By Jesse Horn

Not since the brilliance of Charles Adams or Edward Gorey has there been and artist who has defined themselves with such glorious ghoulish and delightfully sinister mastery as the mad creator himself, Gris Grimly. His distinctive style and eclectic selection of creations, ranging from children’s books to films, has garnered himself a loyal worldwide following. His work has appeared in over a dozen bestselling books including his New York Times best selling collaboration with author Neil Gaiman, The Dangerous Alphabet. His own stories have been highly successful with titles such as Little Jordan Ray’s Muddy Spud and the Wicked Nursery Rhymes series. He has been paired with such classic authors as Carlo Colodi on Pinocchio, Washington Irving on The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, Edgar Allan Poe on both Tales of Mystery and Madness and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley on the highly anticipated 2012 release of Frankenstein. Grimly has received countless honors and awards for is work, and in 2005 he ventured into independent film with Cannibal Flesh Riot!

He is currently working on his second featurette Wounded Embark of the Lovesick Mind with an anticipated release in 2011, and has signed on to direct a stop motion feature film version of his book Pinocchio, produced by Guillermo Del Torro and The Henson Company. Oddities had the honor and privilege to speak to Mr. Grimly about his influences, his work, and the exciting developments surrounding Pinocchio.

Oddities: What would you say was the biggest influence on you creatively as a youth, and is there anything that inspires, or has inspired you, that might surprise readers to know?

Grimly: Comic books were the biggest influence on me as a kid. Not just as far as visual style, but also how I think and my since of humor. Everything from Sam Keith and Bill Sienkeiwicz to Charles Addams and Berkeley Breathed. I don’t know if there is anything that would really surprise readers. People are pretty hard to shock these days.

Oddities: What draws you to the macabre?

Grimly: What draws a jock to football? Whatever it is, it was instilled in me when I was created.

Oddities: What brought you to use the mediums you use for art?

Grimly: Jon J Muth is the sole reason I took up watercolor. When I was young, I saw a copy of Moonshadow and wanted to do art like that. My work looks nothing like it, but that is why I went in that direction.

Oddities: You have indicated on your website, in reference to getting started as an artist, that fate had dropped all of this in your lap, can you explain the circumstances of that?

Grimly: I come from a sleepy midwestern town and knew I was going to go to one of two places- LA or New York. The one driving force that drew me westbound was an encounter with someone who worked at Universal Studios. She said if I moved out here, she would find me work. So I did. Through her I was introduced to my first agency. At the time I was only interested in doing comic books. While attending a gallery for a Ralph Steadman art show, I found myself in a conversation with one of the workers. We discussed an Edward Gorey art show currently on exhibit in LA. To make a long story short, she talked me into illustrating little children’s books that would be sold in the gallery. This is the work that my agency at the time used to get me my first children’s book job. Everyone I met since seems to be an integral fall in one long row of dominos.

Oddities: What is something that people don’t know about you, but would find interesting to know?

Grimly: I’ve been known to growl in my sleep.

Oddities: How have your faired in the changing media world, have you been affected by the way media business is having to evolve? Do you feel it is evolving, or do you feel that it is being reborn? (odd question I know, but with news and music media having to change and find a functioning format or die, I am curious how this is affecting the crafters of the very art they are trying to sell)

Grimly: I haven’t adapted very well. I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to the art form. I’ve never embraced the computer as a tool to create artwork, animation or special effects. I personally feel that the outcome is stale. But I hope that I can maintain to be a prevailer of the traditionalist form.

Oddities: Can you describe a little about your creation process when you are working on a project?

Grimly: That depends on what kind of a project it is.

Oddities: How much of your art is preplanned?  Do you sketch it out first, or is the process somewhat organic?

Grimly: I like to work more organic. I usually stick to my original thought. I may evolve from that instinct in the process but I remain true to that impulse. It is much like music. You can make a song more produced by recording it over and over and over. But you simultaneously loose it’s soul.

Oddities: What sort of things inspire the overall look of a particular image, such as mood, color, and style, as well as what will be included in it? Do you use people from your life and experiences as character inspiration?

Grimly: They say all inspiration comes from life. I’m not denying that. But most of my ideas come from some mess that oozes from my brain.

