Life's a Drag- the failed attempt at the beginning of something beautiful

Alright, kiddies, where to begin? My project is very much unfinished. What I have down are the final layouts and pencils for the first two pages and a half-way complete final page showing my drag queen super-heroine, the Disastrous Darlene Dynamite (she'll blow your mind), in all of her explosive glory. This thing started out troubled. As I stated in my first update, It took me a while to come up with an idea I wanted to stick with and once I finally did, it was a little late in the game. I then spent more time than I should have coming up with Miss Dynamite. You see, I thoroughly enjoy character development, thus I didn't really start drawing until I had a good idea of this character's look and what she is about. So, once I had that firmly in mind, I barricaded myself within the world of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Little Mermaid, The Crow, the fantastic shows Invader Zim and Aeon Flux (Darlene's costume is directly influenced) and even the Silence of the Lambs- all of which influenced this terrible creations...um...creation.

In the end, I never recovered from the time it took for the character development, and I was plagued with behinded-ness for the rest of the given time as the end of semester goodness started to pile up. I also spent a very large amount of time on the last page, the crown jewel of the comic I attempted, and I am happy with where it's heading. SO I TRIED DAMMIT! Don't get me wrong, dearest reader, this is by no means an excuse for my project's unfinished state, just me contemplating my *sigh* inability to finish. From what I did complete, I tried to use the design elements picked up in class. For example, Darlene's suit is made of complementary colors. I do plan on completing this thing, especially the last page. There are some color combinations I want to experiment with, and am very excited to see where Darlene Dynamite goes.

update

Finally an update! Yes, I’m still pretty behind, but progress is being made. It’s taken me a while really decide what I want to do and how to lay it out, but after looking at more comics and watching these some movies, things began to click. Here's two clips from The Crow and The Little Mermaid that really helped me out with layout.

The first page is sketches and a thumbnail version of the first page, the second and third are the drawings for a few panels, and the last is the final drawing, sans color and inks. Honestly the last drawing is what I started out doing first. It began as a character sketch for the short, short strips protagonist, but I loved the little drawing so much that I decided to make it into something much bigger.

So I finished that part, which took a long while, as I love to nitpick and make sure proportions are relatively…well…proportional and spend a lot of time making sure it carries a certain style. Then I began work with thumbnails and sketches in general. The little thumbnail layout you see below is what the finished first page will look like, albeit much more fleshed out. All that’s left to do with the finished drawings is import them into photoshop or illustrator and add color and text bubbles. The layout for the second page is working it’s way out of my head, but it still needs some more time devoted to thinking. I have the rest of the week off after today, so I plan to kick this thing’s ass right out of the water. Until we meet again, I bid you sweet adieu.

yargh here be a blog post!

This week’s terribly awesome image comes from a promotional poster for wonderfully gritty, raw, and yet fanciful film, Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno). Unlike the rest of the posters for this film, the art is quite minimalist. Ceated by famed Hellboy creator and artist Mike Mignola, the design carries his signature style of simplicity and geometric forms. Like the rest of Mignola’s work, the color is very simplistic as well, relying on mostly black and a lovely shade of burnt sienna, with two flashes of a glowering yellow to make up the image of the Faun, one of the film’s main protagonists.

The use of shadowing is the main thing that caught my eye for this beautiful poster. Heavy contrast is one of my favorite design tools, and the way it is used in such a manner as to make the highlights of a dramatically shadowy mysterious faun is very effective. Of course, the poster wouldn’t be as nearly intriguing if it weren’t for the two-tone shadowing. If there were a full scale of brown and black shades, the image would lose its teeth.

The classic labyrinth insignia at the bottom of the poster is a very nice balance along with the text to the image of the faun. Likewise, the style it is in matches the faun’s. Had it been any more or less ornate, it would have thrown the look off a bit. I like the font used for the text, however, I can’t help but wonder how it would look if it were the same smoldering-ember-yellow of the faun’s eyes. Right now, the sterile white stands way out of everything else on the poster. However, this is probably the designer’s intent- to make this one bit of information more noticeable than the rest. I also wish that the “Winter 2006” weren’t there. In the same white as the film’s title, it detracts from the more important website title, which houses all information about the film. All in all, the poster is a success, looking more like the cover of an ancient tome of fairy tales than anything else, and the fans of the film would have it no other way.

been a little while in coming

Okay, so this blog post is a wee bit late. I started off on this project with NO idea of what to do. So after running the full gamut of ideas, from animation to puppet-making, I came up with the plan to make a three page webcomic thing. Of course, then the problem was coming up with something to actually make the comic on. Well, unfortunately for me, the end of the semester has brought about a massive creative slump/artists' block due to every other project colliding and a massive amount of stress. So once this project was taken off the back-burner the ideas began to flow again.

