“THE BEST COMICS ARTIST IN ALL OF NORTH AMERICA ON THE TOPIC OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.” -ROBERT CRUMB
The Weakly Dispatch series came into being pre-plague 2020 after friends kept nagging me to go back to autobio, so I kicked it off by celebrating charges being dropped on a garbage infraction & hoped to continue with more lighthearted fare. No such luck! Episode 2 was written the day before Quebec announced its first Covid case. Then came lockdown & Covid hijacked the strip since that’s all that was on my cooped-up mind 24/7 just like everyone else. But it isn’t just about the pandumbic! It’s also about (self)cancel-culture, beating off, gentrification, social upheaval, Spam™ (the luncheon meat), cartoonist eulogies, “pinkwashing,” crappy landlords, arrested development, dystopian speculative sci-fi, noisy neighbours, cockroaches, “Karens,” stunted musicians, gated communities, teeth grinding, & of course vaccines. After several of which, by late-2021, exasperated & inoculated, I swore I’d never draw another instalment until Covid was outta the picture. As we all know, the plague’s still very much with us as of this date, so that spelled the end of its run. At least for now, that is. 144 full colour pages from Conundrum Press! Includes a foldout map & a very unusual intro by one of the most influential cartoonists in the world; Robert Crumb! Sample panels below!
Official Montreal launch/signing in booth B23 @ MCAF (Montreal Comics Arts Festival) on St-Denis between Gilford & Roy, May 27, 5-7pm, May 28, 2-3pm, & May 29, 3-4pm.
Additional Montreal signing at the Drawn & Quarterly store June 14 at 3 PM (211 Bernard Ouest).
Official Toronto launch/signing at the Conundrum Press table @ TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival) June 18 from 4 to 5 PM & June 19 from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM.
“Highly entertaining reading” -ROBERT CRUMB
“Pandemic didn’t hamper my year-round biking, in fact I was more than happy to dodge all that human condensation, public transpo or not!”
“Lockdown got me fantasizing an alternate reality not only where I interacted with people again, but where I actually ran a successful biz!”
“US Capitol insurrection had me pondering the ivory tower elitism of pre-internet DIY zine culture versus the democratization of FB cat vidz!”
“My 2021 PPE summer vacay consisted of sneaking into the nearest gated community for some peace & quiet & skeeving out the locals!”
“Occupational hazards of cheap rent include rescuing children from abusive drunks hollering at the fam in the wee hours!”
“When I sent him this pic of me for shits & giggles he INSISTED I use it as the back cover! Your wish is my command, Crumbski!”
This freaks me out! A million years ago my dream was to release our tunes on vinyl. It took 4 decades but thanks to Celluloid Lunch Records, The D-Vices finally have a brand new physical 45 for sale taken from their original 1980 demo! This is the earliest version of the band I’m currently in that’s been active ever since then, The American Devices. It features founder Phil Nolin on guitar/vocals who left in 1980, hence the name change, & it sounds way different than our present lineup. Some context: My first 70’s punk band The Electric Vomit had just broken up & Phil wanted to start a new band so he recruited me on bass. Vomit drummer Guy Lapointe also joined up. Is it New Wave? Is it No Wave? (PS: I’m the one with the vibrator in my coat pocket). Free listens, more background info, & deets on how to purchase digital & physical versions at the Bandcamp page HERE
In this second animated episode of MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY BLABCO, I deconstruct one of my autobiographical comix from my Conundrum Press book REPRESENTED IMMOBILIZED! I’ll be @ the Conundrum Press table briefly, noon this Saturday, November 20, 2021 to sign copies @ the official Expozine Montreal book launch @ S.A.T. (1201 Saint-Laurent)! Come say hi! Click HERE or on the screencap below to watch!
