The Land Of The Moth" which is entirely made of digital collages. Some of the heavier influences are Joel Peter Witkin's photography, the writings of Lewis Carrol and the digital works of Alessandro Bavari. It's to be a sort of dark fairy tale for adults made up of large black and white digital illustrations. It's a fantasy world focused on death/horror and the fantastic. You can see some older examples here.
Those are my two favorite projects that mean the most to me. Beyond those I have dozens of other smaller projects. I'm doing a book of 1,000 monsters that has been really fun. I've got some drawing and painting series that I'm planning out. One series will be the architectural insides of surreal haunted houses. I did drawings like this as a child, none of which I still have. As an example of my obsession with the strange and monstrous, click here here and here to see drawings I made somewhere around the age of 7 or 8.
Anyway, I love horror films. I've watched Return Of The Living Dead at least 50 times. I have somewhere around 1,200 horror films either on dvd, tape or downloaded copies of. Check out Tracker 3, really good collection of weird movies for download on there.
Fiend Wihout A Face is but one of the awesome movies on there. I'm a huge fan of unusual animation. Fantastic Planet is one of my favorite films. I love about anything that's stop motion. I dig videogames but have a difficult time staying focused on them. I think that "Shadow Of The Colossus"is the greatest work of art of the last year. I have a weird approach to games, as an example I recently picked up a two dollar trial for World of Warcraft just so that I can roam around the weird dungeons to take screenshots for reference material in my comics.
I love fantastic art but regret that certain types of artists that consider themselves "visionary" have polluted the scene. Photoshop filters that discolor your hair doesn't make your work "fantastic"!! I love fantasy art but hate the way it's infected with thousands of horrible artists obsessed with painting lord of the rings fan art, generic unicorns and dragons. I try to extract some of the best art of the fantastic and creature ridden in my art blog "Monster Brains".
As far as music, I listen to thousands of bands. I'm mostly into electronic, indie rock, 80's and soundtracks. I'm a big fan of Sigur Ros, The Knife, Broadcast, The Flaming Lips, Boards of Canada, Wendy Carlos, David Bowie, Electric Light Orchestra.
Check this track out by Joakim, good example of what I like in music, electronics and rock.
That's about it from me, here's a pic of my intoxicated mug. I'm the dude in the middle sportin the "city of lost children" tshirt.
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