Smoll_BB SUNDAY

I found smol_bb on Zines Reddit when she uploaded her first batch of panels from her mini comic "CARDS" and then found her on Instagram shortly after. 

Contacted her about CARDS, asked if it would become a mini comic, and then suggested a zine swap (something I just had found out about and was trying to do with every zinester I liked since I had just released KYOOTI PIES). She agreed and a week later we ended up snail mailing some goodies. 

Her first package got lost in the mail, and the wait was hellish, but when the second package arrived all the anticipation exploded into happiness. I was so happy to be holding these things in my hands, as well as an Original Art Piece!!! (as seen above ^^^) So cool.

A quick breakdown of the Zines...

CARDS: I like History, Archaeology, and languages so this made me laugh a bit harder than someone else might. I've read so many things debunking 'Scientific' or 'Historical' facts left and right, new finds completely changing the way we view things, and even a Star Trek Voyager episode where they 'Re-Created' a Historical Scene from Data and it had all these inaccuracies. The difference is those were seen as Ancient sources, just like human history is to us, but the Aliens had Eradicated Humanity only 7 years ago and even with Human Museums they couldn't figure out what Humanity was like. Maybe all they found were memes. Anyways, you experience a 'Historian' go through a wacky Human Display onstage with a curator and man it looks so fun. Way better than Magic The Gathering I can tell you that. 

Affirmations For Your Monsters: Came for the Art, Stayed for the Truth. I agree with each point made. If you follow these simple States Of Being you will live better. You can reprogram your thoughts, take a new perspective on things. See how everything is and can be beneficial to you, and with a ripple to others. The courage to follow your dreams takes strength, but being patient with yourself when treading new territory takes even more. Change your life today, with help from a Monster!

Stars And Mud: Intense surreal nightmare sequence with heavy atmosphere draws you in immediately. But is that truly what it is? Do you believe what you see? Is what you see the reality of things? Trying not to spoil anything is difficult, even though this preview is exactly that. It is the prologue chapter a far longer work. It ends right where the story begins, hungry for more. Intense images but, just like I noticed with her other zines (and even artworks) there are layers of comedy, tragedy, and a mirror image of our own reality. I feel like it gains potency by allowing us to see ourselves but with a monster's mask, eliminating our defenses, to explore vulnerability and interpret the imagery deeper.

Siiiiiiiigned

Her creature that she draws just drew me in, fell in love with it, its just totally insane and whacked out of it's head looking. Do not be fooled by it's extreme visage, for it fits all types of situations and emotions, whether large or small, violent or loving. Just look at her Tarot Card artworks!

Now she isn't mainly or only a Zine maker, her main focus/talent seems to be with Painting. She has done small to very large pieces, been in art exhibitions, and even did a custom job on a motorcycle helmet! So if you're under the spell of her creatures you should grab something from her! A painting, a zine, or custom job you wont be disappointed!

If you would like to read an interview with her click HERE.

Another interview with her, done by me this time, will be featured on this blog very soon!

You can go view her Instagram HERE her TikTok HERE her Etsy HERE her Reddit HERE

Are you a Smol_BB fan as well? Do you own any of her originals or her zines? 

Tell me your story about how you met her, your favourite work of hers etc!

My Instagram HERE

Asking Artists Some Questions PART I

I've spoken to and met a handful of really cool artists over the years, so I figured why not ask them a few questions so others can get a real glimpse into what Being An Artist is instead of the typical 'Starving Artist' stereotype. This is PART I. Check back for PART II (when these slowpoke motherfuckers send me back answers).

"How has it been for you as an artist?"

Scalenepumpkins: I think overall things have been pretty good. Drawing has always been a passion for me, a way for me to express myself, be creative, a way to let my mind relax and roam free. I love just letting my mind drift and let my hand just draw whatever it wants. The best designs or ideas come out when im not thinking about it. As for crafting, I love building things and figuring out how props work and what theyre made of. I have come a long way in my crafting skills and while commission work can very stressful, it has helped me hone my skills, and I am very proud of everything ive made so far.

