This week artist’s spotlight is on Midnight Drive:

1. Describe in detail your art.                                                                                                “After graduating from Savinis school in 2015 I decided to start my own mask company with my wife called Midnight Drive. Midnight Drives esthetic is neon soaked late night tv monster goodness. The louder the monsters the better!”
2.  What is your favorite piece you have done and why? What is your least favorite or most difficult piece you have created and why?                                                         “Every monster I make is always my favorite at the time. I’m too much of a monster kid to have any favorites. Although, I’d have to say the Neon Nightwolf is probably one of my favorite color schemes I did. It turned out super loud and like it came from some region beyond soaked in sleazy neon hahaha.”
3. What is your least favorite or most difficult piece you have created and why?           “I did a mask called Death Knight a while ago. He was going to be this ethereal undead space knight kinda thing. Looking back I don’t know what I was thinking with that sculpt haha. He turned out nothing like that!”
4.  Where do you find your inspiration in creating your art?                                           “My inspiration comes from 80s horror, vhs cover art, neon soaked arcades, late nite tv, Joe Bob Briggs, USA Up All Nite, local horror show hosts, new wave and sleazy B-movies.”
5. What venue has favorite place in terms of selling or displaying your art and why? “Maskfest! Hands down Maskfest! It’s a convention that happens every year around Aug/Sept in Indiana and it celebrates all things monsters and masks.”
6.  Do you have anything excited coming up in terms of your art? “I’m currently working on a large Deadly Spawn mask and some other monsters for Maskfest in August.”

If you have any other questions and/or would like to contact James for more information is contact info is his Instagram: midnight_drive

Until Next time!

Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting installment of “Welcome to the Insta-hood”! Where I interview fascinating Instagrammers. Today’s interview is with Dave Neabore (IG: DogeatDave)

1. Hello Dave, please tell me a little about yourself:                                                           “My main interests are always music and movies! I always had a love of this stuff since an early age. I was really into heavy metal, punk, hardcore and classical music as a teenager which probably started my appreciation of horror movies and soundtracks. I used to manage two video stores from 1986-1994, so I was known as “the video guy” in my town. I’ve been in bands since I was 12 and started touring Europe and recording records by 18. I’ve been very fortunate to have had a successful music career for 30 years including gold records and an MTV award by age 25. I love to travel, so touring has made it possible to visit over 50 countries and counting. I love animals and meeting good hearted people of which I consider myself one.”
2. What are your five top soundtracks?                                                                                     “I get asked this question a lot and as a serious collector I find it very difficult to answer cause I love so many! But I can say the soundtracks that influenced me the most are Creepshow, Halloween 2, Dawn Of The Dead, Maniac, and Phantasm. There’s so many more great ones including plenty of non-horror stuff too. I’m very open minded and into everything, so all you have to do is drive in my car and for sure you will say what everyone does – “WTF are you listening to?”
3. What movies have you recently really been into?                                                          “The last movie to really blow me away was A Ghost Story. That movie was brilliant and haunting (no pun intended!). I really liked Brawl In Cellblock 99, Mother!, Ingrid Goes West, Brigsby Bear, The Neon Demon, Mayhem, and Hacksaw Ridge. I prefer indie and challenging art house films and I’m really not into a lot of big budget Hollywood films. However I like Kong Skull Island, and thought Wonder Woman was fun. I’m always watching the older classics, b-movies, and trash films! My motto is bad movies and good beer are the perfect combination! I’m not really into newer horror as much although there’s still a few good ones coming out however it doesn’t have the same effect as the films I grew up on. The Suspiria Blu-ray from Synapse is mind blowing in its detail and color and for me is easily the best release of the year!”
4. You have posted some really great movie items. What are some of your favorite things you have and why?                                                                                                   “I’ve been collecting horror related items since I was young so I’ve got tons to share! When I joined Instagram a few years ago I felt like I finally had an outlet to share the stuff that has just been sitting in boxes or piles for decades. I could go on for years and never run out of items to show off. My prized possession is definitely my Zombie poster signed by Lucio Fulci. I was extremely fortunate to have met him in NYC before he passed away. I really love my soundtrack collection on both vinyl and CD.  Plus I got some great books and magazines that were published before the internet took over.”
5. Do you you any exciting events coming up that you would like to share?              “Well first in March I’m going to Monster Mania horror convention in NJ to meet John Carpenter again.” “Then I start touring Europe in April with my band Dog Eat Dog.” “After that Chiller Theatre convention in late April, then the Misfits reunion show in May, and at least 5 more trips to Europe over the summer! I have a bunch of soundtracks coming out this year including the Zombie and Bottomfeeder comics from Eibon Press, and a re-release Of my soundtrack to Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered coming out on Poisoned Mind Records, so I will be very busy and having lots of fun in 2018!”

