Interview With Unkle Pigors aka Eric Pigors of Toxictoons to kick off the High Holy Season!!!

To those that might have missed last year's interview and might not know who Eric Pigors is, he is the creator and mastermind of Toxictoons.com, a wonderfully demented collection of monsters, freaks drawn to a retro Rat Fink art flair with a decidedly Halloween bent.

Click the picture to see what got me started on Toxictoons and Unkle Pigors!

For those of you that might not know, Eric had a rather severe (ALL of them would be severe to me!) heart attack earlier this year.

Mr. M:  I've read your account of your heart attack...terrifying and not in the good way and am very glad that you're doing better.  Has this event in your life changed your outlook or perspective?

EP:  Well its really been tough, I changed my diet and exercise and I’m taking it day by day.  The first week I was listening to music and it sounded so great, I love art and music so much. I really feel grateful I am with my wife Denise. She was a god send.

As far as my art though,it’s a weird thing since I draw lots of spooky death themed art,which you can really see  in my new artbook I just put out called ,”DEATHS CASKET.” Which I also talk about death in the opening.The first print run is a 100 signed and numbered books with extras and is full of my Halloween,monster,Sexy vamp,and Frankenstein themed artwork. And I already sold the 1st half of them last month.

Mr.M:  You mentioned that the ambulance EMT knew your work, that is very cool to me.  Aside from shaking hands with former Alabama Governor George Wallace in the second grade, you are the most famous person I've met.  Has your notoriety as an artist been an overnight success or do you feel that it has been a process, having a diabolical master plan to arrive to where you are today?

EP:  Thanks for the huge compliment. I know have been pushing my Toxictoons art the past 11 years at shows I do  My Space/Facebook which have definitely given me a lot more exposure.

I think the ambulance ride was a pretty special event,that really comforted me on my way to my heart surgery. It’s been a looooong  process and I still feel like there are lots of people who don’t know who I am or my art.That’s what’s great about people doing interviews on my work like you, it exposes so many more new people to it who may have never heard of it. 

Mr.M:  The Trick or Treat bags, an uberly cool idea, what was your inspiration in creating these?

Original pen and ink..and tootsies.

EP:  Thanks, this is my 5th year doing them. Every Sept 1st I put the new T.O.T. Bag with new Halloween goodies I put in the bag.They have sold out every year.

And finished product in gory glory!

I was at a store looking for Halloween stuff and saw some bags with some cute stuff on them and I wanted to see stuff a little more edgy and not so goody goody. So I just made my own.Then I thought what would I want inside a bag,and made an Spooky activity book with my art,some pins,prints,window cut outs and sticker and my favorite thing, the spooky cd mix I make every year that’s different.  

And who knows what else might lurk in your bag,Boo haa haa!

Mr. M:  This seems like one of those Facebook questions but do you have an all-time favorite movie?  And if you say you're a Brony I will deny any knowledge of ever knowing you.

EP:  Well horror films it’s The BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. But my all time favorite movie believe it or not is,” A CHRISTMAS STORY.” I LOVE THAT FILM!!! (me too!)

I did a show the past 10 years out here in California that used to be called, FANGORIA’S  - WEEKEND OF HORRORS.” And they had BOB CLARKE, who is the director of ,”A CHRISTMAS STORY.” He also directed  one of my favorite zombie films called, “CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS.”Well I usually never go get autographs at these shows because I am always selling my Toxictoons merchandise , but I love these 2 films so much and was excited to see he was one of the guest speakers that year.
So I had him sign both my DVDs. He was a very nice man and he introduced me to his son who he said was an artist also. And I am so glad I did go speak to him, and get 2 of my favorite DVDs signed. Tragically some drunk asshole killed him and his son on PCH highway maybe 6 months later drunk driving. I keep these 2 DVDs in a safe place, and  I look at his signature every now and then and think what a great human being he was and how much it sucks he isn’t here anymore because of some drunk asshole!!

Mr.M: Do you think of yourself as goth, alternative or something in between?

EP:  I kind of think of myself as a bit of a mixture of everything I grew up liking, I’m an artist,  goth, punk, metal, classic rock, rat fink monster weird oh!

Mr. M:  If you weren't an uber-talented artist drawing dark humor death centered cartoons, what would your backup career would have been?  I personally wanted to ride on the back of a garbage truck but we can't look back at what might have been.

EP:  Thanks, I really love music and always wanted to be in a band. But I chose art because I liked it more .Sometimes I wonder what made me gravitate towards cartoons so much,and especially dark stuff! Must have been all that death meat I consumed in my early years....uuummm  hot dogs, hamboogers! Sometimes when I hear the train at night tooting its horn by where I live I think it would be fun to drive a train at night and see the country side. (Well, I DID like hamburgers until now.  That image will be ingrained in my long term memory for a while)

Mr. M: Are you planning on doing anything special on the High Holy Day (Halloween)?

