Interview with ERIC PIGORS creator of TOXIC TOONS BY PALLBEARER
	Name - ERIC PIGORS *Resides - CALIFORNIA

PALLBEARER IN RED
ERIC PIGORS IN WHITE

What has been part of your Inspiration and your Ideas behind your Art over the years?

Well i feel what inspired me artistically as a kid stuck with me most. I was inspired by DR. SUESS BOOKS, MAD, WOODY WOODPECKER and all animated cartoons like BETTY BOOP,POPEYE,WARNERS BROS,TEX AVERY,DISNEY, PLOP COMICS i loved, RAT FINK, THE MUNSTERS, CHARLES ADDAMS and my fave BK TAYORS ODD RODS stickers. The weirdness of my stuff has come with starting to incorporate what i like to draw with stuff like fetish and goth culture,horror,and creepy things i remember from childhood days.

Of all your Toxic Toons Characters which one is your favourite or the one you most like to draw ?

Geez lets see,i really never draw the same characters over and over? I get kinda bored drawing the same ones and i really like thinking up new ones all the time. But i do seem to draw a Frankesteinish stitched up ghoul a lot and a spooky vamp ghoul a lot also and lil skull maggots. Since i don't draw reoccurring characters it was a problem when i had to decide what CHARACTERS to do for my toys "LET'S PLAY IN THE MORGUE" thru MEZCO TOYS. But i had just finished the book " UNKLE PIGORS - GHOULISHLY GHASTLY DEADTIME STORIES " and all the characters i used for the toys where in this brand new book, and they seemed to fit perfectly with the red clothing theme and the whole MORGUE theme.
I don't know why the morgue is so interesting to me, i don't study it or go to them. I have met a few people who work in them and think they must have strong stomachs to do that job. I'm sure it's a tuff job.

You do realise ya vamp chic's are hotties in a Art kinda way.....yeah I am kinda disturbed I guess

Not at all,people really thought JESSICA RABBIT was hot!! When i worked at DISNEYS i always drew the villians in the films like HADES,URSULA,THE HYENNAS,BEAST,SILVER etc...and never wanted to draw the girls.For one thing they are extremely hard to draw.If you draw a lines width wrong on their face they end up looking pretty muggly! A friend i sat with, Dan Tanaka and i used to do collaborated drawings. He would draw a girl and i would do a creepy monster doing something together.You can see one in my," COBWEBS AND VINEGAR " book. It's the cute nurse spoonfeeding the lil monster boy with the huge thermometer shoved up his ass!
I started to try to draw my own kind of girls while i was there the last few years.The first one i did i liked was the NURSE with the jumper cables. Which ended up being one of the toys, and i think she is probably the sexiest one i have drawn. She was supposed to be a t-shirt design for he industrial band 16 VOLT, but it fell thru $ wise.

But what i enjoy drawing mostly are the gruesome gross characters and it seems like i am most loved for my ghouls i draw? I do enjoy drawing them more and more now and try to do more since i know the fans really like seeing the ghouly girl characters.

You have done Art for some very famous Bands around the world, so who have you Immortalised with your Art?

Well i just finished the front and back covers for the box art for WEDNESDAY 13'S first band FRANKENSTEIN DRAG QUEENS boxset ,which i think will be out early 2006. I think most people have seen the MURDERDOLLS shirt i did with the siamese twins ghouls. I have also done shirts and cd art for METALLICA,THE GHASTLY ONES, SHADOW REICHENSTEIN,THE HORRIFICS , GEIN AND THE GRAVE ROBBERS,DRAGSTRIP DEMONS.
I just did the cover art and a creepy radio dj voice on the song ,"CHANELL 13" for the band PYSCHOCHARGER which is an industrial BAND WITH HORROR LYRICS AND SOUND BITES,great cd! And i just did the tour shirt for GENITORTURERS,and saw them for the first time.Gen is really nice and has a beautiful voice! I also just finished the 3 rd cd art for the band CORNBUGS which is BILL"HOUSE OF A 1000 CORPSES,CHOP TOP" MOSELEY and BUCKETHEAD on guitar.It should be out IN February.