In the mid-90’s, I had recently become roommates with Archive Montreal founder Louis Rastelli, who was just starting up his Montreal DIY zine Fish Piss, & he needed content so I began the series REPRESENTED IMMOBILIZED for him. It was after a midnight move away from my crumbling apartment down the street & I had to store most of my belongings in my parents’ basement where I grew up as I was looking for a new place. While gradually bringing all my childhood belongings back into my new digs, it started triggering memories from my past. Worried about them smudging from memory as time wore on, I took the opportunity to document them as a series of cartoons. Conundrum Press has just released the complete collection of these strips! And as a bonus, included within these pages is my 2015 one-shot mini-comic ONE MINUTE WORRIES, all about trying to make it through a whole month broke on just pennies. The book also boasts an extensive three-page intro by CanLit royalty Heather O’Neill. Sample pages & purchasing info HERE
Come interact with me about my new book during a live Zoom session affiliated with TCAF (the Toronto Comic Arts Festival) on May 9. I’ll be joined by Conundrum cartoonist & drummer for my band The American Devices, Howard Chackowicz, plus cartoonist David Collier & the subject of his latest Conundrum book, legendary Toronto first-wave punk promoter Gary Topp. Info HERE
Also; RSVP via Facebook the official Strange Adventures bookstore launch where I’ll be doing a one-hour interactive Show-&-Tell live on Instagram May 12 HERE
This year (& month) marks the 40th anniversary of the world’s most favourite Canadian band THE AMERICAN DEVICES. We had new songs we wanted to unveil & planned to do some live shows to celebrate, but then you-know-what hit the globe. Well, I’ll be damned if we’re gonna come up empty-handed for this momentous event so I commissioned 100 of these limited edition jewel-like die-struck sandblasted lapel pins with antique finish & butterfly clip to celebrate! For only 10 bucks (postage included) I’ll ship you a pin in a zip-lock baggie with an official signed & numbered Certificate of Authenticity, plus a signed, hand-drawn cartoon rendition of the band by yours truly! And if anyone in my Montreal vicinity wants the pin just by itself & can meet me in person for a safe transaction, I’ll knock it down half price to 5 bucks! Email me NOW for deets on how to order this once-in-a-lifetime one-of-a-kind giftie at ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com! Click on the image below for film footage of our little army of lapel pins!
Winter lockdown’s gonna be lonely so I made myself an imaginary friend to talk to about movies! In this very first animated episode of MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY BLABCO I look at the “Godfather of Gore” Herschell Gordon Lewis’s take on the swinging sixties: SUBURBAN ROULETTE (1968)! Making these quick & dirty because the sooner the better when it comes to movie reviews & this is my prototype/template so far! Lemme how I can improve future episodes & what movies you’d like to see me tackle next! Click HERE or on the screencap below to watch!
Ah, that time I decided to review the Montreal Casino’s tribute to the art of film, which coincidentally became my two-hundredth comic strip for The Montreal Mirror. “What better way to celebrate my two-hundredth Motion Picture Purgatory,” I opine in my longwinded missive, “than by seeing the whole history of film encapsulated into a song & dance routine adjusted for feel-good familiarity, reaffirming my belief that there’s about as much chance at getting the general public to genuinely give a rat’s ass about ‘the cinema,’ let alone this strip, than there is of me winning big at the slots!” The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2002 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “If you think you can control the outcome, you’re putting yourself at risk! -Loto-Québec brochure.” As always; the original art’s for sale @ 100 bucks. More deets below or contact me for info. (To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).
Original art for sale for $100.00 CAD. Includes three items total: The pencil art preliminaries, the original finished B&W inks (signed & dated by author/artist Rick Trembles in pencil on the back), & a color newsprint tear-sheet (or B&W gray tones, depending on when it came out) from where it was originally published. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two from FAB Press still available. For original art & book purchasing info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.
I made a massive Motion Picture Purgatory Floridasploitation cartoon map via author/programmer Kier-La Janisse for director Nicolas Winding Refn’s film archive site (Drive, Neon Angel). Now it’s finally being offered for download in high-resolution! Go to the “DOWNLOAD HD VERSION” link HERE to get it. You have to sign up to Refn’s BYNWR site to access the file but it’s free, no strings attached, & it’s well worth it because it gives you access to tons of complete ultra-rare/obscure trash films to watch, along with essays about them by renowned cult film critics. When they first published my map I was unhappy with how low-resolution it was because it made some of the text impossible to read. It was also meant as an interactive image which they decided against at the last minute.