EP:  Well I think I want to go by that one house by moms, and see if they have a séance theme haunt in their garage like I saw in my dream I had before my hear attack.I also thought I was going to miss Halloween this year in that dream. If they do, It will be one freaky moment! Especially since this house never does anything spooky.

No, I wouldn't trick or treat him, not even for a Snickers bar!

Other then that not sure where I will do a haunt this year.I do love my moms neighborhood because that is where I spent my days as a kid Trick or Treating,and a few people deck out there houses there nice and spooooky!

But I do know I will be looking forward to that day like I do every year! It’s the best day ever! (That, my dear readers, is the gospel truth!)

This goes double for this!

Mr. M:  I see you were part of Halloweentown’s 2nd Annual Tribute to the Haunted Mansion ride,any thoughts about this or the actual ride you can share with us?  

A recent interview with Eric during an art show (Why doesn't anyone have anything like this where I am in Alabama?!  Oh, I remember, because we ares bakwoods an we don go fer that sorda artsay stuff!)

EP:  When I was a kid my friend TOM COLE’s dad worked at Disney, and he said he was always going to build a little Haunted Mansion ride in their garage.We used to play Bloody Mary,build  spook houses in his room ,and every time I went to his house I would peek in their garage and be disappointed to see their VW sitting on blocks.

But I always have loved the HAUNTED MANSION ride since I first went as a kid,and the music is just so great! The whole thing is just such a great piece of artistic history!

I even drew one print in my Haunted Mansion prints set that I sel that  has all the names of the biggest contributors to the ride,like artist Marc Davis who was an animator at Disney’s first.He drew Cruella De vil.

I even made a shirt similar to how the old HATBOX Ghost character worked. He was only in the ride for a short time,because they said you couldn’t see his head disappear and reappear in the hatbox quick enough. On my shirt it looks normal in the light, and when you turn the lights off it glows in the dark and you see his face appear in the hatbox instead of his body. 

Got several of the Hatbox ghost shirts!  Love em'!!!!

Here is a great 7 minutes history on the hatbox ghost:

    

Mr. M:So what was it like working at WALT DISNEY STUDIOS? And the ED EDD AND EDDY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL?

 

Charlotte from Princess and the Frog (good movie)

EP: I worked at Walt Disney feature animation  from 1987 to 2002 on the hand drawn films.I usually worked on the villain's like,Hades, Kerchak, Radcliff, Ursula,Silver,the Hyena's. It was a great job,and my own stuff would not exist if I had never worked there. See in 2002 they said people don’t want to see hand drawn films anymore and canned us all. So I took my money I saved and put it into my Toxictoons line and have been doing that sense. I did go back in 2009 on THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG,but this time I worked on the cute southern belle Charlotte.She was tuff,cute is harder to draw then hideous!

The ED EDD AND EDDY HALLOWEEN Special came about because when I was doing my own cartoon ,”LETS CHOP SOO-E!” for International Rocketship in 1989 I met DANNY ANTONUCCI there.He was one of their animators.And he is the creator of the ED EDD AND EDDY show.He was doing his Halloween special and asked if I would want to draw the neighborhood kids in my style.So I worked on it 3 weeks doing characters designs.It was a lot of fun,and the special turned out great!see it here and on CARTOON NETWORK every Halloween:
 Still don't think that you might have seen his work?  Ever seen the Ed, Edd n' Eddy's Boo Haw Haw?  No?  Then watch it!!!  NOW!  

Warning: May NOT be safe for work and children or those with weak constitutions...although hilarious...

Mr. M: I see TRICK OR TREAT STUDIOS has some more of your masks for 2011.

EP: Yeah Trick or Treat studios did 3 masks this year based on my Toxictoons characters. The masks names are Fang- Rot - Brain Eater, and last years Gruesome mask which I hear is still one of their best sellers!

The third one looks like my old P.E. coach.

Its very weird when I think back when I was a kid and bought my very first monster mask,it was a skeleton. And I even used it as a prop in my 1st Haunted House my brother and I built back in the 1970s.Then now I have masks based off drawings I drew. It’s a NIGHTMARE come true,and sometimes I really can’t believe where my life has taken me.I feel very lucky and blessed with what  I have accomplished in my art career.

Mr. M: I have your app, and it's great, tell us a little about it...

They all real real pretty!

EP: Yes I have an APP called MONSTERPIECES. My boss Margie Daniels who I worked with on THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG,Her husband ERIC DANIELS is really great with computers and he built this really great APP. Basically you are in a lab building your own Toxictoons monster from all my monster parts. You will be able to save your images you create to Facebook and gruesome photo gallery. It’s a lot of fun and only $2.99

It reminds me of the fun you had as a kid with all those old creepy toys like,CREEPY CRAWLERS,STRANGE CHANGE MACHINE & the MOTORIZED MONSTER MAKER.