George Durbin III: Throughout the years it's been up and down for various of reasons. The positive is that I work primarily with bands though and through that i've gotten to work with some great people and help out a lot of my friends and even discover some bands I had never heard of and become a fan of. When I first started doing band artwork, i made these cheesy black and white horror themed posters for a lot of bands and would give them the design for free. That ultimately led to me getting paid work and a bit of recognition. 

Orange Zeppelin: Actually getting work is always tricky, since I’m competing with thousands of other people trying to do the same thing. That’s why it’s so important to develop a distinctive style that helps you stand out from the rest, people will want you if you stand out! But overall it’s always been a fun journey, I love making art and learning new things so it’s never hard to work up the motivation to practice. 

Tehlubs: I'm a hack...I don't what you mean 'artist' lol

"Your first Triumph?"

Scalenepumpkins: The first thing that comes to mind is when I made this Green Jello art project when I was in highschool, Bill Manspeaker saw it when I posted it on facebook and he made a whole post about it on his page! That was how he and I became friends, hes been an awesome friend to me ever since then. Super supportive. Its an honor when one of your idols loves your artwork.

George Durbin III: I'd say any artists first triumph is overcoming that insecurity of not being able to put a price tag on their artwork. This is still something i struggle with to this day and I get told a lot that i don't charge enough, but art is subjective and so for me that's hard to do. With that said though, that first time someone is willing to pay good money for a piece of your work is such a great feeling and helps make you feel more comfortable with charging for you work. 

Orange Zeppelin: One of the first commission jobs and to this day my biggest gigs was making a poster for a three-band tour featuring Metalachi, Okilly Dokilly, and Mac Sabbath. It ended up being a huge tour that went all over the nation and the design was featured heavily in all the promotion. I got the job from doing a ton of Metalachi fanart and befriending several band members. 

Tehlubs: Designing a beer label, and seeing it in stores. That was a bucket-list item.

"Your first Roadblock?"

Scalenepumpkins: I think my first roadblock was when I started doing commission work. Art has always been something I just did for myself, when I felt like it. So having to draw or craft something for another person, not getting to choose what i'm making, make it look as perfect as possible and all in a timely manner, was definitely difficult for me at first. It still is, I'm just more disciplined now. Some projects are definitely more fun than others though. But nothing will be better than doing art for myself.

George Durbin III: My first and pretty common roadblock is just simply not knowing what to do. Especially when you're on a time crunch. Often people will want me to work on a t-shirt or album cover and their only request is "Just do something in your style." When working for someone i like to know the narrative or inspiration for what they want because if i just go with my style, all you get is a weird face with a big tongue and funny eyeballs. 

Orange Zeppelin: I don’t think I’ve ever faced any really major roadblocks other than just the struggle of getting my work seen and trying to find an audience. Though I’ve had a few commissions completely implode on me, one of which was an album cover for a band dealing with in-fighting and miscommunication. I ended up getting dropped in favor of a different artist, but neither myself nor half of the band found out until the album was released with someone else's art on it!  

Tehlubs: Everyday overcoming myself. It sounds hella douchey, but it's true. I'm my own worst enemy.

"Is there a specific influence that has never 

lost it's charm and potency for you?"

Scalenepumpkins: GWAR will forever inspire me, I have such an intense feeling of inspiration every time I watch GWAR videos or movies, listen to their music, go to their shows, etc. Ive never felt such an intense love for a band ever in my life, not until I found GWAR. I dont even know how to describe the feeling. Its so many emotions, I feel inspired and happy, but I also get this feeling of adrenaline, its like a violent vicious love in a way hahahaha. There is so much that goes into GWAR that I absolutely love, its too much to get into here. I think another thing that has continuously inspired me would be MediEvil for ps1. That game is not only nostalgic for me, but it has such iconic characters, cool spooky themes, and overall is just a fun world to be in. I love that game so much.