Though it’s not essential, here are my details on how you can trigger the interactive aspects of this comic: Download both images & open them up in whatever image-editing program you have. In Photoshop, for example, once you have both images opened, copy/paste image A over image B, creating two layers. Zoom in as you see fit, read the film & location descriptions in the legend on the left, find the proper numbered cartoon scenarios with the numbers that correspond to the descriptions, then alternate between layers by turning image A on & off to unlock the secret gags hiding underneath in image B!
Below is a teensy-weensy animated GIF excerpt depicting how the interactivity works with the cutaway portion for “Satan’s Children.” (If the image doesn’t animate here for you, just click on it & it’ll open in a new window where it does). Each of the films listed below get two illustrated entries, one in plain view & one in cutaway, plus the actual, still-existing locations where the scenes were filmed are addressed so you can take a walking trash-film tour of Florida & visit them yourself! TWO THOUSAND MANIACS (1964), HOLLYWOOD MAN (1976), SATAN’S CHILDREN (1975), EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (1977), SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS (1968), ZAAT (1971), THE AMAZING MR. NO LEGS (1978), I EAT YOUR SKIN (1971), FROGS (1972), IMPULSE (1974), DEATHDREAM (1974), SHOCK WAVES (1977), MAKO: JAWS OF DEATH (1976), NUDE ON THE MOON (1961), & JIMMY, THE BOY WONDER (1966)!
Just for fun I compiled all the (mostly public) events/projects I was involved with that were significant to me over the past decade. Gleaned through ten years worth of agendas where every single facet of each day was documented, right down to when I gotta water my plant & when I gotta bug my landlord to fix the damn pipes. Oops. That reminds me, I have to call my landlord to fix the damn pipes again. Be right back.
In my original 2000-to-2010 “glance” (which you can read HERE) I underlined how entertained I was by all the stream-of-consciousness critter doodles I absentmindedly scribbled in the margins of my agendas. There were literally hundreds. 2010-to-2020 didn’t contain nearly as many but there are some doozies. Why the doodle drought? All I can surmise is that it must have been a distracting decade (& not in an especially good way). Pictured below is the very first agenda doodle I drew to kick off the twenty-tens. I call him “Mister Piffle.”
“Mister Piffle”
I omitted the dreary, routine, non-creative, full-time day-jobs I had to take on once in a while to make ends meet & the Motion Picture Purgatory comic strips I’d been doing for the Montreal Mirror once a week till the paper went kaput in 2012 (& for Canuxploitation Dot Com monthly from then on to the present). I also excluded the multiple grant applications I busted my ass making presentations for (all rejected). And it goes without saying that many of these “activities” took months, sometimes years of pre-production, often while working on multiple projects simultaneously. Everything took place in Montreal unless otherwise noted. Everything accomplished way below the poverty line. Breaking even is the dream. Spending money I can’t afford the reality (as ushe).
2010
February 23: My band THE AMERICAN DEVICES play at a benefit for the earthquake victims of Haiti @ Sala Rossa with Lake of Stew, Choeur Maha, Ratchet Orchestra, & Schlag Quartet. February 27: Live spoken word performance of my MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY: DECENSORTIZED cartoon slideshow @ Cagibi for Nuit Blanche. March 6: Attended the official Montreal book launch of “Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto & Beyond (1977-1981)” by Liz Worth @ Sonik (I was interviewed in it about my first band THE ELECTRIC VOMIT opening for Toronto’s Viletones). July 3: THE AMERICAN DEVICES live @ l’Escogriffe with Futensil & a rare screening of Montreal first-wave punk film “The Normals” (1978). July 17: Created trophies based on my creature sculptures to be given as lifetime achievement awards to director Ken Russell (The Devils) & animation luminaries Don Bluth & Gary Goldman (The Land Before Time) @ Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. July 21: Live spoken word performance of my MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY: DECENSORTIZED cartoon slideshow @ Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. July 31, August 1: Created “post-modern cave drawings on black velvet bathed in black light” live for the Salon des Arts Exhibition 10 Black Velvet Lounge @ the Osheaga Music Festival. September 28: THE AMERICAN DEVICES with Shyny Diemindz, & Jordi Rosen & Friends @ Casa del Popolo.
