This week’s round of comic book cover art 
Month: September 2018
Welcome to the Insta-hood: @nightliquid_retro !
Welcome to this week’s installment of Welcome to the Insta-hood. This week I interviewed @nightliquid_retro
- Tell me a bit about yourself. “Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m Sebastian. I grew up in San Jose, California, but I live in Berlin now and work as a sound designer & music producer. I’m obsessed with synthesizers, retro gadgets and 80s goth music.”
- How did you come up with your IG name? “The goal was to come up with a catchy, yet weird name that means absolutely nothing. Mission accomplished!”
- What inspire to create your theme on your IG? “Imagine walking into a toy store as a kid. You’re overwhelmed by excitement – fascinating, colourful objects everywhere, new discoveries behind every corner. “Oh, I’ve seen that on TV before! Oh, but what’s this, right next to it? I need it!” You want them all, but you can never have them all. This is precisely the emotion I want to evoke when people visit my profile.”
- What are your top five items you have posted on your feed and why? “Pac-Man Watch by Nelsonic (1982)”
“As a kid, video game watches were the holy grail of awesomeness. Obviously the gaming experience was very limited, but it was a portable videogame that you could proudly display on your wrist.”
Sony D-88 Discman (1988)
“A classic case of style over substance. However, I still love the fact that this came out in an era were even huge corporations were experimenting and taking risks with product design. Everything was possible.”
Yamaha QY10 Mini Music Workstation (1990)
“This was a pretty ground breaking concept back in the day: A portable & battery powered music production workstation, smaller and lighter than the original Nintendo Gameboy. Of course it was very limited and not very intuitive, but the idea to sketch out full song is a very appealing idea, even nowadays.”
Nintendo / Sharp – Famicon Titler (1989)
“This is a very rare Japanese version of the Nintendo Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) that allows users to edit video, even for adding sound, animation and subtitles. It’s fascinating that such a thing even exists.”
Casio – CK 200 Keyboard Boombox (1985):
“A portable music playback device that allows you to play along to the music and add beats? Awesome! This is pretty much everything I’m interested in combined into one neat little box. Casio made so many cool gadgets back in the 80s, it’s ridiculous. Game watches, game calculators, synthesizers, keyboard boomboxes, the list is endless.”
5. What decade would you consider to have best gadgets and why? “I’ll definitely have to go with the 80s. The portable consumer electronics market was still in its infancy; many companies were still testing the waters. Oh and not to forget: The instantly recognizable 80s tech product design aesthetic. Lovely.”
If you would like more information on Nightliquid_Retro his contact info is below:
Email: info@nightliquid.com
Thank you for the interview!
Until next time!
Soundtrack of the week: Shock Treatment
This week’s soundtrack write up belongs to 1981’s Shock Treatment!
It is a movie directed by Jim Sharman. It was also co-written by Sharman and Richard O’Brien.
Richard O’Brien is the same person who wrote “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” And like Rocky Horror, Shock Treatment is full of dance worthy tracks! There is a on going debate whether Shock Treatment is a continual of Rocky Horror Picture Show but I am not going to pick a side on that debate.
There are some returning characters but they are not played by the same actors. They are returning actors (like Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn and Little Nell Campbell) but they are not playing the same roles they did in Rocky Horror. So it is really your own called whether or not you feel like this is a continual or something that is completely on it’s own from Rocky Horror.
The movie has Janet and Brad Majors (played by Jessica Harper and Cliff De Young) who have recently been married and visit the town of Denton, Ohio. The town is now owned by a major company called Farley Favors and now the whole town of Denton lives within a TV studio.
While Janet and Brad visit a live taping of Denton they are picked out from the audience as contestants for a game show. The prize from the show was getting Brad into a mental hospital and Janet transformed into a major TV pop star. Throughout the whole time there are various songs that discussing Denton, and the relationship of Brad and Janet.
I picked three random songs from the soundtrack to discuss:
Denton, U.S.A:
This is one of the opening songs and it is one of my favorites from the soundtrack. It’s up tempo beat and weird town anthem of what they envisioned there perfect town to be.
Shock Treatment:
This is the main song and it is sung in the mental hospital that Brad is held prisoner in. Janet has reveal her true diva self to Brad and he is helpless to do anything about it because is trapped in a cage.
Bitchin ‘In Kitchen:
This song is sung while Brad and Janet are on the game show. They are airing out their problems and difficulties they have in their marriage so far. The game show host concludes that the best prize for them is that Brad have a “mental check up.”