Oddities: How do you work? You have indicated that you primarily use ink and watercolors, do you also utilize a computer in this process, or is the entire piece done as a whole?

Grimly: My art is done completely by hand. The only time a computer is used is for color separations as needed for silkscreen projects.

Oddities: I did notice on “Sipping Spiders” you used some mixed media, is this something that you enjoy and do elsewhere?

Grimly: I used to use more mixed media in my personal projects and art pieces.

Oddities: When working with others how much are you involved with the author? Do you influence each other, or are you working with a completed text?

Grimly: For the most part, I don’t work with the author at all. The exception to this was The Dangerous Alphabet with Neil Gaiman. There really wasn’t much of a story there in the text, so we worked together on the phone developing the narrative together. This narrative is expressed visually rather than in the text.

Oddities: Can you give some insight into the Pinocchio movie project, and where it is going?

Grimly: Pinocchio is an animated feature that I presented to Guillermo Del Toro about seven years ago. Since then, many talented individuals and companies have become involved. We are at a very pivotal moment in the film. Early in 2010 we received a development deal with the studio Pathe. That money was used to create a visual presentation along with a script for the film. We plan to pitch to studios in February for the full budget to get the film made there after.

The most exciting news recently is locking down Nick Cave and Warren Ellis to do the score. I’m a huge fan of their music and can’t imagine a more appropriate composer to deliver the score for this film.

Oddities: How did this project get started, and what has it been like working on the Jim Henson lot with Mackinnon and Saunders? Are you pleased with what is being done?

Grimly: My illustrated version of Pinocchio had just come out and I was working with a company producing 3-dimensional statues based off the book. Some friends and I started playing around with the idea of Pinocchio as a stop motion feature. We started working on ideas and brainstorming on ways to get this made. We came up with a list of directors who would be ideal for this project. Guillermo Del Toro was one of them. Ironically, shortly after that I get a call from a gallery who was selling artwork from my Pinocchio book. They told me that Guillermo was just in and bought a piece of art from the book. I asked if they could contact him and arrange a meeting. We met for lunch. This was back when he was still working on the first Hellboy. I told him all about the film idea and how it would look. He said he wouldn’t direct it, but he would produce it. Seven years later, we are on the verge of seeing that project become a reality.

Oddities: What is it like to see your world being crafted into something tangible?

Grimly: Always amazing. Because it is then that others can see what I see.

Oddities: What other projects do you have in the works, do you have anything we can expect to see soon?

Grimly: Pinocchio is taking up a big portion of my time. Other than that, I am illustrating Frankenstein which will be released in 2012. I am also finishing up on a short film of mine, Wounded Embark of the Lovesick Mind. I plan to have that completed and released this year.

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By Jesse Horn

Some of the world’s  most fascinating and often most misunderstood professions are those in an area of entertainment housed under the banner “Sideshow”. Often called freak shows, these acts of old featured oddities and performances that could not be found in the mainstream. Despite their sometimes dubious reputation, a revival of the sideshow came in the 1990s with the help of the widely popular Jim Rose Circus. Currently there are scores of performers from this era wowing audiences across the globe. The success and appeal of these kinds of shows are obvious, bringing a spectator up-close to the outrageous and unbelievable. Yet there is a cloud of uncertainty and suspicion surrounding the infamous ringmaster, Jim Rose. Oddities contacted Mr. Rose, who agreed to grant access to behind the scenes of his journey into the performance life, as well as insight into his true art…deception.

Jim Rose is no stranger to controversy and discourse. His public fallout with members of his former troupe has villainized his appearance in the media. Yet he makes no apologies for his irreverent and sometimes unscrupulous demeanor. It is also sometimes difficult to get a consistent story from him, although his charismatic and humorous voice draws you in regardless.

“I was born premature and cross eyed,” Mr. Rose began. “I was left in a hospital for two weeks in an incubator before my parents could bring me home. When they did they didn’t have cribs my size so my first bed was a shoe box. I don’t remember how much I weighed but my mom says I was a women’s size 7.”

Rose explained that when he was in the sixth grade he received corrective eye surgery, and it was not long after that while at home he heard a knock at his Arizona home.