Late last week I began leafing through some of my favorite comics, and looking into my DVD collection to get some ideas for what I wanted to do.








The first three images are from the gender-bending musicals, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, respectivly. Next is an image of unused DVD art from one of my favorite cancelled shows, Invader Zim. Lastly are two covers from the wonderfully violent and darkly comedic comic, The Mask. So, what do all these delightful images mean? Well, thus far I have come up with the idea to do a story about a drag queen with superhero connotations and really wild art stylings (a la Invader Zim). You know, mild mannered John Doe during the day, but come night and Fiesty Wrigglesworth, Glam-Queen Rocker-Extraordinaire is unleashed upon the city. Something like that. Sketches and layout to come soon.

blog post thing-a-maroo

This week's wonderful ad for the children comes from something horrible called Laughing Squid, apparently an art, culture, and technology collective blog for San Francisco. I randomly came across this wonderful little ad, by searching for "squid ads" in google. The first thing that stood out to me is the design for the squid itself. Standing out in neon, the technological squid is perfectly symmetrical, almost emulating something Hindu inspired, with it's all-seeing eye, carefully arranged tentacles in a Vishnu-inspired position, and ending in electrical components and sockets. Right under that the Laughing Squid information can be found keeping the same confines as the squid itself. All the font used matches up very well with technologic squid, even evoking images of neon signs. The background, for the most part, is simply black- efficiently providing a high contrast to the squid image and looking like a very simplified ocean. At the very top rises a Japanese sun, casting it's orange rays over the silhouettes of two ships, some UFO's, and Godzilla. The green and orange both go together very well, seeing as they are analogous colors on the color wheel, and the black provides enough contrast to make most of the text pop. The dark grey text gets a little lost, but that can easily be fixed by lightening it up a few tones. I also feel that the Godzilla, UFO's, and ships are somewhat unnecesary and so small that they are more of a distraction or annoyance. I think that if they were taken out, or made bigger it would improve greatly upon the balance and symmetry of the otherwise wicked piece.

critique

Breaking away from monotony, this image has nothing to do with movies or music. Instead, a safety for helmets was chosen/randomly stumbled upon and deemed worthy to be written about in my weekly critique. The ad is primarily separated into three parts- x-ray, text, then black space/small text. The x-ray of a skull smashing against pavement is particularity effective and jarring. The whites and blues that make up the x-ray contrast very well with the black background and make it all the more easy to see and eye-catching. The cropping chosen for the skeleton is a little odd, leading leading the eye off the page and the viewer wanting to see more of something that isn’t there.

The text below the image is simple and easy to read, as it should be for such an add, but it looks a little too boring. The plain white sort of matches the x-ray, but not enough. It might work better if it was done in the same shades of white and blue, like the words screened through an x-ray. The face that the text is centered is also quite annoying. It would work better if the text were justified and resized into a solid block. A right or left justification would also make it a little more…design chic.

The format of the ad is a little weird. The main image and text are competing for the viewer’s attention. I think it would work better in a movie poster format- e.g. making the main image larger, taking up most of the ad. Then a smaller block of text could be placed right under it with either a left or right justification Lastly, the smaller text could be kept as is, complementing the format and providing information in a much more engaging manner.

html hell II: electric boogaloo

OH GOD HOW DID I GET HERE I JUST WANT TO GOOGLE


this is an example of moldy schmext.






ARGH i feel like two porcupines are making passionate, scratchy love in my throat.




go here because it's good for your brains.

gawd, i'm scared of taking sculpture 211	hey look, another column
dear god another column, get the camera, honey!	MERCIFUL CHRIST, WHEN WILL THE COLUMNS END!?