George Durbin III: Ed Roth will always be a big inspiration to me. He sort of was before I even knew his name just bc Rat Fink is so popular and so many people rip off his style. When it comes to fancy art, im not a big fan of stuff that looks exactly like it should so I tend to appreciate Surrealism more and love Dali. I try to combine my love for the cartoonish style and surrealism when it comes to my more unique and original designs. 

Orange Zeppelin: The animated movie Heavy Metal was a huge influence for me when I first saw it years ago, when going back and re-watching it it’s every bit as cool as I remember it being. It’s a visually amazing movie that also doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is the sort of energy I want in my own comics. 

Tehlubs: Comic books. Music. Cartoons.

"How do you go about setting Art Goals?"

Scalenepumpkins: I try to write up short term and long term goals. But my notes are always very spastic and messy. But I always have a to do list for whatever my current project is, or I'll give myself a time frame to get a costume piece done. I have so many things I'm working on and it feels like I get nothing done unless i am seeing my progress. It helps to write everything down.

George Durbin III: I sort of don't. I'll get an idea and just sit on it for however long it takes for me to finally do it. I'm very impatient so i don't have any pieces that have taken me years or hundreds of hours, most of the time i sit around until i get that urge to work and then ill pump out a few paintings or crunch down on digital art that ive been wanting to do. When i work for someone i try to be more responsible time wise though.

Orange Zeppelin: When I get an idea for a project I write it down and then schedule time to work on it, even if it’s not a commission job with a timeline I like to set deadlines for myself. I also make a list at the beginning of every month of what I want to accomplish, and then a smaller list at the beginning of the week. Comics have to be planned out long-term since there’s so many parts of the process. 

Tehlubs: Survival, ego, or getting smacked in the head by something I want to draw.

"How do you work? Everyday? In Spurts?"

Scalenepumpkins: I work on something every day. I tend to switch between projects, commission work first, then later in the day ill do personal work.  I enjoy working every day, it feels good to make progress on all my projects, I also don't like staying stagnant for too long . I like to keep busy. But I do tend to go overboard and burn myself out pretty often.

George Durbin III: Definitely in spurts. I haven't painted in months and my digital work has fallen to the side as well. There will be a week or two here and there where im on the computer every night. 

Orange Zeppelin: Inspiration often comes to me all at once and I’ll get really motivated to work on a lot of things at once, but I do work on something every single day, even if it’s just a practice drawing. My goal is to always keep improving at what I do. 

Tehlubs: I make shitty doodles everyday...but big stuff in spurts for sure.

"How many different mediums 

have you tried so far?"

Scalenepumpkins: Uhhhh lets see.... Pencils, Charcoal, Paint,  and since I mostly use ink I've tried different kinds, Pen & Ink, Zebra Pens (my current favorite), Microns, used to use thin Sharpies in the past.

And for crafting.... EVA foam, Upholstery Foam, Latex, Plasti Dip, Faux Hair, Faux Fur, Fabrics of all different kinds. Theres probably more that I'm forgetting.

George Durbin III: Mostly digital and acrylic on canvas. I love to doodle with pens and play with shading and stuff with the inks, but i've never done that as an actual art piece. Maybe someday. Some little crafty things here and there but nothing notable. After seeing that Mr. Doodle guy online, i have been thinking about using that paint pens and canvas and doing my desk doodle but on a larger scale like he does but im not sure if it will translate well. 

Orange Zeppelin: All of them! It would almost be easier to list what I haven’t done. I’ve used all kinds of paint, lots of pens and markers, graphite, colored pencil, paper mache, and even some bronzecasting in college. I also work digitally for some comics but I prefer traditional way more. 

Tehlubs: I'm try-sexual. I'll try anything once.