(I had the honor of interviewing Mr. Daniels, a very nice guy who has my dream job, no wait, my dream job is to do nothing and be filthy stinking rich.  Read his interview below!)

Mr. M: So I gather that you are a full-time artist (insert fit of jealousy).  Can you tell us of a typical day in the life of a cartoonist?

EP: Well I wake up, and I hope I see sales from my website wwww.toxictoons.com , so I can breathe a little easier. It is a fun being a full time artist, but it is a very tuff way to make a living.

When I was working full time at Disney animation it ate up all my time which I hated,but I got paid so well and HEALTH INSURANCE. So after I see if I sold stuff I package sales and mail em off. If it’s a day where I have some drawings I have sketched out to do,I spend the day inking one in,and then color it in photo shop.

Then I see if I think I want to use it for a future shirt design or just in a future book,or some other merchandise idea. A lot of my art these days seems to fit this purpose before I start.

Before my heart attack I would finish 3 pieces a week. Lately it’s been 1 every other week. But it’s also been hot this summer here in California, and in winter for some reason I get more creative. Plus with Halloween approaching I really get inspired, and I also stock pile ideas in my sketchbook.

Mr. M:  You have close to now 80 prints in your gallery (many that hang on my wall), is #1 the first print that you officially did and I know that it's hard to do this, like picking a favorite child, but which one is your favorite(s)?  Which character is the most fun to draw?

EP: Thanx I wonder where they all went,the Herase print #1 wasn’t my 1st drawing ,but is one of my best sellers though.I have a Toxictoons book,my 1st one it’s a white paperback and has been sold out for years now.It had 150 pages of art ,plus 2 other books worth before I drew the hearse print.

Usually I tend to have liked pieces that send me in a new creative direction of what I will tend to draw a lot over and over theme wise. I do have so many characters,but Frankensteins monster and his vamp are my favorite characters to draw.

But some of my favorite pieces are ,”MY HEART IS YOURS.” I woke up one morning and was still groggy, then I just sketched it out. Just like it looks, which usually never happens.I always usually doodle thumbnail ideas on a sheet of paper, and then when I see a doodle I like and that I feel like ,ok I got it.I then enlarge the thumbnail drawing and work over it until I feel I’m happy enough to ink it in.

Some of my favorite pieces are prints: The Great Pumpkins arrival,Monster Mash, Deaths Last stitch, Love is Blind,The Sick Humor Man, Midnite death ride ,Hey can you spare a Hershy Bar,and I ATE THE COOK.

On my dvd I sell UNKLE PIGORS SPOOKHOUSE,I  talk a lot about this piece and my childhood,and how it all came together in the end.

 Mr. M: Barware, Ouija boards, magnets, shirts, prints, and now highly detailed masks, what else could we perhaps look forward to from Toxictoons?

EP:Man if I had the money I would make almost everything,I would love to see my stuff more in the HALLOWEEN area.I see so much stuff in stores this time of year and think,man if I could only get my stuff in front of all these people I could be set!

But t-shirts are my best sellers, and over the past 10 years I have made over wait... {I just counted oevr 115 shirts in 10 years,holy crap that’s a lot!} Sometimes  I feel like the well of ideas for shirt designs has ran dry. And then an idea comes to me and then 5, and ‘im off and running again! But a HALLOWEEN SPECIAL Is what I really want to do most of all.

Mr. M: Ever thought of doing a graphic novel (pleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyes)?

EP:Well no,I rather do a kids style book but more for adults.I like doing full page pieces.And comics, I do love,but I don’t like drawing in that format.Animation is more what I like also.

To see ERIC PIGORS Art or buy some of  his Toxictoons merchandise (you know you want to), just click the skull below!

Want to know more about Eric Pigors and the demented art he creates?  Then click on the Monsterpiece I made below to be transported to the interview from last year!

 

Bonus! Keep on readin'!  An interview with Eric Daniels, a Disney Animation Artist and Programmer of MONSTERPIECES!

(And a nice guy too)

Have you ever wondered about the life of an animator? Ever been curious on who comes up with the apps that pile up in your smartphone?  It is indeed my pleasure to introduce to you Mr. Eric Daniels, a Disney animator and the software writer of MONSTERPIECES.

Click on the cute widdle monster above to be transported to the Apple  Store where you can buy your very own copy of Monsterpieces!

Mr. M: First of all, thank you for taking the time to do this for us, could you tell us a bit about yourself and what your occupation is?