Paradise

The above image come courtesy of one of my favorite bands, the Dresden Dolls. Painted in 2005 by Barnaby Whitfield, the image was used for the band's live concert DVD, The Dresden Dolls: Paradise. The cover does a marvelous job conveying the flamboyant, dramatic stylings of the artsy, "punk-cabaret" duo. The colors used are also fairly effective- all white, rouge, and smoky orange. The palatte is very suggestive of the fire burnings of Dresden, Germany (from which the band takes their name) and the Weimer era cabaret (conveyed by the circus tent and mime- makeup adorning the band members). The placement of the bandmembers serves well too, with both singing to eachother, or about to kiss, in a theatrical fashion.

The rule of thirds is used nicely in a horizontal manner, with the band member and their circus sandwiched and framed by an upper and lower dark space. I thought that this added to the thematic quality of the cover, along with the other elements, making almost look like a poster for a movie or play, not like most concert videos; there looks like there is a story and plot hidden behind all the pancake makeup and rouge.

I liked the placement and font of the text on top for the fact that it placed the names of the duo above their respective images and the band name, making it look even more like a film poster. I thought the text at the very bottom was effective in grounding the image and balancing out the top. The color of the text worked really nicely with the black border, however the text that intersects with the white figure in the center starts to get hard to read because of the similar colors.

html hell

OH GOD HOW DID I GET HERE I JUST WANT TO GOOGLE


this is an example of moldy schmext.






ARGH i feel like two porcupines are making passionate, scratchy love in my throat.




go here because it's good for your brains.

Further proof of my geekiness

Keeping with my usual deluge of upbeat blog analysis pictures- sarcasm crammed into each syllable of the last statement- this lovely/creepy image is of the cover of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Dave Mckean. On close inspection, one will notice that this is a Batman graphic novel, and one of the darker ones at that- graced with a somewhat terrifying story and disturbing yet ornate and dazzling illustrations. Diviner of all these dark images is Dave Mckean- one of my all time favorite artists, known for his work on the covers of acclaimed comic series The Sandman, illustrating the novel Coraline, and directing/designing the film Mirrormask. His unique method and style of creating art usually combines drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpture.

The cover itself is primarily void of color, save for the ghastly image of a demonic Joker superimposed over the grim exterior of a gothic-looking building. The colors chosen for the face are intentionally sickly and poisonous looking, they are angry and infected colors hinting at the madness behind them. Directly below the face of the monstrous Joker, is the silhouette of Batman, walking into the lions maw- Arkham Asylum. Of course, the placement of the skull-like visage of the Joker over Batman, seemingly swallowing him, is very much intentional. It signals the tone of the novel- the nuts are running the nuthouse, and the protagonist is walking into a hornet's nest of insanity (queue dramatic music). Overtop of the base illustration are white diagrams of roman numerals and gothic designs, which match the similar styled art inside; however, one wouldn't know this from just looking at the cover, and the designs may just prove to be confusing. They are unneeded, but I enjoy the ornate stylization they bring.

The text on top of the illustration is a bit of a mess. First of all, it has way too many fonts going on. I'm sure this was meant to symbolize chaos and madness, however it just ends up looking clustered and unfocused, instead of unifyingly ununified. The text also needs to be bigger. It is in danger of being lost in the whisps of ornaments and diagrams. However, as a whole and not looked at as an ad, this cover does a fine job of illustrating the fact that madness and mayhem hide inside the glossy pages of this graphic novel, and that this isn't your parents' Batman.

ad a bit revised...

Before/After

Brookville ad with a few VERY subtle changes. I basically made the yinyang-bee bigger and made the border around it smaller. I tried taking away the border, but I didn't like it as much without it.

WARNING! GEEK ALERT!

I love video games- the experience of getting behind the first-person point of view of a well crafted video game is certainly a great joy. It should then come as no big shocker, to anyone well-versed in the history of gaming at least, that my favorite video game series is that of The Legend of Zelda. This enthralling, beautifully crafted, pseudo-myth has kept me in awe of its amazing game play since the late 90's, and continues to impress with each new title added to the series. The above image is from The Legend of Zelda's latest entry onto a gaming console, Twilight Princess. Shimmering with colors as seemingly iridescent as an abalone shell, this picture successfully captures the mood of the game with it's abundant, yet muted color palate. One look at this image, and one is sure that this is a fantasy game, yet not one for the young kiddies- the menacing creatures, wolf and horse-back riding, and sword-play taking place all suggest a dark and epic gaming experience.