2011
March 5: Book launch & screening for Tom Waugh & Jason Garrison’s “Montreal Main” about the 1974 film of the same name, in which I have three pages of illustrations, @ Kier-La Janisse’s Montreal Micro theatre Blue Sunshine. March 21: World premiere of documentary “MTL Punk: The First Wave (1977-1980)” @ the Cinémathèque Québécoise as part of the Festival International du Film sur l’Art, in which I’m interviewed about my first band THE ELECTRIC VOMIT. May 5: Live spoken word performance of my MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY: DECENSORTIZED cartoon slideshow @ the Park Theatre in Winnipeg for Kier-La Janisse’s Plastic Paper Festival, along with a screening of my three short animated films “DECENSORTIZED,” “GOD’S COCKSUCKERS,” & “GOOPY SPASMS.” Activities included me comix jamming exquisite corpses with animation luminary Ralph Bakshi. May 10: Live spoken word performance of my MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY: DECENSORTIZED cartoon slideshow @ Kier-la Janisse’s Montreal Micro theatre Blue Sunshine for the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. May 12: World premiere of Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare’s short film “Main Attraction” for The Montreal Underground Film Festival (MUFF) @ La Sala Rossa in which I have a small cameo as a musician & helped with the gore FX. May 13: Short film “Girls of Prey” screening by Esther Splett & Jamie Ross as part of The Montreal Underground Film Festival (MUFF), where I play a murderous cult member who “gets stabby with take-back-the-macrame pot-luck-attending anarcho-queer punky-wunkies” @ La Friperie. June 2: Launch of THE AMERICAN DEVICES newly recorded five-song mini-cd “On Vinyl” for ARCMTL’s Distroboto machines. July 9: Live spoken word performance of my MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY: DECENSORTIZED cartoon slideshow @ New York City’s Word Up bookstore in Washington Heights along with a screening of my three short animated films “DECENSORTIZED,” “GOD’S COCKSUCKERS,” & “GOOPY SPASMS” with “Girls of Prey” accompanied by Esther Splett & a slideshow presentation by Mike Diana. July 28: Screening of “MTL Punk: The First Wave (1977-1980)” @ Kier-La Janisse’s Montreal Micro theatre Blue Sunshine in which I’m interviewed about my first band THE ELECTRIC VOMIT, followed with related live performances by THE AMERICAN DEVICES, Nils FC, & The Normals (reunion) @ Barfly. August 21: “MTL Punk: The First Wave (1977-1980)” television premiere on Canal D.November 24: THE AMERICAN DEVICES & The Normals (reunion) live with screenings of “MTL Punk: The First Wave (1977-1980)” & “Blank City” (2010) @ Playhouse. December 3: Premiere show of my new band SACRAL NERVES with Gashrat, Thee Nodes, & Mannequin. Sacral Nerves members included Johnny Deck (ex-Futensil) on double-neck guitar, Esther Splett (Girls of Prey) on vocals, Yan Basque (ex-Denial Tone) on synthesizer, & Blue Sunshine’s David Bertrand on drums (later replaced by ex-American Devices & Lesbians on Ecstasy drummer Jackie Gallant) @ The Womb. December 8: THE AMERICAN DEVICES with David & The Woods, & Melted Faces @ l’Escogriffe.
