“More twisted & weird than me!” –Robert Crumb! “The lines are delicate & the material is not! Quite effective & elicits an oddly ethereal quality to basic yearnings & quirks!” –George Kuchar (on my 1992 comic that became Goopy Spasms)! Torontonians! Come see a rare PAY WHAT YOU CAN screening of my 2004 animated short Goopy Spasms which will be topping off a Slideshow/Lecture I’m doing after my Animation Workshop at TAIS this Saturday (the Toronto Animated Image Society hosted at PIX FILM Gallery, 1411 Dufferin Street, Unit B, 7 pm)! I’ll also be playing God’s C*cksuckers (2005, based on a comic from 1988) & Decensortized (2006, based on storyboards from 1989)! The Slideshow/Lecture will be more or less the same one I premiered at the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore Halloween 2009 about my history drawing post-punk comics, Motion Picture Purgatory, & how I got started because of my Canadian Golden Age cartoonist father Jack, creator of WW2’s “Crash Carson” from Wow Comics! The Motion Picture Purgatory pictured here, a scan from the actual print weekly it was originally published in, was my shameless promo for the world premiere of Goopy Spasms the movie, which was, bear with me now; an animated version of a live slideshow I used to travel with based on an autobiographical comic about my miserable sexual history! DO. NOT. MISS.

The Animation Workshop preceding this will take place from 10 am to 4 pm the same day, Saturday, March 12 at the same address! I’ll be discussing step-by-step the creative process behind the making of my animated 2D cartoons, especially my most recent ones Blabco & my brand new webisode pilot for Building 108 (with a never-before-seen animatic) & then inviting participants to collaborate on a short walk cycle with me! Still a few seats left so book now! Only $80 for non-members & $60 for supporting & studio members! Here’s the official description from TAIS:

“By the end of this animation jam workshop, participants will have collaboratively completed a short animation together! To take this course, participants should have some basic 2D animation knowledge of character movement (learned previously or after taking Drawn Animation 101 or 102). After a quick overview of the step-by-step process he follows from start to finish when making his films, Rick will lead the workshop participants in a collaborative drawing of an animated Exquisite Corpse* together. Each participant will draw & animate an upper body that will be combined with a lower body Rick has created. The crazier the character, the better! The goal of this workshop is to demonstrate the entire process of producing a simple 2D animation in a very hands-on way. All participants will be credited for the short film, & will receive a copy after the workshop is complete.

*The Exquisite Corpse (or Cadavre Exquis) is a Surrealist collaborative art game originally involving multiple participants drawing an image on a sheet of paper, where the image connects to another drawn image that is concealed from view. The results, when revealed, are often bizarre, humorous, & fantastic!”

I should mention that the PWYC 7 pm Slideshow/Lecture is ADULTS ONLY while the 10 am to 4 pm Workshop is ALL AGES. I’ll have books for sale too!

Booking information for the Workshop HERE

The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2004 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Overinteractive Imagination!” 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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Pictured below: The original promo PDF from 2004.

Aside from Celebrity Red Carpet Nip-Slips™ & the 2D-animation awards, I couldn’t give crap one about The Oscars™. But in lieu of this year’s POC boycott, I present to you a Midi Motion Picture Purgatory Oscars™ preview strip I did in 2013 featuring a racially charged bloodbath ballet opening musical number for Quentin Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED (a film I didn’t even like)! It originally appeared in The Montreal Mirror’s online successor Cult MTL. Original art for sale @ 75 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 11 X 11 inch art for sale for $75.00 CAD. Includes two items total: The pencil art preliminaries, & the original finished B&W inks (signed & dated by author/artist Rick Trembles in pencil on the back). 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.

