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Michael Slack – “Without monsters we would have no heroes”

31 Oct

I’ve had a draft post sitting here for some time with Michael Slack’s name on it (ie. since starting Accordion Face), and what better day than Halloween to post about him and his work? He’s one of my favourite Illustrators today, not just for obvious content reasons, his style strikes a real chord with me – something in the sharpness of the Jim Flora-esque shapes, mixed with the textures?

Michael is flying the flag for all things weird and wonderful for kids (and adults alike). He has Illustrated a number of children’s books, games/puzzles, stickers (including Stinckers), as well as editorial, advertising, character and licensing work. If you’re looking for ideal Christmas presents for your munchkins, I highly recommend anything Mr Slack has out there on the shelves! My partner’s niece LOVES her copies of Flim Flam Fairies and Knuckleheads from a few Xmas’s back.

I wrote to Michael to ask a few questions about his work, and got some corkers of answers, particularly question #3! Thanks Michael!

1. Could you please share a bit of an overview of your process?

Most of my work is digital. I still work in traditional media for some of my “gallery” work. My technique varies depending on the project. I’m a texture fiend so I have a large library of scanned and photographic textures that I use. I guess I would call it a modified collage style. I will make selections put in textures then paint on them push and pull them until I like the result. Basically lots of layers and masking. Recently I’ve be leaving out the scanned textures entirely. I just finished a children’s book where I created the illustrations just digitally painting with custom brushes.

2. History/background/How you got started and how you got to where you’re at today (changes in style over time or linear?)

I started my freelance career just before the .com bubble burst. I had been working in the gaming industry as a character designer for kids educational games. The company folded and I started getting freelance gigs doing various content for kids websites. I also l started getting print gigs with tech magazines and kids magazines, which eventually lead to books.. and here we are! The funny thing is since the introduction of the touch screen on mobile devices and the release of the ipad, I’m getting contacted to do similar types of jobs which I was getting during the late 90’s boom of the internet. As far as style is concerned, it is always changing. We are dynamic beings continually being inspired, effected, and influenced. We are talking about creativity here. If you keep doing the same thing over and over again you will eventually get bored and produce work you don’t feel good about. How creative is that?

3. For me, growing up in the 80’s/90’s there were so many great *gross/weird* products for kids: Garbage Pail Kids, Doctor Dreadful, slime, board games, Odd Bodz and all kinds of monster-ish toys. And now I’m struggling to find much at all of this kind of thing in shops.
I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on the place in the market today for this kind of thing, such as Ick, and I guess your style?

I think on some level we have less cultural room for these types of products. Throughout history macabre and grotesque imagery has always served a cultural need. Whether they are in the form of religious imagery, folktales, films, toys, or trading cards, these images are representations of the unknown and our deepest fears. They force us to playfully face these fears and traditionally serve to reaffirm life, and what is “good”. We are living in an accelerated, fear based culture. What was once shocking is now passé. The imaginary, monsters have all lost their teeth, and have had their claws removed. They can no longer compete with the horrors we see in the news every day. We are told on a daily basis all the things we should fear. This constant fear mongering reaffirms nothing, and in the end only creates more fear, panic, and worry. We suffer from fear fatigue. Parents now feel the need to shelter their kids. So they don’t buy these type of products.

From a publishers’ standpoint there is a very limited appeal in today’s market for edgy products. When there is so much competition for the consumer’s dollars, and especially now when consumers have less money to spend, publishers produce products that are “safe bets” and appeal to the broadest possible market .There was more room for these products in the past. The 80’s and 90’s were a boom time. Consumers had more money, there was less competition, publishers and toy company’s could throw more products in the mix and see what would stick. Also, this type of product traditionally appeals to adolescent boys, which only make up a small portion of the childrens market. Today, video games are the realm of the adolescent boy. I was in my pre teen years in the early 80’s. The most macabre character in video games at that time were the pac-man ghosts. So video games weren’t satisfying the adolescent boy’s inherent fascination with gross stuff, so we collected garbage pail kids.

I got very lucky with Ick. I think the reason Chronicle published it is that they saw broader potential for the characters. I was really surprised they didn’t edit much at all. The game itself is tame. You try and build the grossest environment for your monsters to live in. It is about caring for your monsters. It is easy for kids to learn and the rounds are short enough to hold their interest. Another satisfying project I recently worked on was a book of monster stickers for Mudpuppy. First of all I love stickers. Always have. Secondly, they basically gave me complete freedom to do what I wanted. The characters on the stickers really push the boundary for the 6+ age range. They are genuinely fun and weird.

4. Animation – the ad’s that have been animated by Kirsten Lepore are so great – your style lends so well to animation – any plans for doing more animated work? (or further collaborations with Kirsten)?

Thanks! Kirsten is a fantastic artist. We share the same animation mentor, Laurence Arcadias. Laurence recommended Kirsten when I was looking for an animator. It takes me forever to animate something. So I generally collaborate on animated projects with people who have much better animation skills. As I mentioned before I keep getting inquiries about creating content for mobile devices which usually involve animation. I created some very simple animations for my first digital children’s book “Scruffy Kitty” (NOTE: If you get Scruffy Kitty today from Itunes, there is a hidden layer TODAY ONLY for Halloween, changing and adding certain elements of Scruffy Kitty. Search the Itunes store for Scruffy Kitty).

5. On that note, I’m not sure if you attended ICON6 (?) but all reports from the conference were that the main topic of conversation was on the future of Illustration, with the likely addition of animation to Illustration in general. I thought Scruffy Kitty was a positive example of this, incorporating simple animations into the storybook format, but wondering if you would like to share your thoughts on this topic?

No, I didn’t go to ICON. But it seems like the animated debate set the tone and riled up some folks. Animation has always been part of what I do. It doesn’t bother me one bit that animated content will be popular again. I have enough skill animate my own stuff. It would be great to get better at animating. But honestly, at this point I’m very realistic about what I can handle on my own and when it is time to call in the pro’s.

I do wonder though whether having everything on a page moving, or navigable, really adds value or just creates visual chaos. It is a new format and medium. It is very important that we set the ground rules for this new medium and not have the “print” contract model, be applied here. We ( illustrators) will have to be sure that we are compensated fairly for the added art needed for animated content. It is up to us to be firm on this point, and not devalue what we do.

That concludes the Q&A with Michael. Scroll down to the bottom of the post for a special BUY $H!T list of Michael Slack’s available products. That is, because I couldn’t decide on which of Mr Slack’s work to post, please enjoy a whole stack more, old and new!

BUY SHIT!

If you’d like to get some of Michael Slack’s books, prints, games, stickers or a puzzle for yourself (or for the perfect xmas present for little ones and monster-preciating big kids) I’ve compiled a special BUY $H!T list:

Ick!: The Game ($13.30 USD)