Toxic Toons has its own boxed figure Set ...are there anymore plans in the future for future release Of any Eric Pig ors Merchandise and toxic toons?

Well no more toys for now unfortunately. I wish there were more since they have really helped to expose my work worldwide. I will always being putting new shirts,buttons, and books out year round. I have 2 new girls shirts i have just put on the site. I signed a contract with POSTERPOP so you should be seeing my stickers over in AUSTRALIA sometime in 2006.

What is your most watched and favourite horror movie?

Hmmm,well i love the MUNSTERS and ADDAMS FAMILY tv shows most. As far as horror movies my faves are BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN,TEXAS CHAINSAW 1 & 2 and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. I prefer the older ones with the spooky graveyards and monsters as opposed to the newer slasher styled ones.

When you're Cranking out your Art do you have a favourite band you love to listen to?

Not really ,i do have a favourite cd that some guy sold me on ebay.It's a compilation he created of all old and a new Halloween songs with old horror sound bites and spooky sound fx on top. Man its everyone's fave cd. I gave a copy to WEDNESDAY and he loves it also!

But i listen to the radio most the time or different cds depending on the mood i am in. I listen to everything from Black Sabbath, Minstry, Murderdolls, AMEN, Lords of the new Church, Damned, Cheap Trick, Kiss, Queen,Manson,ROB ZOMBIE,ALICE COOPER, Static X, SexPistols, Clash, Soulfly,CRAMPS, Black Label Society ect....goth,punk,industrial,metal and halloween records.

Have you ever been down under to Australia? And do all Americans really think we are like Steve Erwin and Mick Dundee from Crocodile Dundee?

No, but i'm sure its a great place and would love to sometime. Funny you mention Steve Irwin,my 4 year old niece loves him!!!!!!!!!
So this christmas i called her up and faked his voice and she really was excited and told are here friends that Steve Irwin called here.Then we found these lil rubber alligators at the grocery store and said he sent them in the mail for here.
I don't think that's what you guys are like, i'm sure people must think AMERICA is filled with big fat dumbfuck religious freaks who love GEROGE BUSH and love dropping bombs on everyone. This country has been hell since he has come into office,uggggggh! Never have seen this place so divided!

How Many years has Toxic Toons been around? How many years have you been doing art professionally?

I have been doing art seriously since 1983 and i came up with the name TOXICTOONS in 1986 i think after i did a set of 8 postcards and wanted to call them something. I figured since the backgrounds where spray painted and i was always choking on the paint fumes i should call them TOXIC and the TOONS is just because the are cartoons. Last night i was looking at my collection of art from 1987 and showed my wife and man it was pretty bad. I can see a big difference between then and my art now.But everybody gets better at what they love to do the more years you do it.

So when are ya going to treat us with another new book? Have you any concepts for your new works?

I am putting a sketchbook together right now that shows some of my thought process and how i work from start to finish and i have another poem book ready for 2006. I could put out a new artbook with over 120 pages of new art ,my favourite images to date! But i really need to find a publisher this time to do it so i don't have to invest all my own money self publishing ,which is hard to get your books in stores that way. But i don't regret it at all because i have got so many jobs and the toys from doing it that way. Plus my garage is filed with 1000's of my books ,so hopefully your readers will grab some! I have a great 4 book deal where you get them for 50% off!

Of the Following Artists/ Directors list in order from your favourite

Tim Burton -1st i love Tim's vision and met him once at DISNEYS and spoke about working together someday."hope it happens"
George a Romero -Love the genre he created,walking corpses! i love zombie movies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
George Lucas-Star Wars came out when i was a teenager and i loved the first 2 but the rest put me to sleep!
Jim Henson -I love the old MUPPETS SHOWSAND KIDS PROGRAM, they were great!
WALT DISNEY-created some of the best animated films that will ever be made!!

So will Toxic Toons ever be made into a feature film or small animation ‘series?

Well i still hope to one day do a HALLOWEEN SPECIAL i have been working on for the past 6 years or more. I did do the CREEPY characters in the ED EDD AND EDDY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2005. I know the creator DANNY ANTANUCCI from the days when he did his film," LUPO THE BUTCHER" and i did ,"LETS CHOP SOO-E!" at INTERNATIONAL ROCKETSHIP in Vancouver CANADA. My cartoon played on MTV'S Liquid Television and the TOO OUTRAGEOUS ANIMATION film festival circuit.