"What is something you struggle with or never have been able to get the hang of?"

Scalenepumpkins: I've always struggled with painting. I hate painting because i have to work really hard to do a decent paint job since I'm kind of stumbling in the dark with it. For crafting, I struggle with altering existing patterns/making patterns in general. It takes me a lot longer than it should to make a final pattern.

George Durbin III: Lighting isn't my best feature and I can not highlight to save my life so i just make things darker in areas to make it work.

Orange Zeppelin: I’ve never been good at self-promotion, it’s something I’m really actively trying to improve in the last year. I spend too much of my art-making life not actively promoting myself and trying to network with other artists so my audience has stayed small, but I’ve noticed a lot more growth and exposure recently. 

Tehlubs: I suck fat donkey dicks face painting...don't ask me to face paint at your shitty picnic...

"What was your first Art Sale?"

Scalenepumpkins: I can't remember exactly, but it was most likely some GWAR related art that I sold to some random bohab. I remember thats where my art sales started, was within the GWAR community.

George Durbin III: I knew an elderly gentleman named Bill who had one eye. Dude was a character and a lot of fun to be around. One day he opened a store called "One Eyed Willy's Antiques", or something along those lines, and he paid me to drawing him a mountaineer style man with an eye patch.

Orange Zeppelin: I think I might have done a sketch of Johnny Depp in exchange for some gummy snacks back in the 9th grade! 

Tehlubs: Pretty sure it was a logo for a company that is no longer in business, that was tight. It came at the right time and was a course correction.

"Who are your favourite artists right now?"

Scalenepumpkins: As for crafters, I really love instagram artists like WillowCreative, Kazplay, MaggotGrace, CavitySam, all artists who make excellent costumes and show their progress, I've learned so much from studying all of their work. There's also RadulaCastion who makes puppet masks, that have really cool movements like eye blink, lip snarl, eyebrow movements, etc. All done with pulleys that you attach to your fingers. Their work is absolutely incredible.

George Durbin III: The Art Of Skinner. It's all fantasy and monsters with amazing linework and colors. 
Ghoulish Gary. In my opinion, the dude makes the best horror movie posters to date. 
Terry Ifern Owens. He's been on and off instagram so his work is a little hard to find, but his style is unique and really amazing. He does a lot of black and white pieces with gold highlights that just pop.
I love tattoo art and some of my favorites are Badfellow Tattoos in Fort Lauderdale Florida, Almagro Tattooer from Madrid, Jeremy Askew from Diamond Thieves in Asheville NC. 
I follow this weird artist that always makes me laugh too called Weaselfaceart. It's all skateboard stuff with dicks and tits and its awesome. 

Orange Zeppelin: I love Simon Bisley and how powerful and striking his art is. He’s who I would most like to emulate when painting and drawing.

Tehlubs: Jean Giraud, Alex Ziritt, Andrew MacLean, Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer, Mike Giant, and Skinner.

"If you've worked conventions/events/art faires which were your favourite ones so far?"

Scalenepumpkins: I haven't sold much of my own work at events until recently, I sold some of my eyeball props at Punk Rock Flea Market while I was with RonDee Puppets. I sold all 16 of the eyeballs I had. I was super proud of myself that day. The people loved them!!! It made me so happy. I didn't think they were gonna sell out like that.

George Durbin III: I've not worked anything.

Orange Zeppelin: The one time I’ve had a table at an event was the 2019 Mid-State Metal Fest in San Luis Obispo. The event was ran by the creators of the now-defunct Hail Yourself metalzine, which I did a comic strip for. It was a great experience, though I was at the time recovering from a bad case of scabies and spent the whole day wanting to tear my own limbs off.

Tehlubs: I have not worked any conventions/events, but I probably should.

"Have you met, spoken to, or 

befriended any of your idols/heroes?"