Until Next time!
Banned Book Week: A Clockwork Orange
I don’t really have any life goals however I do have make promises to myself. One promise to myself that I have kept has been to read all of the books from the Banned and frequently challenged book list. I guess it my own form of rebellion against authority and reading something that has been controversial makes it SO MUCH more appealing to me! I decided to choose books from that list because those books have stood the test of time of being constantly banned for some reason or another.
Right now my current read is “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess (publish in 1962). This book has been frequently challenged and banned in US schools in the 70’s due to it’s “offensive language.” In 1973 a bookseller in the US was arrested (but charges were never pressed) for selling the book in their stores!
The book has gone through many cover changes since it’s first printing. Below are some glorious examples:
happy reading!
Until Next time!
Artist’s Spotlight: Martin Ontiveros
This week’s artist’s Spotlight is on Martin Ontiveros
- Describe your art aesthetic. “It’s kind of a mix of ancient Mesoamerican/Mesopotamian art, heavy metal imagery, the occult, medieval art, underground comics, and a bit of Jim Flora. I think, anyway. It’s always tough answering this question.”
- What is your favorite piece you have created and why? “The reality is, I probably haven’t made it yet, I’ve done quite a lot and my style has evolved in the last couple decades so it would hard to single anything out. But for the purposes of answering the question I’d say either the shirt I did for Mastodon or maybe the Rob Zombie poster.
I was around 12 or 13 when I started thinking maybe art was something I’d want to become good at and it was largely because of Rock album and apparel art, people like Derek Riggs who painted all the early Iron Maiden stuff, Pushead, lots of thrash metal and punk album illustrations, I wanted to do that too. I figured if I wasn’t going to become a rock star, then I could do my part for Rock n Roll/Metal with my art and how the music was presented visually. So those two projects are the pinnacle of my efforts for that so far, and they both happen to be bands/people that I really admire so I lucked out in that respect too. I’m at the point where some of that is in my reach, it’s very humbling. “
- .What things inspire you when you make your art? “I like phenomena, and watch videos and documentaries or listen to podcasts about UFOs, lost civilizations, cryptids, aliens, witches, magic, secret societies, cults, alternative dimensions, hidden histories, anything bizarre, really. I keep books on the shelf about mythology and weird beasts, medieval woodcuts, mostly depicting devils and witches, magic, alchemy. It’s all for reference or to get me imagining a place where these things might exist, like “huh, maybe?”. The mystery of those subjects inspires me more than knowing if any of them are actually true. Also lately I’ve been listening to audio of people explaining characters and events of the Silmarillion by Tolkien because that damned book is just too dense for me to cut through, I’m glad that others did all the hard work for me, ha! “
- One is one random fact about you that not a lot of people know? “I’m ambidextrous but draw left-handed. And I’m nice on the inside despite my prickly appearance. “
- Do you have any upcoming shows, projects etc. that you would like to share? “I’m in a 3 person show in Seattle at Statix Gallery opening October 4th and later that same month I’m in Hi-Fructose Magazine’s Art Of the Mushroom group show in Oakland at The Compound Gallery, October 20th. In November I’ll be at Designer Con, and might have some new vinyl toys to premiere and that’s gonna rock. December is the Taller Del Diablo Show hosted by HellionMX in Mexico City and its 40 artists painting hand made papier-mâché devils made by renowned cartonería sculptor Leonardo Linares (look up the Linares Family, you’ll flip your lid). Got nothing for January 2019 but in February I put a show together with Lurk1, MiRs, Angela Fox and myself at Q Pop Shop in LA. So I got some killer shit coming up, with some killer people! “
If you would like to contact Martin his email is martinheadrocks@gmail.com
And is IG is @martinheadrocks
Thank you for the interview Martin!
Until Next time!
Banned book week!
Banned book week is here and is celebrated from September 23-29. What is Banned book week you ask? Well is emphasizes our freedom to have “expressed ideas that is consider unorthodox or unpopular” in book form. There have been many books that have been either challenged or banned from readers to access in schools and public libraries. Today I was highlight five books from the Frequently Classic books”. I will try to highlight more books from that list as well.
In random order….
- Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (1971)- this book is about a 15 year old girl who has a dependency to drugs only to run away from home and overdoses.
-why was it banned or challenged?: this book is on my most frequently challenged list( it is number one in the high school library challenged book list)due to its wide variety of profanity, sex, rape and drug use.
2. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (1959)- has short but connected passages that focuses on the William Lee a junkie that travels to the US to Mexico using different names and other weird fantasy like places.
-why was it banned or challenged?: This book was actually banned in 1962 in Boston due to its description of child killing and scenes of pedophillia.
3. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)- meant as a book for adults it has become a cult much read for teens because of its discussions of young adolescent angst and alienation. The main character Holden Caulfield is considered a teenage icon because in the books he deals with tough subjects as finding out who he is, belonging, loss and finding value in the world.
–why was it banned or challenged?:
From 1961-1982 it has been frequently challenged in various high schools and libraries in the US. It was banned Issaquah, Washington for conveying communist themes in the plot. The description I gave about the book is mainly why it’s been so frequently banned and challenged.
4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)- describes the real killings of the Clutter Family in Holocomb, Kansas back in 1966.
-why was it banned or challenged?: this book was banned in Savannah, Georgia when a complaint from a parent cited the book for having too much profanity, sex and violence.
5.One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) by Ken Kesseuy- it’s about a psychiatric hospital in Oregon and the lives of the patients that dwell within it. The narrator focuses on one character named Randle Patrick McMurphy who brings in a rebellious spirit into the ward.
–why was it banned or challenged?: from 1974-1978 the book was banned various public schools for its use of showboating criminal activity, and descriptions of bestiality, huge amounts of violence, death and dismemberment.
Read on Everyone!
Comic book cover art
This week’s round of comic book cover art 
Phone call….
I remember two weeks before we met up that September we were texting each other. However I am the kind of person that relies more on voice interaction more than anything so I asked him about the possibility of a phone call. At first he didn’t reply back right away but eventually he responded back with OK but he had to get earphones first because he didn’t want to have his phone up to this face. I asked him again about the phone called a couple of days later and he said that he was a little hesitant about talking and was wondering if we could talk later. I thought since we were texting each other so much it was ok. I am the kind of person that never forces anything upon anyone.
Fast forward to a Saturday night and I was once again glued to my phone texting him and we were having our usual text convos when all of a sudden my phone rang…..
It was him. The call took me by surprise even though I was the one who asked to talk to him over the phone. I answered and heard a very sweet kind voice on the other end of the line. He explained to me that he rarely talks on the phone but he thought he would make an effort.
What I thought would be a short phone conversation ended up being almost three hours. It was my favorite conversation I had ever had with him. We did not talk about anything life changing or earth shattering. I realize that the simplest conversations are the best ones you tend to carried in your heart the longest….. 
Welcome to the Insta-hood: @bootlegbart
This week I interviewed IG account: @bootlegbart
- Tell me a bit about yourself.”Hey Ladycult thank you for having me on, love what you do. Ok so my name is Leo, born & raised in the London Borough Of Hillingdon. Grew up playing Sega, loving the Simpsons & all that good stuff most 80’s/90’s kids did. If you were to put a label on me I would say I’m a creative.
I’m also known as “Bootleg Bart”, the online project I have worked on in spare time for the past 9 years. What else… oh & my home town still has a blockbuster store just standing there derelict getting more & more decayed as the years go by, there’s a garden growing in there!”
- How did you come up with the idea of your IG account?”I’m always coming up with ideas for projects & this one has definitely been seen by the most people. So how did it come about? I guess I can trace it back to 2003-04. I had access to a friends computer & they would let me search online for things & any images I wanted to download I could save on floppy disks (usb sticks I don’t think we’re out yet? or if they were they were new & expensive) I had a bunch of floppy disks labelled up: “2d animation”, “Bollywood horror posters”, “Iceberg History” & one named “Bootleg Bart”…
By 2006 I finally got my own computer & still enjoyed finding all types of art & imagery online & now had folders on my desktop labelled like the old floppy disks.
MySpace was a thing at the time & thought it was funny that you could be friends with ficitional or comedy accounts like: Kermit The Frog or Black Tom.
By this time anytime a family member went on holiday (vacation) & asked if I wanted them to bring anything back, I would just say ” a really bad bootleg Bart tourist shirt”, I had started a small collection by now.
I wanted to find more & share images etc, so I opened up a Flickr account (MySpace had died out by now) , then sometime later a Facebook page. Interest picked up on the project & a lot of the followers would tell me to get on instagram.
- What are your top three favorite Simpsons episodes and why? “The very first Episode I loved & still do on repeated viewing (it was the first episode I saw & the whole 1st season holds the most nostalgic value for me) So yeah, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” has to be number 1. It really shows the struggles a lot of families face at Christmas or just in general in life (work pay, cost of living etc) & that always hits home.