Thank you Dave for letting me interview you! If you have any questions and want to know more information about him his IG  is: @DogeatDave

until next time!

hello everyone to another round of “welcome to the Insta-hood” Were I interview exciting and fascinating people. Today we meet fellow IG-er: Jesse Nelson

1. Tell me a little about yourself.:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           ” I am Jesse Nelson from right outside Philadelphia and I am 1/2 of DiabolikDVD and 1/4 of Exhumed Films.  I live in an old, old, old farmhouse with my wife, 2
   kids, 3 cats, a dog and a lot of chickens plus mounds of movies, books
   and toys. It is chaos!”
2.  How did you come up with your concept of  DiabolikDVD.com ?:                         “When we started Exhumed Films 20 years ago we would bring VHS tapes to
   sell at the shows. Three of us used to work at a video store and the
   owners were constantly selling off tapes and I spent a lot of time at
   the flea markets in those early ebay days when you could still find
   things.  We soon realized we needed some more things to sell at shows
   and  moved over to importing DVDs – mostly from Hong Kong.  We watched
   a lot of Hong Kong action and horror movies those days and there were
   also some oddballs Japanese titles available from Hong Kong.   For a
   long time we didn’t even have a US distributor. We only bought titles
   from overseas, but as things progressed, so did we and eventually we
   were bringing things in from all over and also moved over to more of a
   horror/cult focus than we were initially.”
3.  What are your top five personal favorite movies on your website and why?:        “VIY / BNN – back in the early days there was a Russian import of this
   film that we carried. We bought them from a shop near coney island in
   NYC and had to order only by fax but I was so thrilled to finally see
   this film and it still remains a favorite and an all time best seller
   of diabolik.Farewell Uncle Tom – I know this is a rough one and it really isn’t a
   favorite film of mine (though I did go out of my way to see it at
   Fantastic Fest a few years ago and Exhumed Films has shown it), but
   what I love is that this film exists on home video at all.  It really
   is amazing that films like this have been released despite the content
   and I don’t have to buy some crummy burned disc of it.

   Equinox – I have loved this film for so long, I have the poster in my
   office, we own a 35mm print, I have the press books and the 8mm
   digest.  When I read that Criterion was doing a special edition with
   both versions of the film, I really couldn’t get over it.
   
   The Thing – Pick the arrow version or pick the scream factory version,
   I don’t care, I am not interested in debating.  They both look
   fantastic to me and it is Carpenter’s best film.  I watched this so
   many times on VHS back in the 80s that it was a revelation to finally
   be able to watch it on Laserdisc, DVD and now Blu-Ray.

   Suspiria – Amazing. The Synapse steelbook is probably one of the best
   releases we have ever had and right up there in the top 5 best sellers
   as well.”

4. . What interests/ activities do you enjoy personal that outside your
   business interest.                                                                                                                         “I spend a lot of time working. Probably too much says my family! But I
   also love reading and playing video games.  The books in my life
   probably take up about as much room as my movies and lets not even
   talk about toys and other little things I pick up all time !   Of
   course watching movies is probably my biggest passion.”
5.  Do you have any exciting things coming up for your business that
   you would like to share? ” A lot of things we work out aren’t really planned too far in advance. We are working a lot more conventions this year than in years past.
   Double what we did last year and triple what we did two years ago.  We
   also have something else coming up that we can’t talk about yet, but
   it should be amazing!  My goal is always to have a better year than
   last and while we can’t please everyone, I really do make the best
   effort to try.”

For more information, questions or to contact Jesse please used the following contact info:

http://www.facebook.com/DiabolikDVD
\https://twitter.com/diabolikdvd
http://pinterest.com/diabolikdvd/
http://www.facebook.com/ExhumedFilms

Thank you Jesse for giving me a chance to interview  you!

Until next time!