“There were these guys recruiting neighbor hoodlums  to vend soft drinks at the state fair grounds. So I went and did that. That was a real eye opener, I had access to back stage to freak shows, traditional theatre, traditional circuses, monster truck shows, and of course my favorite, because I always wanted to be Evel Knievel, motorcycle daredevils.”

Rose said that for a while he learned what he could, including  a stunt called human blockhead, where a performer hammers nails and other objects into their nasal cavity via their nostril.

“I noticed that around the “no pick pockets” sign there were pickpockets waiting for you to read the sign and touch your wallet so they would know where it was. They would have baby shows, like “Cyclops baby”, “Two-headed Baby”, “Lobster Baby”…See why they never asked to be born… the children of forgotten fathers. I thought it was a really nice touch, they would put strollers out front, which kind of psychologically makes you think that the baby might actually be real. But of course they were just in blue liquid and in jars. They are actually made out of rubber, they’re called bouncers, you know – pickled punks” A pickled punk is a rubber replica of something organic kept in a jar.

Rose explained that there were many other “tricks” to not only making a good show, but that sometimes were there to protect the performer.

“There’d be this guy, it was really cool, they billed him as the ‘wild man from Borneo’…and the audience would get really upset. They said he was going to eat a chicken live and he would be inside this cage. You would walk inside the tent and there would be a half full Porta Potty and a chicken running around inside that cage. That cage by the way was to protect the geek from the audience instead of the audience from the geek.” Rose said that the audience would be enraged when they would see the performer bite the chicken. “All he did was pick up the chicken and bite it on the neck where  he had already bitten it a hundred times before and get a trickle of blood. He would smear it on his face, set the chicken down and that was it.” He continued to say that when the audience would get upset the “Wild Man” would pick up the Porta Potty and start splashing it on people to get them out of the tent.

“It was just colored water ya know, but it worked.”

After recovering from a botched motorcycle accident Rose said he went on to work with a hypnotist for a while. “Hypnotism is just a guy with a microphone that’s louder then you…and he’s being very forceful…It’s an unspoken agreement that I’m the director and you’re the actor. It’s just simpler for you with lights in your eyes and people staring at you, and some guy with a microphone telling you what to do, it’s just easier to do it then buck the system.”

Rose stated that this is the core of what stage hypnotism is, yet not all audience members go along.

“One time I had a guy that wouldn’t look me in the eyes, he wouldn’t do anything, man. You know, so finally off microphone (so the audience couldn’t hear me) I whispered into his ear “Just play along and I’ll give you a hundred dollars”. As soon as I said that, he rolled around like a pig in mud, and I said “alright stand up, stand up!” I said, “Before I bring you out from under hypnosis I want to leave you with a powerful thought…for the rest of your life you will believe, and tell your friends, that Jim Rose owes you money…One…two…three…Give him a big hand!” I bet he went out and said, “hey man, Jim said he’d give me some money”…and they’d say ‘you’re lying’.”

Rose went on to say that there are also easy tricks that can be played on audiences regarding telepathy.

“I used to do an act where I would have my wife not face the audience. She would be sitting on stage facing the wall and I would go to different audience members and say ‘whisper something in my ear’”.  After this he said he would turn up to his wife.

“Ok Bebe, I will transfer what I have been told, from my brain to yours.” He continued to say that this would cause the audience to look up on to the stage.

“You could see her bring the microphone up to her mouth, and then I would just, because everyone would be watching her and no one would be watching me, I’d go, “I have sixty three cents…’” he laughed in a feminine voice.

Oddities asked Mr. Rose about reports that he suffered from a serious drug problem during this time period.

“Ya, I was a heroin addict, I don’t know if that constitutes as a drug problem or not. After the motorcycle accident I couldn’t walk for a year, and then I went onto a cane. It took a while before I could actually, you know, walk around again. So I went through a lot of pain and during that period did a lot of codeine and then dolodin, and then heroin.” He also confirmed that it was his wife Bebe that help him get off of drugs.

Among his odd endeavors, Jim also explained that he was involved in fundraising for the Moe Udall political campaign.

“He ran against Jimmy Carter and I was his fundraiser. He came in second. He was congressman from Arizona. I used to do fundraisers with like Gregory Peck and Robert Redford, actually while I was on heroine. They didn’t know, actually I forgot to tell them.”