Of course, even though the image is for the relatively new technology of video games, it still utilizes some tried and true compositional tricks. For example, the rule of thirds is used to great effect. On the left, series constant and supporting protagonist Princess Zelda faces wistfully towards the sky. In the middle, the helmet of the game's antagonist Zant stares blankly, yet full of menace directly at the viewer and right above the hero of the series, Link. Then to the right, looking down and reflecting Zelda's stance is another protagonist and bearer of the game's title, Twilight Princess Midna. With this one image, four of the game's main characters are introduced, and the viewer can begin to guess each's role within the story all within this visually pleasing composition. Another compositional tool used is that of triangles. The three main nasties in the foreground make up a triangle, as do the two on the side of Link and Zant's helmet- creating more visually stimulating chemistry. Of course, as beautiful and ornate as this image is, it's a bit hard to follow. With all that is going on, the eye doesn't exactly know where to rest- it is constantly lead around the picture, but this may have been the illustrator's intention. The fact that the image has no text may be a detractor as well. With no title or discernable meaning for those not savvy to the Legend of Zelda series, this image may only attract a certain crowd. The image may be memorable to them (and me), however others may just get lost in the oil slick colors and high-fantasy beauties and beasts.

Blog analysis thing

As with two of my other blog posts, this latest analysis is of a music related image. The above image is of the cover of a tour program for British post-punk pioneers Siouxsie and the Banshees' 1988 album Peepshow. The cover is composed of a lot of black- negative space meshes with singer Siouxsie Sioux's darkened lips, hair, eyes, and the lines of her sharp features while the soft blue tone on her pale skin flashes out of the darkness holding her visage in place. This image is very telling of the Banshees' image and overall sound, suggesting dark theatrics and a underlining peepshow/voyeuristic theme.

I really like the simplicity involved in the cover. Obviously not much information is needed for the front of a tour program, but I think had they chosen to use a more complex image with more text and such, the mystery and overall dark feel to this elegant piece would be lost. I feel the piece also has a somewhat Alfred Hitchcock feel to it as well, defined by the simplicity, shadow, and dramatics- almost like a movie poster. I also enjoy the simple arial(?) font used for the band name and album/tour title; it is very straight to the point and not at all flashy while still catching the viewers eye.

The Light and Dark of Beeing

SUGAR SQUEALS

here is zee final logo

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the best logo I could cook up for the Brookville Bees. When I first started to sketch these suckers out, I was going for a semi-militaristic feel to them- almost like something you would see on a flag. My first design was the very square looking bee in the lower left corner of the original four. I liked it, but then felt that it looked too much like something one might see on a building block- it was very boring, and while that is an accurate adjective to describe my high school, I wanted something more exciting. I then tried to adapt the original design of the Brookville Bee, with the initials "BHS" into my design. This lead to a more organic and fun shape to my logo, but I still wanted to lean more towards something more stylized.
I was still milking the idea of using a religious symbol, so I thought to toy with the stereotypical opposite of what my predominately conservative, Baptist high school stood for- of course I went for the somewhat-less-than-subtle Pentagram. For this design I made the Bee more angular, and a tad more sinister. While I thouroughly enjoyed the sense of irony attached to the design, I once again went in another direction. Along with a Pentagram and a Star of David sketches that showed up in my first ideas, the image of a Yin Yang and the Rising Sun came into my head. This lead to a combination of my second, more organic Bee and the idea of using pseudo-religious imagery.
Despite my original idea to take a stab at the overall conservative feel of my high school (Jerry Falwell went there, for goodness sakes), I'm glad I went with the Yin Yang theme because Brookville is relativelly well-rounded and balanced when it comes to academics. At first I was going to add rays jutting from the circle, like Japan's Rising Sun, but this made it too busy and clunky. I think this design is an improvement on the original in that it is much more sleek and stylish. It would also look pretty nice on school merch, if I do say so myself.

sketches and four designs

Okay, so here's the final four.

These are the initial sketches I did.