2012
January 8: THE AMERICAN DEVICES live with my MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY: DECENSORTIZED cartoon slideshow, spoken word performances by Liz Worth (Treat Me Like Dirt), Danila Botha, & Corpusse @ Casa del Popolo. February 24: SACRAL NERVES with Crabe & Nutsak @ Bistro De Paris. February 25: SACRAL NERVES with Vomit Squad, Jef Barbara, & Ultrathin @ Jackie & Judy. May 11: THE AMERICAN DEVICES with Crabe, Devil Eyes, & Chris Burns @ Casa del Popolo. May 23: Fronted a reunion of my first punk band THE ELECTRIC VOMIT on vocals & guitar (with Chris Burns on drums & Andre Asselin on bass), plus Allan Fine (ex-Chromosomes), & The Normals (reunion) for the official DVD launch of “MTL Punk: The First Wave (1977-1980)” @ Casa del Popolo. June 6: Started offshoot comic strip of Motion Picture Purgatory called ROCK MONASTERY for Canadian music website AUX. June 22: Free weekly The Montreal Mirror, home of MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY since the 1980’s, is terminated without warning by the douchebags at Quebecor citing the rise of the Internet killing off all print media as their reason. The Montreal Mirror’s website/archives are suddenly disappeared at the same time. August 25: SACRAL NERVES with The Hazelles & Miss Lady Swamp Pussy @ Barfly. September 22: Live creation of linocut exquisite corpse prints for Kier-La Janisse’s Filmbox @ Pop MTL. October 14: Started monthly MINI MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY comix series for Canuxploitation.com reviewing Canadian-made B-movies. December 10: Animation, poster artwork, promo, DVD graphics, & DVD box art for Colin (Schitt’s Creek) Brunton’s feature-length documentary on Toronto’s first-wave punk rock scene “The Last Pogo Jumps Again.”
2013
February 8: THE AMERICAN DEVICES with Panopticon Eyelids & The Leamers @ Divan Orange. March 15: SACRAL NERVES with The Hazelles, Pink Noise, & Ought @ Casa del Popolo.March 22: SACRAL NERVES with Interracial Love Triangle & Corona Ferox, @ La Brique. March 23: One of several speakers during a live roundtable discussion & Q&A after a screening of feature documentary “Sex in the Comics” (2012) @ the Cinémathèque Québécoise for the Festival International du Film sur l’Art (FIFA). March 15: THE ELECTRIC VOMIT live with The Normals (reunion), for the book launch of Sam Sutherland’s “A Perfect Youth: The Birth of Canadian Punk” @ L’Escogriffe. June 19: World premiere of feature music documentary I appeared in & did some promo art for “Montreal Underground” @ The Rialto. June 21: Drew a comics adaptation of Barry Gifford’s novel “Wild at Heart” (the book David Lynch’s move was based on) for Russ Kick’s Graphic Cannon Volume Three comics anthology (which made the New York Times best seller’s list). July 13: SACRAL NERVES with Heats of Formation & Aim Low @ Brasserie Beaubien. September 13: THE AMERICAN DEVICES, SACRAL NERVES, & Drøm Før Du Dør @ Barfly. September 21: SACRAL NERVES with Qryptozoo, Blood, The This Many Boyfriends Club, & Nanimal for the CJLO Radiometres Artist Outreach Showcase @ L’Escogriffe. November 1: SACRAL NERVES with Nymph, Maica Mia, & Drøm Før Du Dør @ Brasserie Beaubien.