This week’s Artist’s Spotlight is on: damarxtoys

1.  How did you come up with your concept? : “I’ve tried a few different art forms over the years and never have really found a specific focus. I dropped out of art school back in the 90’s because I felt college had not much to offer me except crippling debt. So, I took to the school of life and have been exploring different avenues since. I happened upon the “bootleg” resin art scene somewhat accidentally and just sort of took to it. Basically, what I do is use existing toy parts that I find and “kitbash” them together to create a unique character. Then I make a mold of it and reproduce it in resin. The figure is usually then mounted onto a cardback featuring an original illustration of the character. The end result is a professional looking package that looks legit but is all handmade by myself.”
2.  What are you currently working on?: ”
   “I always have quite a few projects on the table. I recently just finished up a short run of 5 figures for the Clutter Gallery InactionFigures6 exhibition in Beacon, NY. Which focuses on action figure and toy art from artist internationally. The character i made for it is a mash up of Pee Wee Herman and C3po. I call him Pee-wee Pio. The card art mimics the film poster for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and was done by collaborater Mux Blank of Mr Blank Toys. The figure was well received and sold out during first previews. I have another batch of them almost ready for anyone else who wants one.
   In addition to that I’ve also been working on an R2d2/Devo mash up that I hope to have available later this month. 
3.  What is your favorite piece you have done so far?:
   “Every time I create something new I think to myself, this is the best thing I’ve ever done! Looking back I suppose the piece I’m most proud of would probably be the award trophies I made for the 2017 Flagpole awards here in Athens, Ga. It was a one piece resin cast depicting a tree man(local icon referred to as “the tree that owns itself”) standing on a pedestal and holding a flagpole. On its head, an owl in mid-flight. Overall, the piece stood about 17″ tall. Out of a run of 23 pieces each were awarded to the top musicians and bands in Athens during 2017.”
4.  Do you own any toys? If so what are your top five favorite toys you own and why?: “I burned or sold most of my collection shortly after the release of The Phantom Menace. It was the turn of the century and it seemed like a good time to purge things of old. After seeing that monstrosity of a film I felt ok about leaving star wars in the past. My love for movies, toys and sci-fi still continued to thrive so a decade or so later I started collecting again but my collection consisted mostly either of toys intended for resell or customizing. I have an infinity towards 3.75″ action figures made famous by Kenner in the 70s and 80s and probably have over 500 loose figures packed in bins. Out of everything I own my most favorite toys are the ones that were made by my peers in the resin casting community. It’s really hard for me to pick favorites but here are a few things in my core collection that I like because not only are they unique to most collections but I have a personal connection to them somehow. In no particular order;
   a) X-ray R2 by Barbarian Rage. Vintage R2 cast in clear resin with an r2 style skeleton embedded into it. Brilliant!
   b) Drug Dealing Shark by Joseph Harmon includes bag of cocaine. I love this guys art and he rarely makes figures.
   c) The Butcher by Acquired Taste Industries. This thing is glorious! It’s a Kenner style taun-taun meticulously shrunken down using a very complicated process. It’s made like a centaur with a bare female torso and the face of princess Leia with giant horns and four arms and 4 light sabers. Definitely, a grail piece!
   d) The Wookie Hash Pipe series by Jim Mahfood. There are currently only 2 figures in this series, Luce Skytoker and Dose Vapors and I have them both. Notably, the sculpt for these are original sculpts by George Gaspar of Double G toys. He also did the sculpt for the Robot Chicken 3.75” gi Joe style figure by Chicken Nugget Enterprises in which I also own and cherish equally.
   e) The Outer Space Men by Four Horseman. This series is made up of glyos reproductions of the unreleased production samples from designs made by Mel Birnkrant in 1969. I own just over half a dozen of the different characters in different designs including carded paint variants of Inferno and Cyclops. Anyone not familiar with this line of figures should check it out.”
5. Do you have anything artistic coming up in the near future? For example do you have any shows or pieces you are currently working on? Collaborations?:  ”
   2018 should prove to be a busy year for me. I am currently working on a studio upgrade to increase the quality of my product. So, that is an exciting prospect. Generally, I like to release figures as part of a series. So, you can expect to see more figures in the Riot Scum series, which is a collab between myself and Neil Devlin of Last Boss Comics. Neil, also did illustrations for my Life Day Story and Say Utinni figures which are a part of my movie poster mashup series which you can also expect to see more of. The R2-Devo figure will feature art by Moctoys and will be the 2nd release in my album mash up series colloboration with him.
   Also, I recently started working with a multi-media artist known as Cabbage Looper, who has a pretty snazzy 3d printer that he built himself. This opens up the possibilities to create original parts and designs rather than kit-bashing existing toys. Since I was a child I have been fascinated with the characters on the Star World action figure case released by Tara Toy Corp in 1977. I was bewildered by their similarity to Star Wars characters and it ignited my imagination by first introducing me to the concept of an alternate universe which nearly all of my present works are based. So, together with Cabbage Looper I’ve started working on original designs for these characters with astounding results. I have an amazing proto-type from the 3-d printer of the “vader” character and I hope to start reproducing it real soon.
    In addition, you can expect many random surprises from Buzzards Guts in the coming months!”

   For more information, or questions about this artist please use the following info below:

   Damarxtoys@gmail.com

   Instagram@damarxtoys

   Facebook.com/buzzardgutz

   Buzzard Guts on Tumblr
   I have bought some art pieces of Dain over the past year and he has an amazing concept and eye! He is definitely an artist to watch!

   Until next time!