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This Sunday I’ll be accompanying Canadian Golden Age Cartoonist & “Giants of the North” Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Doug Wright Award winner JACK TREMBLAY at the FantastiCon comics convention taking place from 11 am to 1 pm at Collège André-Grasset, 1001 Boul Crémazie Est, Montreal. We’ll have a table & he’ll be signing prints. More info HERE

BTW, WHO’D LIKE TO REPRINT SOME RARELY SEEN 50-YEAR-OLD CANADIANA?

Hey, this year is not only the 150th birthday of Canada but it’s also gonna be the 50th birthday of a series of gorgeous little Canadiana books my father wrote & drew in honour of Canada’s 100th birthday just in time for Expo ’67! They’re compact, about 6 X 6.5 inches, around 14 pages each, & heavily illustrated in full colour in his whimsical post-Canadian-Golden-Age-Comics style (he was inducted into the Giants of the North Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame by Seth in 2014). Last year, I had interested a Montreal publisher in possibly reprinting these in time for Canada’s Birthday Celebrations, which will probably be in full effect by this summer, but they recently apologized & told me they wouldn’t be able to handle the printing specs. They’re more used to text-only projects. Would anybody out there be interested in such a project, or know who I could try to reach to get something like this happening? The company that originally published them, Brunswick Press, is long gone. In fact, they went outta business back in the sixties without publishing or sending back the original artwork for my father’s last instalment in the series! Would I ever like to dig THAT stuff up! Contact me for more info!

Here’s a full sample of one of Jack Tremblay’s Beaver Books from Brunswick Press, “THE BIRTH OF HOCKEY,” followed by the cover art for his others.

In the early 90’s. Montreal artists Rick Trembles & Eric Braun invited dozens of local & international cartoonists to contribute a drawing of a creature for an Exquisite Corpse-style comic book. Each artist’s creature had three sections that could be combined with those of other artists, allowing for many possible combinations. The original artwork has now been turned into magnets, so you can mix & match these creatures on your own fridge door! There are two different series of Distroboto magnets, each featuring different artists. And there are two full critters per $2 pack, each one split in three, but you never know which of these crazy “Cretins” you’re gonna get with your purchase so collect them all!  © 1993/1995 The Artists.

Official launch at the Distroboto “Sweet 16” benefit party this Sunday, March 26 at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent, Montreal)! Featuring  OSB (1-speed bike), GMACKRR, fourthousandblackbirds & Alexandre St-Onge! $8 suggested donation! A CKUT co-presentation.

From the Distroboto press release: “Celebrating 16 years of Montreal’s unique art vending machine network with a party & concert where the project began back in winter 2001, the evening will also launch a crowdfunding campaign to help this non-profit project stay alive & to upgrade the machines! About Distroboto: Since 2001, these unique art vending machines have sold over 100,000 works from more than 1200 different artists from around the world! It is open to submissions year-round & the artists keep nearly all the revenue. Distroboto is run by Arcmtl, a non-profit arts promotion & preservation organization.” For more info go to distroboto.com

NOTE: ALL PROCEEDS FROM EXQUISITELY CORPSED CONCOCTION OF CRETINS FRIDGE MAGNETS WILL GO TOWARDS KEEPING DISTROBOTO ALIVE!

Pictured below: The original comics that accompanied the print version of “Exquisitely Corpsed Concoction of Cretins” number 1 (1993) & number 2 (1995). The contents within these pages, made up of a multitude of odd creatures by varying artists, each had to be hand-sliced in three! Now you can experience the same sensation via fridge magnets!

Pictured below: Sculptures by Rick Trembles from the original photo shoot for the front cover of the print version of “Exquisitely Corpsed Concoction of Cretins” number 2 (1995).

Pictured below: The only two existing print versions of “Exquisitely Corpsed Concoction of Cretins” left from Rick Trembles’ personal collection.

Pictured below: Sample animated GIF of “Exquisitely Corpsed Concoction of Cretins” by Rupert Bottenberg & Daniel Clowes from the rare out-of-print version which you can now obtain as Distroboto fridge magnets currently on sale now!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN! Dracula’s minions morph from hot tarts to naked screaming nippleless bat-women at the blink of an eye (offending protuberances & orifices smoothed off for the action figures)! Silly-putty CGI jaws stretch to ridiculous proportions! The crux of the story has Drac experimenting with werewolf extracts & Frankenstein’s recipe to help birth his undead wives’ offspring (technically they’re born dead so they need a kickstart)! Monster-killer Van Helsing & his Vatican friar sidekick inventor team up with tight-corseted Transylvanian Kate Beckinsale to battle the evildoers (she says “oh my gawt” in her silly fake accent so much you’d think it was the laziest of catchphrases)! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2004 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Resurgence Convergence Divergence!” 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).

van_helsing

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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN! A handful of foul-mouthed college girls think a corpse tossed down a well has come back to haunt & murder them one-by-one in a dark hooded cloak! Film hedges its bets by turning into a comedy towards the third act attempting to rescue its ineptness as a horror flick! Supposedly based on House on Sorority Row (1983)! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2009 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Phi Beta Krappa! 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).