When it came to offering advice for those aspiring to pursuit a life in the performing arts Mr. Rose kept true form, and didn’t offer any. “You know what, I don’t know anyone who has made any money out of it other then me in the last sixty or seventy years,” he said, which of course was not correct.

A lot can be said about not only the fascinating world of the sideshow, but about Jim Rose himself. He is and forever will be a conundrum. His ability to be a cunning showman also is matched by his shady and sometimes dubious demeanor. This does not reflect however on the world of the sideshow as a whole. There are scores of talented masters who take their art form to new levels. In upcoming months, Oddities  will explore these talented and fascinating individuals, revealing their amazing and strange world.

Something fans don’t know about Jim Rose:

“I don’t like it that Dennys serves a chicken omelet…I think its wrong putting the chicken back into the egg. It’s like dipping your hamburger in milk. We have got to watch what we eat.”

Oddities speaks to Mondo Media Co-founder and CEO John Evershed about finding huge success in total destruction
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By Jesse Horn

One of the most successful animated series available today can’t be found on regular television. Instead you will have to go online and watch it on YouTube . Created by the hugely successful Mondo Media, the show is called Happy Tree Friends and it focuses on a group of forest animals who are doing regular activities you might find in everyday life. What makes this cute and pleasant appearing cartoon unique is that before the animated short is complete nearly all of the characters will have met their doom in a violent and ultra graphic way. The official website at one point offered the warning “Cartoon Violence: Not recommended for small children, or big babies”. Despite some criticism about the content of the shows, there are legions of followers who can’t get enough. Online viewership of the shows has reached nearly a billion. Oddities contacted CEO and cofounder of Mondo Media John Evershed to cast some light on the history and success of Happy Tree Friends, as well as what the future holds.

“Mondo was founded in 1988, if you can imagine that?” Mr. Evershed began. “We were going after, at the time, what ever new media was. It’s evolved several times over. We started to focus on animation in about ’98, with an eye towards syndicating animation on the internet.” He explained that during this time there weren’t the financial underpinnings for advertising or even the basic most rudimentary measurement technology.

“Everything wasn’t there, so you had to hand make everything. What happened though was that we had the internet bubble pop, and we said ‘ok, let’s focus on Happy Tree Friends’ specifically as kind of a cross over property so it had both traditional and new media revenue streams combined. We started to sell a lot of DVDs at the time. We probably sold a million Happy Tree Friends DVDs world wide.” This took place just before DVD sales began to dramatically decline in the market.

“We used a lot of that money to use kind of an independent film model and took it and pre-sold it in markets over seas. And then used that to finance a television series based on Happy Tree Friends.”  John said that the appeal is not lost in other cultures because there is no actual spoken dialog.

“We financed 13 half hours and that aired on G4 domestically and MTV on markets overseas. Then we started to develop merchandising programs.” Happy Tree Friends products are sold world wide with items such as back-to-school lines being sold in Latin America, or toys in Japan.

Mr. Evershed explained that as the DVD market began to evaporate as a means of driving the property a viable online venue became available. “We started to focus a lot of energy on Youtube over the last few years to use Happy Tree Friends as an anchor property for an animation channel. Were we showcased not just Happy Tree Friends, but other animated series for teens and young adults.”

As for the future of Mondo Media and technology, John sees a lot of potential.

“We are seeing increased viewership on mobile, and then of course over-the-top TV of various kinds. I’m anticipating that more of our content will be consumed on mobile devices, phones and mobile devices in general, ipad and that sort of thing.” He went on to say that the success of mobile viewing is obvious.

“If you look at itunes podcasts, Happy Tree Friends is and has been like almost the number one properties for many years running.”

Mr. Evershed envisions Mondo minishows as becoming the “definitive channel for animation for teen and young adults, using Happy Tree Friends as the anchor and, you know, tapping into the new platforms at they become realistic and more mature and financially viable.”

As for the success of the show, John whole heartedly gave credit to its creator, Kenn Navarro.

“He had a clear vision for that show and he’s just a brilliant animator. He has created something that is pretty universal. I envision kids watching Happy Tree Friends 20 or 30 years from now the same way that they watch Tom and Jerry now. So really it’s Ken Navarro.”

One common misunderstanding about the production of Mondo Media content is the investment.