E.D: By day, I work at Disney Feature Animation. My exact job title changes now and then, because I love too many areas of this art form to stay in any one area for very long. I'll animate for a while, then I'll do technical support, then I'll program, then I'll animate some more... it's the way I prefer it. Usually the big studios won't let you move around that much, 

but I've been very fortunate with Disney; they've been unusually accommodating.

Mr. M: You know Eric Pigors and I would guess that you enjoy the gruesome creations he concocts.  How did you first meet and what brought about the idea for the MonsterPieces app?

Monsterpieces button for the iPhone

E.D:I first became a fan of Eric Pigors when my wife started as an artist at Disney, back in 1988 or so. She'd bring home these hilariously twisted postcards her coworker had made, and as our collection grew, his art just crept into my skull and wouldn't leave. Part of my brain seems to now be permanently devoted to his twisted vision.

When I started programming iPhone apps in my spare evenings, one of the first ideas I had was to figure out how to do an Eric Pigors app. I had several ideas jotted down, but none of them seemed to do his weird sensibility justice. Then, after writing and releasing two apps, I was looking around for which of my ideas to try next, and started thinking (again) about Eric Pigors' art.

My first thought was to make a game with his characters, but... well, the delight I get when I see some bizarre, crazy new idea of his is a big part of why his art is fun... so having the same characters walking around inside a game, over and over, didn't seem like it would have the same surprising, laugh-out-loud joy. But if you could create your own monster, and create your own laugh-out-loud moment... THAT seemed more like what I love about his artwork. Fortunately, he had been thinking along similar lines; he had made a "build-a-monster" page in one of his books... so I think we were on the same wavelength from the start.

Well someone's been busy in the lab!

Mr. M: In designing this app, what were the general steps in the process from the "hey, it would be kind of cool to have something where you can make your own monster" to pressing the send button to send it to Apple for review?

E.D: I like to start with a proof-of-concept stage, where I mock-up what the app might look and/or act like. So the first step was to jump into Photoshop and separate several of Eric's monster heads into their constituent parts; eyes, noses, mouths, heads... and then I started using those pieces and experimenting with how I could use them in a program.

I would name him Fluffy!

In the first version of the app that I mocked up, you could choose one nose, one pair of eyes, one mouth, one head shape... And I realized that it was incredibly limiting. It's okay for, say, the Futurama head-maker, or any of the other face-maker apps out there. But for Eric Pigors' artwork, you want to be able to make some wretched creature with three mouths, five eyes, two heads, a faucet coming from a nostril... there have to be no rules. So it was back to the drawing board. At some point, one of us had the idea of several bubbling vats, with the pieces falling in from above... We both liked that idea, so he drew me a vat, and I started programming like crazy.

The actual process of programming is tough to describe without resorting to metaphors, because it's so abstract. But basically, the job is to start with a very small program that doesn't do anything, and then gradually teach it to do everything you want it to. Along the way, there are an agonizing number of setbacks, pitfalls, successes, hurdles, and breakthroughs. Then one day you realize you're done! And at that point -- if they'll let you -- you reacquaint yourself with your wife and kids.

Mr. M: Do you have any other apps that are on the market?

Yes, I've got two other apps out right now: "Universe Splitter," which uses quantum physics to create alternate realities (no, really!), and "Sketji," which gives the user a very intuitive, naturalistic drawing experience -- somewhat like a big brush loaded with a lot of ink. I wouldn't call either of them terribly successful, but they were labors of love, so I'm not too concerned.(why do I feel suddenly feel rather simple minded all of the sudden? He are smart.)

Mr. M:  This looks like it would have been a fun collaboration, the results are great!  How was it working with Eric?  

As I said, I've known Eric a long time... we've worked on many movies together, so I feel like we were nicely "in tune" with each other during the process; I'd ask him for a particular piece of art, and he'd deliver it in no time; he'd suggest things and I'd program them in; etc. 

It was a good give-and-take.

Mr. M:  Eric told me that you work in Disney's animation department.  I'm not envious, green is my natural skin color.  Are there any films that have your handiwork in them?

Treasure Planet

Loved this movie!

E.D:Sure: For Tarzan, I created Deep Canvas, the software which enabled the background artists to paint a 3-dimensional jungle that a camera could fly through... In Treasure Planet, I co-designed and co-animated the villain Silver's mechanical eye, hand and leg (with Glen Keane)... in Tangled, I was the artistic supervisor of the amazing team which did all the long-hair simulations. In addition to Disney, though, I've worked at DreamWorks on Over The Hedge, and Film Roman on The Simpsons (Season IV). Those are the highlights, anyway. In 

between, I've done a lot of things I'm far less proud of.

I wish to thank Eric Pigors and Eric Daniels for their kind indulgences! I very much appreciate their time and effort to allow me to share with you, dear readers, their talents and accomplishments.