Scalenepumpkins: I've gotten to meet some of the guys in GWAR, but specifically Matt Maguire. I always love chatting with Matt after shows, He and I will talk about different crafting techniques and materials and Im totally in my element whenever we have a conversation. I absolutely love it. I've gotten to also meet people like Bill Manspeaker from Green Jello, he is the sweetest person ever. Seriously. He gave me a huge hug at one show, and said to me "never stop doing what you do." And I nearly cried. It was just so genuine. You had to be there!

George Durbin III: Music Yes, Art No.

Orange Zeppelin: Frank Frazetta’s ghost once showed up in a dream, revealed some great secret to me, and then left. I’m still trying to remember what the secret was!

Tehlubs: I've spoken with Skinner a few times, he's a dope human.

"Any final words to new and upcoming artists about to enter the Hellscape that we exist within?"

Scalenepumpkins: DO ART!!!!!!!!!!!!

George Durbin III: Get a job, you bum.

 Orange Zeppelin: Never give up, and never stop having fun!

Tehlubs: GTFO noobs. Jk, try to be nice to people. Love is the best policy. Don't litter. Call your mom.

PART II COMING SOON!!!!!

Tehlubs For The Ones I Love

The Aptly Named Sir Not Appearing In This Colouring Book

Making zines for yourself is always fun, selling and trading them is even better, but when you make a Zine (if I can even call it that!) for family members it becomes a whole new level of art. And this isn't just a zine, it is a Colouring Book! Who doesn't love interactive books? I know I always did as a kid and even nowadays as an adult. 

Tehlubs is an Artist who I discovered (or he discovered me) on Instagram and right away we bonded over Naked Men With Weapons and how cool zines are. I was sending out zines of mine for free, and he came in around the time Dying Race was released and I was trying to get reviews from people in exchange for a free set of them. He instead just bought it. He was the first person to ignore the Free Route. Mad respect for that! 

Anywho, I was (and still am) into Zine Swapping ever since I saw a few posts on reddit and especially Crash's Zine Swap. He said he wanted to make a zine, didn't, BUT blew my mind when he told me he made a Colouring Book for his siblings, warned me some of the designs are child friendly compared to his Usual Fare. He whipped one together for me and mailed it out soon after. We (scalenepumpkins and I) sent him as many zines as we had at that time which included Kriegshund Chaos #1, Kyooti Pies, Dying Race, I think I had a copy of the Corpse Carter vs Beefus zine and the Kriegshund Chaos button pack which his boy ended up taking a big liking to and now wears them on his school backpack. Yes. Children just ADORE undead dogs!

Below are just a handful of pages from the book with some editing to keep identities concealed. 

Have you ever made anything cool for your family or friends on this level? 

If so hit me up on INSTAGRAM and let me know all about it! 

I am very interested in hearing about cool shit people make!

Toot Toot

Halloween Haunted House Walkthrough (VIDEO)

For a number of years now we've been participating in our friend Kevin's Haunted House setup as 'Scare Actors' or rather 'Candy Distributors' since no one is afraid of a dog with rotten teeth and a fat guy with greasy hair. 

Porch Setup 2022

Our first time was in 2017 when he only had his Porch setup as a Walk In of maybe 15 or so feet up to his Satanic Tombstones, Huge Vampire, Stone walls with Pentagram flag behind him. The whole thing blacked out with thick Black Plastic on every wall so you didn't see much as you waited in line to come up the short staircase. Some kids would be far too afraid to go up, start crying and I would hear their parents trying their hardest to convince them to go. Some kids, like most kids nowadays, are completely immune and run right up to you for the glorious FULL BARS that we give out. 

The 2017 Porch Setup

I think we did two years with that setup before his normal job working as a Real Scare Actor at the NIGHT OF TERROR Haunt started landing on Halloween. This was a bummer because it was only supposed to be 2 years off, and of course Covid happened and everything just crumbled. And by crumbled I mean literally half of the setup Dry Rotted beyond repair!