“Happy Tree Friends looks like just a bunch of animated shorts, but there is about 5 million dollars invested in content. So as much as it might appear as a cute little show that kids are into, I think everybody completely underestimates the internet consistently, right. People under produce for, and they underestimate the production value. They don’t make enough content…Despite what everyone says, most people are treating it like secondary evolving thing…but its way beyond that now.”

As for new Mondo Media developments there are some new shows that John feels will be a great success as well.

“We have been developing some new series that we feel have some real momentum. The most recent one is called Dick Figures, about two stick figure characters. Another series that we like quite a bit is called Dr Tran, and another one is Baman and Piderman.

So we’re always looking for new animated series from independents and production companies because we can put them on YouTube and drive a lot of eyeballs to them very quickly. More so then if you just through them up on your own. We can also help monetize them, over seas, different TV…We do a lot of overseas licensing and that kind of thing.”

Whether you are a fan of Happy Tree Friends or not, there is no denying the amazing success of the program and individuals like John Evershed who help drive it to the masses. As the media world is quickly changing and evolving, and as technological advancements make it possible for world wide success, companies like Mondo Media are seizing opportunities that have not been available before.

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By Jesse Horn

Surveying the digital landscape it is not difficult to find dolls of all types and tastes. Although there are countless worth mentioning, Jodi Cain, who hand makes each one of her unique creations, is a diamond in the rough.

Born in Illinois in 1966 Jodi and her family moved to Georgia when she was 13 and remained there ever since.

“I have always felt the need to create art,” Jodi began “and I found my niche in clay sculpture about 25 years ago.” Jodi went on to say that she first learned of Art Dolls in 2004.

“I was instantly intrigued with them. Starting out I didn’t have much experience with doll making… other than the alteration and dismemberment I probably caused a few dozen dolls during my childhood, simply because they were unappealing to me.”

When she became a mother in 1991 she stopped working and after her youngest child began school she began looking for something to fill her days.

“My husband suggested I get back into art. I knew I wanted to sell my work online and that my clay work would be too large, too heavy, and too expensive to ship. The dolls were born from my rebellion, my interest in primitive folk art, my dislike of mass produced dolls, my love of gothic style, and my lifelong intrigue with horror and gore.”

Jodi revealed that making dolls is now her full time job, and she has a small studio in her house where she creates them.

“I like to keep this space decorated with creepy imagery as well as loads of fabric and buttons! Most of my sales come from custom ordered dolls, and I usually have several dolls in the works at all times. I like to make them in batches of 6 or so… A day for bodies, a day for faces, a day for clothes, a day for hair, and so on.”

Standing 22 inches tall, Jodi uses a flannel fabric for their bodies and she stiff stuffs them with fiberfill. The dolls that accompany them are 11 inches tall and she indicated that they are all completely hand stitched with vintage button eyes and yarn hair.

“It all starts with the buttons! Where most people would see a couple of buttons as just a pair of buttons, I see them as eyes! I am inspired by everything around me! I have always been a very creative person and don’t think it’s even possible for me to ever run out of ideas! I get annoyed by many things that happen in this world and the anger and sadness that my dolls express is often reflective of such.”

Jodi says that she has made and sold over 1000 dolls.

“They are collected all over the world by people with great taste in dolls,” she laughed.

Of all of her creations Jodi says that her most unique was one requested by a tattoo artist in Louisiana.

“Her instructions were a bride in a pretty white dress with a knife in her bouquet… and she was to look like she just killed her mother in law.” Of her most challenging creation,   the doll maker revealed that she had crafted a 4 foot doll as a stage prop for a band in Texas.

“I know it sounds silly to say this but I feel like I know each doll I make on some sort of personal level which makes them all have deep meaning for me.”

As for the future of Tattered Rags, Jodi plans on making dolls as long as her hands will let her.

“I am always open for custom orders! You can either choose a doll from my gallery, request a doll in the likeness of a photo, or have me bring your ideas to life as well. Just send me an email for a price quote at jodi@tatteredrags.net.  You can see hundreds of dolls I have made in my gallery on my website www.tatteredrags.net and you can also purchase my dolls on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/TatteredRags.”

Something unknown about Tattered Rags:

I am ridiculously afraid of bugs, I have never dyed my hair, and pink is my favorite color!