2014
April 27: “Dollar Sign” mini-comic launch for Distroboto @ Cheval Blanc (based on my 2012 illegal eviction). May 2: THE AMERICAN DEVICES with Les Gens Chrétiens @ Casa del Popolo. May 10: Attended the 10th Annual Doug Wright Awards at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) to get my Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist father Jack Tremblay inducted into the Giants of the North Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame where he launched the mini-comic I helped him make; “Esthetic Comics: In Our Backyard,” & I launched my mini-comic “RICK TREMBLES’ MINI MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY” (a compilation of all the Canuxploitation.com strips I’d done up until then). May 23: SACRAL NERVES cassette launch with KoKo, Shining Wizard, & Harsh Reality @ Casa del Popolo. June 19: SACRAL NERVES with Perfect Pussy & Nanimal @ Sala Rossa for the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival. July 20: Guest artist at the launch of Paul Corupe & Kier-La Janisse’s book about children’s movies “Kid Power” that I contributed a MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY comic strip to @ Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. September 13, 14: Guest artist at the official Fangoria Magazine table selling & signing MINI MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY comics @ Montreal Comiccon. September 19: SACRAL NERVES with Hiroshima Shadows, Harsh Reality, & Shitsu for Pop MTL @ TRH-Bar. September 21: SACRAL NERVES with Shonen Knife & Habibi @ Le Divan Orange for Pop MTL. October 31: SACRAL NERVES with Corpusse & Nothinge @ La Vitrolla. November 15, 16: Montreal launch of my Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist father Jack Tremblay’s mini-comic “Esthetic Comics: In Our Backyard,” & my mini-comic “RICK TREMBLES’ MINI MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY” @ Montreal’s Expozine.
2015
March 28: Book signings for my Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist father Jack Tremblay’s mini-comic “Esthetic Comics: In Our Backyard,” & my mini-comic “RICK TREMBLES’ MINI MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY” @ FantastiCon Montreal. March 30: YouTube release of my 2D animated short BLABCO #1. April 7: YouTube release of my 2D animated short BLABCO #2. April 24: Guest Juror for Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema year-end screening. May 10: Guest DJ on Clara-Swan Kennedy’s “Free Kick Radio Show” @ CKUT 90.3 FM. May 15: World premiere of my 2D animated short BLABCO #3 for the Van Horne Variety Show @ Nomad Nation. May 21: SACRAL NERVES live at the 10th anniversary opening night of the Montreal Underground Film Festival (MUFF) @ La Sala Rossa. July 3: Attended world premiere of Montreal music documentary “A Unique Punk Landscape” in which I’m interviewed @ Coop Katacombes. July 18: SACRAL NERVES with Antibody, Taskmaster, Watershed Hour, & Perverted Justice for the Slut Island Festival @ Casa del Popolo. July 29: Attended book launch for Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare’s “Recovering 1940’s Horror Cinema: Traces of a Lost Decade,” which I contributed a MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY comic strip to @ Kaffeine during Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. July 30: Attended book launch for Kier-la Janisse’s “Satanic Panic” which I contributed a MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY comic strip to @ Librairie Drawn & Quarterly. November 6: SACRAL NERVES with Ono, Video, & Caymans @ La Vitrola. November 14, 15: Launch of my mini-comic ONE MINUTE WORRIES at Montreal’s Expozine. November 21: THE AMERICAN DEVICES 35th anniversary show with Pretty Boys, Harsh Reality, & Crabe @ Brasserie Beaubien.
2016
February 20: THE AMERICAN DEVICES live with Trans-X, Jean-Luc Bonspiel, & Istvan the King AKA Monty Cantsin at the world premiere of “MTL New Wave,” a documentary on Montreal’s 80’s music scene that I was interviewed in @ the Cinémathèque Québécoise for Les Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma Festival. March 12: Gave an animation workshop, followed by a live spoken word performance of my MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY: DECENSORTIZED cartoon slideshow with a screening of my three short animated films “DECENSORTIZED,” “GOD’S COCKSUCKERS,” & “GOOPY SPASMS,” plus a Q&A @ the Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS). March 18: Attended launch of Plasmag zine which I contributed comix to @ La Plante. March 25: World premiere of the titles sequence to my 2D animated short BUILDING 108 @ for the Van Horne Variety Show @ Nomad Nation. May 14: Launch of Marc Tessier’s book