Original art 4 sale! Front cover I did for Canadian trade magazine about the film & TV industry CINEMA CANADA # 155 illustrating an article about the “Minee-Feechie;” described in the table of contents as “a creature conceived to rescue the Canadian film & television industry following the tax shelter bust,” & accompanied by another illustration of mine (also pictured below)! “It was born amidst the oozing, smoking ruins of ‘Hollywood North,’ a strange land, where sportswear manufacturers & gov’t bureaucrats, peridontists & psychiatrists were gripped by a primitive & irresistible impulse to hurl money into the production of excruciatingly empty movies,” screams the cover! It’s intricately detailed, so you’ll have to click on the larger image to see it, but I decided to paint the dinosaur that was the film industry getting a miracle cure injected by said professionals all pumping money into a Videodrome-inspired TV set with their perceived audience wearing toilet bowls for heads! I donated the original acrylic painting to some social cause art auction back in the 80’s, but I still have the original approximately 6 X 6 inch preliminary pencil art of the “Minee-Feechie” TV from the table of contents & the 15 X 15 pencils for the front cover. You can have both for 75 bucks (postage included) along with a color tear-sheet of the printed cover. 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).

“WHAT WAS BORN? THE MINEE-FEECHIE!”

One of the strangest films I’ve ever seen! THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY (1980) meets E.T. (1982)! Twin extraterrestrials crash-land at opposite ends of the earth, one in Central Africa, & the other in America where it’s retrieved & put under a series of painful scientific tests! You gotta wonder whether the continual flow of snots dripping outta Nukie’s schnozzle into his own mouth was an aesthetic choice or flawed A.C. inside that abysmally built FX bodysuit! With GLYNIS JOHNS, who played the mom in MARY POPPINS (1964) & STEVE RAILSBACK AKA CHARLES MANSON in HELTER SKELTER (1976)! Thanks to CORPUSSE ASHTON for this great VHS find from his old Montreal antiques/thrift shop! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2011 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Brainwaves without a brain!” 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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

MPP ORIGINAL ART MAKES JUICY GIFTIES! Martian children stop eating their hamburger & asparagus “food pills” after watching Santa interviewed on earth-TV, building dolls that look just like them! Mars’ prez sez it’s confusing his kids & consults an 800-year-old “ancient” for advice! “They’re born with electronic teaching machines attached to their brains & by the time they can walk they’re adults,” he laments, & “now they’re rebelling & wanna have fun”! So: Mars needs Santa! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2011 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Santa Claus Colonializes the Martians!” 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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

MPP ORIGINAL ART MAKES JUICY GIFTIES! And this one has cows being ground up! Yeah, yeah, so true story; me, I gave up on those MacDognald’s 99-cent Special Cheeseburgers turn-of-the-millennium when, 5 min. after inhaling one I got explosive diarrhoea, yadda, yadda, yadda! Reading the same-titled 2001 stomach-turning book that this movie’s based on by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser sealed the deal for me (tagline: “There’s Shit in the Meat”)! As for this movie version; “whoever played the cows did a really good job!” The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2006 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah… I’m lovin’ shit!” 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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

“CAMPAIGN OF SCHLOCK & PSHAW!” I drew this cartoon days after George W’s invasion. “After comparing coverage discrepancies per network for hours on end on live TV watching the beginning of the U.S. versus Iraq state-of-the-art “Shock & Awe Campaign” I thought I’d top the day off with the uber-fictitiousness of a state-of-the-art American war movie hot off the cookie-cutter,” I told myself on the way to the theatre. It takes a lot to offend me, but this turd of a film sure did the trick that day. Cue the beginning of the end of the world! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2003 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Campaign of Schlock & Pshaw!” 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).

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.

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN! Banned in Canada for decades! Long considered the world’s first & only feature-length underground horror/porn flick, Thundercrack! (originally double-billing alongside early screenings of Pink Flamingos) is the epic B&W 150-plus-minutes-long debauched culmination of a counterculture lineage dating back to the 50’s, written & costarring George of Kuchar Bros renown! The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2004 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “‘Realism only comes to the screen when the film jams in the projector & the image begins to bubble’ –George Kuchar.” Available in December on Blu-ray & DVD from Synapse Films! 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 available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.