So Tell us is there any truth behind the Stories that you did animation For Disney Studios ?

Yep 15 years,it made me a lot of money and helped with self publishing my own product. Plus it doesn't hurt having it on your resume.
Unfortunately in 2002-2003 they gave up on our 2-d division and replaced over 800 of us with computer animation people. I hear they are closing the 2-d division in Australia that was doing the sequels also. Looks like this year there will be 8 computer animated films in the theatres all trying to look like a PIXAR's films.
That's the problem with music, art, animation, movies once something becomes a hit everybody jumps on the bandwagon for a piece of the profit and ruin it. Lion King I worked on and the same thing happened after it made a BILLION DOLLAR$!!! Then there was 4 other 2-D STUDIOS trying to do DISNEYESQUE ANIMATED FILMS.Then people get sick of what ever is copied to death.
Just Like HAIR METAL,GRUNGE,NU METAL hopefully RAP one of these days! I cant believe its lasted this long on MTV! When SIXTH SENSE made all that money then we got glutted with lots of bad ghost story movies. Which i don't mind as long as they are good which most weren't!

Some fun Questions

ok so you have Stolen Dr Who's '' Stardust and you can travel back in time to any place In time ...where would you go? Who would you like to see? And also what event would you most want to witness?

Well i don't know that show, but if i could go back in time i would love to go to the EC STUDIOS in the 1950's when they started MAD and all the great old horror comics TALES FROM THE CRYPT,HAUNNT OF FEAR and VAULT OF HORROR.And just sit there and watch the great talents coming together and the whole vibe of the place.
If i could go back to witness an event i guess hmmmmm,When JESUS was crucified and tell him how fucked up the world is gonna become over people killing each other over thinking their religious beliefs are the correct and only belief. Or maybe the day the earth started to see what it was like ,or go to a lot of concerts for sure !

In a heavy metal death match who will be hailed the Rock god?

(A) Rob Zombie
(B) Marilyn Manson
(C) Alice Cooper
(D) Or a choice of your own?

WOW THATS TUFF!! THEY ALL ARE GREAT I guess ALICE COOPER since he started it all. I saw him this year at the GREEK theater and they were great!!! Wow now come to think of it i would love to go back in time now and see him and his first band play a show at their height.

Do you have any Quirks or Collections that you love to collect?

I like collecting creepy art and Halloween related stuff. Nothing to crazy though. My drawing room is such a pig sty with stuff I'm surprised i can work in it!

I currently read you have just finished cover art for my Favourite Band Frankenstein drag queens? Was that fun … and how is it themed …? Did Wednesday 13 give you any direction on what he would like … or did he let the Master Pigors go to work in his own creative madness?

When I saw Wednesday at his show in Hollywood he mentioned he would like me to do the cover. I really enjoy his music and we both like a lot of similar stuff.
When i started the cover i sent a few really ruff sketch ideas before knowing the name of the set and he commented on wanting a few Pigorsesque stuff you see in my art a lot of the time. Once i heard the Title of the set "LITTLE BOX OF HORRORS" i had an idea jump to me and sent it and he really dug it.Its the Frankenstein monster taking the lid off a coffin filled with blood and bones ghosts and bugs coming out with all sorts of PIGORS ghouls standing around the coffin looking in and my version of the band in the center . The back is the same FRANKENSTEIN and the VAMPO GHOUL together.
I can wait to see it when it comes out,it was a lot of fun doing it!

Thanks for your time to answer these questions for the gothoholics community and well we are doing our part to get you out and known down under but your already loved down here dude everywhere I go I get comments on the Eric Pigors Classic t shirts l wear ...and through the Community I have Sold many Toxic Toons figure Sets.... Thanks for your brilliant Art and your Warped mind … best of luck for 2006... Mate … may it be a crazy adventurous New Year…..

Stay Ghoul
Pallbearer

Matt Freer
Gothoholics Community