“Stark Raving Dad” the episode with Michael Jackson doing the dialogue (& an inpursonator doing the singing due to contractual stuff I think). It’s just a genius way to do a cameo, so creative & again the struggle between Lisa & Bart, I really feel it when Bart lets her down on her Birthday 😦 but then makes up for it with that song! 🙂
Here’s a link to the MJ demo for “Lisa it’s your birthday” if you & you’re readers are interested:
There’s so many moments in episodes that stand out, from the “Steamed Hams” ,the “Planet Of The Apes Musical” , “The best of times, the blurst of times” .
But I have to chose so… “Moaning Lisa” it is.
It’s got Bleeding Gums Murphy, The Simpsons in a Jazz Club, Bart & Homers video game rivalry, Homer in the arcades barking like a dog & waking up from a nightmare screaming, its got a lot of things I love packed in, with great writing & story.”
- What is the most interesting bootleg Bart item you came across and why?Good question!, I have seen so much random crap over the years.
I’ve seen some of the original screens they used to screen print with. They were found at the back of an out of business print works that had just been bought by the guy that got in touch (I sometimes wonder if he’s out there churning out new bootlegs with the old screens…)
I love seeing some of the early 90’s rave records & flyers that use Simpsons imagery on & a have a few in the collection.
But the most interesting to me is receiving stories,memories & photos from you guys out there- especially when they’re from the early 90’s.
It really is history class to me & love to see how Bartmania touched so many people’s lives.
If you have any memories/photos/thrift finds you would like to share please send to: 📩 contact@bootlegbart.com
- Do you have any exciting events coming up in regards to your account that you would like to share?”Exciting events? Well my partner & I just became parents for the first time. That has been a big event in my life & an inspiration for me to pull my finger out & get this book (that I’ve been working on for years) finished & out there. (Maybe I can come back to the instahood when the book is complete) I’ve also been working on a couple more art toys for this year… To hear about news & releases etc before the public I always recommend people to subscribe to the newsletter at bootlegbart.com
If you have any questions please use the contact information below:
Email: Contact@bootlegbart.com
Website and to sign up for the newletter (I already did!) : Bootlegbart
IG Account is: @bootlegbart
Interview with the Vampire…. my elementary school book report
When I was in 4th grade I was obsessed with vampires so my brother decided to take me to see the movie “Interview with the Vampire when I was 11. After watching it in theaters I became so much MORE vampire crazy. So much so that I had a journal and wrote my own vampire book. It was pages and pages of vampires living in the woods and everything in the woods was magically. I vaguely remember I had a unicorn in it and a deer but I cannot place what exactly they did in my story.
My brother being fully aware of my vampire crazed decided to buy me all of Anne Rice’s Vampire chronicles for Christmas the same year the movie came out. He gave me the first four books that came out so far and they were Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned and The Tale of the Body Thief. 
I didn’t even bother opening any other presents that year after I opened that one and they remained unopened until way past New Years. I took the stack of hardcover books to my read and it took my about ten minutes to figure out what order I should read them in. I decided to go with Interview with the Vampire first. I read and took that book EVERYWHERE during that holiday break. I would wake up and immediately start reading it, I would take with me if I had to go with my mom to do errands. When it was time for me to go to bed I would wait ten minutes to only get out of bed and run into my closet where I would had a flashlight covers and pillows on the closet floor and I would read until I fell asleep. I read all the of the novels I got in two weeks which was a little impressive for a fourth grader. The only assignment I had to do over the holiday break was write a book report of a book of our choice. So naturally I picked ” Interview with the Vampire.”
I remember when I came back to school and turned in my paper. A week later my teacher was passing our reports back out and I didn’t get mine. I was worried because I loved writing about the book so much that I thought I did my paper wrong. I asked my teacher for my paper and he looked at me and said well we have to have a talk about it later. I remember at the end of the day my teacher told me that I had to go to the principals office. I was really confused because I was the kind of kid that never gets in trouble so I walked slowly down the hall to the office. I went inside the principal office and saw my parents both sitting there! My mom told me to sit down and so I did. The principal told my parents that I was an extremely bright child and could read and grasp mature content and read at a high school level however doing a book report on this kind of material isn’t suitable for an elementary school. 
I never got back my report and I still wonder what happened to it……
Until next time!
ladycultblog 