Brookville Bee

This is the Brookville Bee. I've hated this logo
for a while, kids. Zee colors are maroon and gold.

vector metaphor for zee children

Re-touched Self-portrait

Ta-da!

ritual de lo habitual

Music is what drives me, so it is not surprising that when it comes these design analysis posts that I am drawn to look at images involved with some of my favorite music. This image comes from the cover of Jane's Addiction's 1991 album Ritual do lo Habitual. Formed in Los Angeles in the mid 80's and influenced by such artists as The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and David Bowie, Jane's Addiction became one of the pioneering artists of the 90's alternative rock explosion. The vivid cover for this groundbreaking album was hand-made by Perry Farrel, leader of the band, and created from plaster and found objects. It illustrates the lyrical content of the album's peak tune, Three Days, which details the three days Perry Ferral, his girlfriend, and a dearly departed friend of his named Xiola Bleu spent in a haze of drugs and sex. Of course the song puts it much more eloquently- recounting the events in much more poetic terms, dealing with death, rebirth, and other such metaphysical topics.

Following the rule of thirds quite well, the cover's main focal point is the three lovers in the center of the image. The alignment is very symmetrical, with the found images within the cover stacked on top of each other, almost like columns. The stark white sculptures in the middle nicely contrasted to the very rustic tones of the rest of the cover, suggesting their saint-like or heavenly state of being, as alluded by the bright orange/gold halos as well. The repetition of red also works very well for the image. The rose in one of the sculptures mouth, the sheet, and the framing of the picture all look wonderful, however I'm not sure if the rose and red sheet have any significance other than to look good and tie the colors together. The only things about this image that I am not particularly fond of are the two uses of text. The name of the album is small, out of the way, and in a delicate font- very meek and unnoticeable. The other misused text is that of the band's name. The text is alright- the blue looks good, but the font itself is rather plain, but the placement is what bothers me. I feel like it should be placed above the golden halos on the figures. Placed at the bottom, it feels a little too heavy with the deep red and other dark colors going on. Were it at the top, it would demand more attention and balance the piece out a little more.

self portrait

Here's my self-portrait. Done for the most part. Few things I want to add more. Soon to come!

Egon Schiele's Self Portrait

Austrian painter Egon Schiele's paintings all carry his own distinctive style of expressionism- taking the normally soft and delicate form of the nude figure and replacing it with gnarled and emotive specters, all jagged lines and sinew with all the elegance of a praying mantis. Schiele's tormented figures and self-portraits are all relatively straight forward studies in malnourished anatomy. Following a pattern, they are simple compositions that usually consist of a light background with a figure placed glaringly in the center of the page, sometimes framed and isolated by an aura of white lining around the subject. Most of Egon Schiele's self-portraits (and there are a lot) convey the sense of the introspective/narcissistic tortured artist- his facial expression is commonly twisted into a quizzical scowl with body contorted to match as his glamorized form snakes up the canvas with exaggerated proportions, soulful eyes, and electrified hair. Of course there are many variations on this formula, with Schiele exploring himself (in more ways than one) to the point of obsessive introspection, however, with continuously interesting results.

The above painting is one of my favorites in Egon Scheile's catalogue. Set against a bone-white backdrop, his harsh figure tears through the blank space like a poisoned thorn, using contrast to great effect. The colors used are an unsettling combination of rotten greens, browns, and oranges, jaundiced yellow, and flaring, angry reds to accent the eyes and nipples, all suggesting a negative view of the human body, or just the artist's state of mind. Like all of his paintings, Schiele gave himself a ghastly, yet elegant stature- accentuating every joint, curve, and jutting bone on his skeletal figure. Schiele lavishes so much on the line and form of his body that the center figure almost becomes a type of landscape, complete with trenches and crags making up a ribcage and pelvis. This is, in fact, on of my favorite things about Schiele's work. Even though there isn't a lot happening in his paintings (usually just off-beat poses) his attention to detail, disturbingly beautiful exaggerations, and exquisite use of line and color envelope and encourage the viewer to notice each and every brush-stroke. I found it very interesting that Schiele chose to paint himself without feet and hidden hands, turning his figure into a very phallic, albeit helpless form, playing into the sexual nature of most of his paintings.

From Egon Schiele's self-portrait I realized that simplicity can be key in compositions. I want to start experimenting with keeping things simple and exploring what you can accomplish by a well-placed figure and attention to detail. Something else I took from the portrait is the idea of exaggeration. One of the things I love about Schiele's work is how expressive he is with his abnormal proportions. I love the idea of taking the features of a model, or myself, and exaggerating them until they are unmistakeably those of my subject. By examining Egon Schiele, I want to adopt his sense of expression and fine-tuned distortion- exploring how to express myself through restrained composition and amplified features, without becoming all too self-obsessed.

beginning of a selfportrait in photoshop

my self-portraits always look angry.