Night Of Terror Crew Kevin In Middle Bottom

Kevin Figured for his comeback he needed to up the stakes and decided the entire First Floor of his house was going to become a Haunted House with a 4 Room Walkthrough. You start by going up 5 stairs to enter the Porch with the original setup of Pentagram flag and tombstones. You then enter his Front Door and go into the Living Room which is now turned into the Dungeon which had a zombie on a torture rack where you dig into his guts to grab candy bars. Then you went into the Dining Room where floating neon skeletons jutted out from the wall, usually grabbing/getting caught on costume pieces as you walked by. And finally you entered the Kitchen where there was a bunch of limbs, a skeleton, and an actor (I was in the kitchen for the comeback year). And once leaving you had haystacks with our carved pumpkins leading you to the path back to the street alongside a graveyard.

I don't have any photos from that year's setup so here is his X-Mas tree instead

During This year's version we had a few changes/add-ons. Kevin as a Pumpkin Demon took the helm in the Porch area. Now in the Torture Dungeon (MÖKA's Room) there was a Huge Throne and the rack was moved to one side. The Dining room (where I was this year) no longer has the jutting skeletons but has a Hall Of Heroes type feeling with costumed mannequins peering through castle-stone arched windows and an 8 foot skeleton holding the candy bowl. I was dressed in all black with a stahlhelm and chains across my chest and had a loose chain to whip the floor with. The kitchen now houses a screaming lady animatronic and body parts (and tons of red food dye.....I mean Blood).

You can see a Walk Through of Kevin's 2022 House below:

Each Halloween we get some new people, we get some people who have been coming since he started. His neighbours seem to really only know him for his Halloween attraction, which is hard to miss as 3 hours of Metal and Horror Movie soundtracks blast, animatronics talk at you, and a monster gives you candy. The rest of the surrounding neighbourhood barely sets up anything besides an inflatable or two and some x-mas light looking stuff on their porch railings. Luckily this year, only 2 houses down, we met a family who had only moved in 6 months ago and were ready to Go Big Or Go Home with a Halloween party this year. So we both checked out eachother's houses and made friends.

I think I may have to do a post just on Kevin and our Adventures with him, his talents, and his all around addiction to all things Halloween!

Kevin giving Kevin a 100 Grand Bar

The Pumpkin Patch

Ever work a convention/event before? You'll notice most people balk at the prices if its above $1. It can be hard for a business who just laid down probably upwards of $50 or $150 just for the table (forgetting the gas at $6 a gallon to get to the event!) trying to break even and possibly pay their employees.

We (The RonDee Puppets Team!) had been trying to figure out a good $5 item as an option in between Peepers, Magic Worms, and Furry Pens being the $1 items and the actual puppets Bits ($3, magnets $4), Minis ($12), and Big Boys ($55) being our price range. We went through about 10 ideas that ended up being far too time consuming or ambitious for a $5 sale price, even if they were as simple as we could make them. It still required too much material or effort. 

At random I thought about doing my own version of Emoticons for 1.25 inch buttons (we own a pressing machine for that size) and since it was October I thought I would also make some Cardstock Cut Out Pumpkins which I drew up in a few days. Maddy ended up drawing a whole bunch of cute faces for the buttons as well, and I edited my full pumpkin drawings down to simple circles and took the bumps and groove lineart away and viola~ Buttons! 

The whole plan was to sell them at the booth, first we figured we would just put them in a bowl and have a sign that says BUTTONS 50 CENTS EACH!!! and see how people reacted to something under a Dollar. Unfortunately we immediately got sick right after Weird Odd Fest in Kensington and it lasted two weeks, we missed 2 events. 

In Conclusion: If you ever get stuck for ideas, still write them down and mess about. You never know what is going to come out of just random doodling. I was able to get two products out from a single set of drawings which I will call a Success! I always enjoy being able to multipurpose my artwork.