Dead Boy Productions

 

06/11/07
Hell Cesar

Dead Boy Productions with Eric "Unkle" Pigors

 

Hello please make your presence known?

ERIC "UNKLE " PIGORS creator and artist of TOXICTOONS.

So how long have you been in the art business?

I started working in the animation business in 1985 on such great projects as The Care Bears Adventure and Legend of Orin. Worked on Family Dog designed by Tim Burton and directed by Brad Bird. Then worked at Diseny for 15 years on films like The Lion King, Alladin, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Tarzan, all those films and more. I have been really pushing TOXICTOONS since 1999 when I self published my first art book and stared doing a few shirt designs.

How did you come up with name Toxictoons?

I came up with the name TOXICTOONS in 1987 when I made a set of postcards and was looking for something to name them on the backside. Back then I would spray paint my backgrounds and would be on my apartment balcony in a huge cloud of toxic fumes from the spray paint can choking. So I took,"TOXIC " because I thought someday these fumes are gonna kill me and "TOONS " since my art are cartoons. Plus the characters I draw are pretty seedy looking Toxicy characters.

When was the first time you got interested in horror art?

Well when I was a kid I loved these bubblegum stickers I would get for 5 cents at our 7-11 down the street called ," ODD RODS" which were monsters driving hot rods and then I found," PLOP Comics "which was a spoof on TALES FROM THE CRYPT. I also loved THE MUNSTERS and ADDAMS FAMILY Shows and monster movies. I was a huge MAD Magazine fan as a kid and loved the EC comics that MAD put out in the 1950's and in 1987 I found EC'S Tales from The Crypt box set at a local monster store called ,"CREATURE FEATURES." Now it's just all I like to draw, I really wasn't drawing monsters much until I started doing that TOXICTOONS postcard set.

What type of training did you get?

I had a little art schooling after high school. But I like to say I went to the MAD MAGAZINE school of art, which was me just copying the art from the Mad magazines as a kid to learn how to draw. I eventually fell into my own style one day when I tried drawing something out of my head. That still is basically what I’m doing. I'm kinda stuck in those years as a kid that really shaped who I am as an artist,Wacky Pacs stickers, Plop, MAD, EC COMICS, Old animated cartoons, The MUNSTERS, Charles Addams, Planet of the Apes ,etc....

What influences your art?

Everything from the above mentioned to Fetish clothing, Meat and Vegetables I have seen at the store have weird shapes and textures. I love old 1940's Popular Science magazines. They had the best looking machinery and I also love that run down look of 1940's buildings, alleys. Freaks, monster movies, diseases, and just stuff I remember from childhood like ice cream man, my 1st skeleton monster mask, pimples, girls I had a crush on father’s hook hands.

Is music a big part of your art?

Well I love listening to music while I draw. I would love to have been a guitarist also but I broke my pinky finger so bad it doesn't play right. I love being an artist something is so fun about getting up in the morning and wondering what drawing and character is gonna come out of me that day.

What are your favorite bands?

Ministry and Amen are my two favorites . I listen to lots of stiff metal, goth, industrial, punk, classic rock, 50's and really love Halloween Records. There is such a great vibe you get listening to those and drawing. It just puts me in the Halloween mood.

What bands have you done designs for?

I have done shirts or CDs for Metallica, The Ghastly Ones, Murderdolls, Frankenstein Dragqueens Box Set, The Genitorturors, Psychocharger, Scum Of The Earth, Shadow Reichenstein, The Horrifics, The Astrovamps, Creepshow, Order Of The Fly, Gein and the Graverobbers, and Bill "Chop Top" Mosely's band Cornbugs CD's.

Tell us about the conventions and what kind of people you run into?\

Well, I just did the Texas Fear Fest this past weekend and got to meet some of my fans, which is always a lot of fun. And you always make some new fans that never have seen my stuff before .A few fans will show me there tattoos they got of my artwork. My fans mostly range from Goths, punks, psychobilly, metalheads, lowbrow art fans and horror fans. All the fun freaky people.

What do you think about the fans that get your art tattooed on there bodies?

I think its great! I love the fact that people like a drawing I have done so much that they are willing to wear it on their skin for life.

So what is new with ToxicToons?

I am finishing up a DVD of odds and ends stuff I have had like my cartoon I did in 1990 called,"LETS CHOP SOO-E!" My CHILDREN’S DAY AT THE MORGUE video and live footage. A interview my friend ORMON GRIMBSBY put together for his horror host show this last HALLOWEEN. Psychochargers video that has some of my art and me doing a creepy voice in the intro and outro, art galleries and more . Monster Buckles just finished a really great buckle they did based on my art. I am always doing new shirts, prints all the time. BABY TATTOO is going to put my “CRYPTIC ARTBOOK" in JULY with a new cover and more art than I have in my one I have been selling right now. I just did a small run of 300 and only have 11 left right now of them. It’s my favorite book of all my books. All of my newest art from the past 4 - 5 years. Lots of my ghouly vamps, band art and monster art. So look for UNKLE PIGORS CRYPTIC ART in stores near you in July 2007.

Favorite horror flick?

Bride of Frankenstein, Texas Chainsaw 1 and 2, and Night of the Living Dead, and Tales from the Darkside episode called,"TRICK OR TREAT"

Best experience being an artist?

You said it right there, "BEING AN ARTST."

Great talking with you any last words?

Yeah, check out my site www.toxictoons.com for your kreepy needs and .......SEE YOU IN THE MORTUARY