I absolutely love stop-motion animation- the process by which such movies as Wallace and Gromit, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach are animated. This poster is from the new stop-motion animated movie Coraline, directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach) and based on Neil Gaiman's acclaimed novel. I adore this poster. The use of ciaroscuro and a muted palate that consists of soft lights and dark darks, really makes this poster pop out- using high contrast to it's advantage. The rule of thirds is also used from the top to the bottom of the poster, separating it from dark to light, then dark again. The way the poster is framed in darkness is also not just a stylistic choice- it suggests the dark, mysterious content of the movie.
Even the text suggests the tone of the movie. The whispy quote floating in the light serves as a device to vaguely illustrate a plot point or theme of the movie. The font chosen is both whimsical and foreboding, and almost looks as if it were scraped out of the light by a finger. The font used for the title is similar, in that it is whimsical and made of light. It also uses a button substituted for an "o" and a stylized cat used for the "l" for movie tie-ins. These are clever substitutions, but I think that it would work better had they only chosen one; it begins to look a little unbalanced with both.

tablet jaime

here's a quick tablet sketch of the lovely jaime from class. yes. i think this is one of those things where the parts are greater than the whole....some of the stuff looks okay, it's just arranged....badly.

the little things

Pete and his tea.

Allison and her sushi.

Me and the dusty metal-work.

Chris and the icy branch.

My photo essay was made to show my friends and me looking at or interacting with the little things in life that make us happy. Pete seriously enjoys just chilling out and making tea almost everyday, Allison likes nothing more than to sample the delicious flavor of sushi whenever she can, I always become fascinated with really old metal-work, and Chris loves the delicate beauty of the natural world frozen in the confines of fresh ice. I chose to make each image a portrait because I love working with faces, though in retrospect I wish I would have thought out each portrait a little more and really worked at the compostition. For example, I really like the portrait of myself with the iron-work (not to sound vain). It's the way that the dark metal contrasts and interacts with the figure that I really like. In each picture I also chose to try and make the yellows really pop. To me, yellow is a very pleasing, warm color- thus I used it to kind of convey the sense of contentedness and simple joy I tried to illustrate in each.

original pictures

Nine Inch Nails LOGO

When one thinks of dark, industrial-tinged, pseudo-pop many things could come to mind. However, mention Nine Inch Nails and most who have heard of this long-lived, popular rock outfit may picture the iconic logo of said band. Consisting of an "N" (nine), "I" (inch), and backwards "N" (nails) housed inside of a simple box, this logo has spanned nearly twenty years to become one of rock and roll's most noticeable band emblems. Created in 1989 by Gary Talpas for the band's initial debut and inspired by the typography of the album Remain In Light by the Talking Heads, the symbol has graced the cover of each Nine Inch Nails release since then.

The simplicity of the design is perhaps the strongest part of the Nine Inch Nails logo. It utilizes blank space very well, which also makes it stand out. I also thought that the use of symmetry was brilliant. If the design did not incorporate the backwards "N," it would not be as successful. The use of symmetry also plays into the "rule of three" by separating the logo into three parts designated by the letters. By keeping things simple, the logo catches the eye and commands attention much more than some complex, epic, rock icon would and promises to keep this as one of pop music's more memorable designs.

original

edited

Glam Skele-Squid Superhero!!!!

The Glam Skele-Squid, Glitter-pus, Sizzlin’ Cephalopod, Star-Kracken, and Rocktopus are all names this rock ‘n’ roll savior of the deep goes by. Shrouded in mystery, like a cloud of freaky glitter, this rockin' squid has become the purveyor of all things glam-rock. His inky tentacles grasp a sacred guitar passed unto him by the god of Glam, David Bowie, himself. His electrified skull is glitter-encrusted with a symbolic lightning bolt emblazoned across his boney face as both war paint and a desperate attempt at individuality- to further distance himself from his arch nemesis, Electric Squizzle. He and Electric Squizzle have all eight arms locked in bitter rivalry over which undersea rock star can truly re-shape the nautical music scene in his own image. Our theatrical hero’s main goal is to save all undersea critters from the boredom and monotony of the deep. With guitar in tow, he graces the salty depths of the ocean with his glorious brand of glam rock, delivering eight-armed entertainment to all the denizens of the sea!