of essays on comics Trip # 9 with contributions by me & my Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist father Jack Tremblay @ the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF). June 5: Contributed a comic strip (with coloring by Raph Bard) to Simon Bossé’s tabloid comix anthology “Journal L’Étiquette #2” for Dunham Brewery. July 16: World premiere of my 2D animated film BUILDING 108 which opened for the Montreal premiere of Anna Biller’s feature film “The Love Witch” @ Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. July 18: SACRAL NERVES with Ishi Tishi & No Bro @ Bar Le Ritz PDB. September 27: THE AMERICAN DEVICES play live, opening for documentary film “MTL Punk: The First Wave (1977 – 1980),” which I was interviewed in, followed by a Q&A, for Festival Focus Nordic Cinema Presents: Ciné Punk Rock @ La Sala Rossa. October 22: Screening of my newly digitized childhood Super-8 films followed by a Q&A for “Journée Du Film De Famille Home Movie Day Montréal 2016” @ the Cinémathèque Québécoise. November 4: Expozine 2015 Awards Finalists Exhibit including original art from my mini-comic ONE-MINUTE WORRIES for @ Arprim. November 24: YouTube launch of my 2D animated music video promo for THE AMERICAN DEVICES with the song “See My World.” November 25: THE AMERICAN DEVICES, Félin, David & the Woods, Maxime Gervais, Fokyoushima, Cousin Paul, Odd Limbs, Ghost Vines, & Pop Goes, for Cuch Fest XI @ Les Studios de Rouen. December 3: U.S. world premiere of my animated short BUILDING 108 @ the LA International Underground Film Festival. December 3: SACRAL NERVES, Corpusse, Les Necrophiliacs @ l’Escogriffe.
2017
January 27: SACRAL NERVES (last show), Wreckage With Stick & Rivalled Envy @ La Plante. April 2: Accompanied my Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist father Jack Tremblay for a book-signing @ FantastiCon Montreal. July 8: Accompanied my Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist father Jack Tremblay to the WW2 Comics panel where he was interviewed by author Ivan Kocmarek for his book “Heroes of the Home Front: Bell Features Artists of WWII” @ Montreal Comiccon. August 24: THE AMERICAN DEVICES, Crabe, Bleu Nuit, & Jugulaar Methoht @ La Sala Rossa. October 27: THE AMERICAN DEVICES (reunion with band co-founder/keyboardist Suzie Joseph), Bleu Nuit, & Nonessential Personnel @ Casa del Popolo. November 25, 26: Launch of “Dump ‘n Draw Comic Jams” anthology comic book I contributed to with co-author Raphaele Bard @ Montreal’s Expozine. December 19: Attended book launch for Kier-La Janisse ‘s “Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film & Television” which I contributed MOTION PICTURE PURGATORY comix to, @ Bar Le Ritz PDB.
2018
April 7: THE AMERICAN DEVICES play a private birthday party for a friend in Park Extension. May 14: Opened for The Melvins with PIG BUDDHA (a one-off band created specifically for this show with ex-Frightwig Rebecca Sevrin on guitar/vocals, David Ledden on drums, & me on six-stringed bass), with Indian Handcrafts @ The Corona. June 30: THE AMERICAN DEVICES with Caapi, Shota Nakamura, Darkwinds, & Tang @ Brasserie Beaubien. July 6: Accompanied my Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist father Jack Tremblay (his last public appearance before passing away November 2018) to the WW2 Comics panel where he was interviewed again by author Ivan Kocmarek for his book “Heroes of the Home Front: Bell Features Artists of WWII” @ Montreal Comiccon. July 20: THE AMERICAN DEVICES (reunion with band co-founder/keyboardist Suzie Joseph) with The Protruders & Prom Nite @ Owl’s Club in Toronto. July 29: World premiere of my 9-minute 2D animated short “BUILDING 108: BARNACLE BILL THE TAILOR” with Q&A, including co-animator Raphaele Bard, for Circo Animato as part of Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. September 1: THE AMERICAN DEVICES (reunion with band co-founder/keyboardist Suzie Joseph) with Boar God & a screening of “BUILDING 108: BARNACLE BILL THE TAILOR” @ Barfly. September 21: Film programmer & personal appearance for Simon Bossé’s “Tunnel Vision” event at Brasserie Dunham celebrating the unveiling of my cartoon beer can label design for the brewery’s Pale Ale Américaine. September 26: THE AMERICAN DEVICES (reunion with band co-founder/keyboardist Suzie Joseph) with The Bush Tetras & Silver Dapple for Pop MTL @ The Rialto. October 28: Toronto premiere of my 9-minute 2D animated short “BUILDING 108: BARNACLE BILL THE TAILOR” with personal appearances & Q&A by me & co-animator Raphaele Bard @ Eyesore Cinema. December 11: Created an interactive “Floridasploitation Map” for film director & archivist Nicolas Winding Refn’s (Drive, The Neon Demon) website “byNWR.com.”