sorority_row

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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN! Based on an early 19th century novel, this 3-hour Polish B&W 1965 masterpiece by Wojciech Has has been restored by Francis Ford Coppola & Martin Scorcese & praised by David Lynch, Luis Bunuel & Lars von Trier!  Dedicated to one of the film’s earliest rabid fans Jerry Garcia! In the heat of battle during the Napoleonic wars an officer discovers an ancient manuscript among the ruins & starts reading! His eventual captor puts aside their differences to become equally enthralled! Storybook comes to life via exquisite performances in a labyrinthine narrative filled with ghosts, buxom bisexual temptresses, demon-possessed madmen, magic potions, breathtaking period set pieces, rotting zombies & Dali-like surrealistic imagery following a captain’s trials & tribulations on his journey through purgatory! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2009 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Meta Within Meta Inside Of Meta On Top Of Meta!” 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).

the_saragossa_manuscript

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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

In case you’re a fully indoctrinated zombie & haven’t noticed yet; the big name brands have completely appropriated our fields of vision citywide to erect eyesores proclaiming their shit-headed dominance! But lucky for us, incredibly prolific New Jersey-based two-fisted artsy-fartsy Ron English has been going around taking the piss outta these scumfuck bloodsucking corporations by defacing high-profile billboard ads with thought-provoking slogans & artwork for years! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2005 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “‘Corporations Don’t Deserve Free Speech, People Do!’ –Ron English” 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).

popaganda

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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Gadzooks over Disneyfication of God kooks! Structure in this off-the-cuff doc’s at a minimum but its cast of crackpot characters sure lingers long in the noggin whether you like it or not! A video camera tracks various 90’s Times Square preachers before Walt Disney’s wrecking ball gentrified the legendary den-of-iniquity vicinity, closing down all the round-the-clock XXX grindhouses & mom-and-pop greasy spoons that accompanied them! Toxic spittle flies at the camera as half-baked theories are quizzed & debated, juxtaposed with an endless parade of leering glamour-pusses beaming down from the billboards! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2004 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Gadzooks over Disneyfication of God kooks!” 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).

the_gods_of_times_square

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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Did Johnny Cash have a reputation for being perceived as a lunatic? Because he sure comes off typecast that way in this movie! Already a music sensation when he did this, an insanely inordinate amount of time is spent getting beauty shots of him terrorizing housewife Cay Forrester, who also happened to write the screenplay (rape fantasy, anyone?)! Coming off more ham than trained actor just adds to the creepiness & unpredictability, pursing his lips too often as if stalling for time to remember lines, randomly smashing his victim’s belongings with mock gesticulations that are part twitch, part swish, & 100% snotty, contemptuous, & ignorant: a dangerous & volatile combination! When things reach a boiling point he even picks up little Ron Howard as a bullet-shield! I wonder how much he was adlibbing! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2005 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Cross the line!” 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).

five_minutes_to_live

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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Actor Bob Crane (star of hit 60’s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes) was bludgeoned to death with a tripod under mysterious circumstances in 1978! Paul Schrader directs Greg Kinnear as Crane & Willem Dafoe as buddy & murder suspect John Carpenter in this queasy biopic detailing the pair’s seedy tumble into sex addiction! Stigma then & now: would Crane have fared better w/cybersex? Such an easy target you gotta wonder if it was approached as a pisstake or a true anti-addiction trope? Things get awkward when Crane freeze-frames one of their orgies & discovers Dafoe’s finger up his ass; “It’s a group grope, I thought you liked it,” Carpenter opines! “I thought it was the girl,”Crane protests! “What’s the difference?” Carpenter retorts! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2009 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “‘A Day Without Sex Is A Day Wasted’ -Actual Tagline.” 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).

auto_focus

SOLD 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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Remember Lollapalooza blowing through Parc Jean-Drapeau in ’94? Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, Breeders, Nick Cave, L7, Boredoms were all on the bill. I was confined to a “cartoonists’ tent” that we each had to pitch in 25 bucks for, trying to break even selling my comix while drawing in front of passing multitudes like some kinda circus sideshow freak, too broke to buy a beer. So naturally the comic I drew “live on the premises” had to feature me grumbling. Every kid in the long lineups passing by, without fail, would pick up our comix, leaf through them feigning interest, look at us with puzzled faces, & quickly put them down & move on to the next tent without buying a thing. Where did all these clueless brat punks suddenly come from? Never saw a single one at any local shows. Grunge was finally full-blown mainstream & the “Sha Na Na of the nineties,” Green Day, were starting to get huge, so I guess they were all getting their cues from Montreal’s MTV; “MusiquePlus,” clueless that artists & bands had already been doing this kinda stuff here for decades, & not giving crap one. “Krapolapalooza” indeed! Wonder what they’re into now? Original inks on 11 X 15 inch paper for only 100 bucks! (To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

localpoorloosers_1994

For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.