2019
April 18: Contributed a comic strip to Simon Bossé’s tabloid comix anthology “Journal L’Étiquette #3” for Dunham Brewery. November 1: Wrote an in-depth article about the art & comics career of my late Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist father Jack Tremblay for Comic Book Artist Magazine (U.S.). November 1: Premiere show of my new instrumental band NUPPEPPŌ (with me on six-stringed bass, Raphaele Bard on keyboards & Johnny Deck on twelve-stringed guitar) with Corpusse, Tonnes, Bum, & Brain Condom @ Brasserie Beaubien. November 16, 17: Launch of my new comix, INTERLARDING, & THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SIN BOG, @ Montreal’s Expozine. December 7: NUPPEPPŌ play a private Xmas party for a friend in Little Burgundy. December 9: THE AMERICAN DEVICES play live & get interviewed about their forty years in the Montreal music scene by host Mark Boudreau for his “Drastic Plastic” show @ CKUT 90.3 FM.
I made a new comic book just in time for this year’s Expozine taking place November 16 & 17 @ 1025 Rue Bélanger in Montréal! I’ll have a table both days so drop by & say hi! I’ll also be selling Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two, another mini-comic I made earlier this year called Interlarding, plus whatever other goodies I can stuff in my backpack! I went outta my way to make The 7th Voyage of Sin Bog actual classic comic book sized! You can’t get paper sized like that at typical copy-shops so I had to print them on 11 X 17 & slice each sheet to size before folding & stapling them by hand! Handmade comic books! You can see a flip-thru video of my new comic on my Instagranny page HERE
Pictured below: Front cover featuring Betty & Calvin about to explore the spooky castle.
Betty & Calvin about to explore the spooky castle.
The thirty-five page B&W adventure centers around Betty & her virtual assistant Cecile B. Demilalexa who stars her in a movie that goes awry when Scented Candlewick Ghost shakes up Lady-Goops & Fossil-Blobz’s market resources! Fatigued by their shenanigans, Betty takes in a movie & then embarks on a quest for the legendary Broken Sphere with her pal Calvin until Big Boot introduces them to a hell on earth beyond anybody’s wildest dreams! Will they make it out in time?
Pictured below: Back cover featuring Cecile B. Demilalexa having a major malfunction.
Cecile B. Demilalexa having a major malfunction.
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RICK TREMBLES is a Montreal-based illustrator, post-underground cartoonist, writer, filmmaker, & musician. Two books of his Motion Picture Purgatories have been published by the UK’s FAB Press. He’s written for Fangoria & Rue Morgue Magazine & his comix have been published in internationally distributed books, periodicals & anthologies such as Russ Kick’s “The Graphic Canon,” Robert Crumb’s “Weirdo,” Darius James’ “That’s Blaxploitation,” Thomas Waugh’s “Montreal Main,” Fantagraphics Books’ “Pictopia,” Kier-la Janisse’s Spectacular Optical “Kid Power,” “Satanic Panic,” & “Yuletide Terror,” & France’s “Hopital Brut” for Le Dernier Cri. His award winning animated film Goopy Spasms has toured the festival circuit globally. He is currently animating a series of cartoon shorts called “Building 108.” He’s been a singer-guitarist for post-punk band The American Devices since 1980. The L.A. Times has called him “A famous free thinker,” The Guardian has called him “Genius,” & Robert Crumb has called him “Even more twisted & weird than me.” His Mini Motion Picture Purgatory illustrated column appears monthly at blog.canuxploitation.com.
