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Satanic Majesty: The mystical illustrations of Florian Bertmer
09.26.2019
01:36 pm
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‘Order of the Seven Serpents’ by Florian Bertmer.
 
German illustrator Florian Bertmer  confesses that he is “horrible at social networking.” To a certain extent this appears to be accurate, as it seems the now-LA based artist has never given an interview over the course of his career. He also drinks too much coffee, draws a lot, and likes dogs because they make him laugh. Since these attributes are clear indications of a person who has aligned their priorities correctly, let’s all try to learn a little more about the somewhat mysterious artist by way of his artwork which, if you are a fan of hardcore bands and jams, will be familiar to you. Also, if you happen to be a fan of all things satanic, or dabble in diabolism, Bertmer’s work will probably speak directly to you.

Bertmer’s earliest work dates back to his youth spent in Münster, Germany illustrating fliers for local hardcore bands. In 1998 he would get his first credit for album artwork for German hardcore punk band Highscore. The following year Bertmer and his band Cheerleaders of the Apocalypse put out their first recording, Bloodfeast 99. Florian is credited for his “Wacky Screaming” and the cassette’s artwork. That same year, Bertmer would illustrate his first of many album covers for hardcore band Agoraphobic Nosebleed. More recently, Bertmer has worked with screen-printing industry giant Mondo to create original posters for classic horror films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hellraiser, two of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s esoteric films, The Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre, as well as for the animated TV mind-fucks that are The Ren & Stimpy Show and Rick and Morty. Bertmer’s admitted ineptitude at social networking hasn’t hurt his career, and his illustration style is continually evolving. Over the last few years, fans of Bertmer’s work have noted the influence of classic Art Nouveau intertwined within occult symbolism and imagery inline with David Mann, an artist who masterfully captured outlaw biker culture with his paintings and contributions to biker bible/magazine Easyrider.

Bertmer’s numerous collaborations with Mondo have been wildly successful, and his reasonably priced limited edition prints (many of which are featured in this post) often sell out. When they do appear on auction sites such as eBay, some of his more culty works, such as his riffs on Ren & Stimpy, and his Jodorowsky movie posters routinely fetch $300-$400 each. More of Bertmer’s work follow—a few are NSFW.
 

 

A piece by Bertmer in the spirit of the artwork of David Mann.
 

Bertmer’s poster for Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in honor of the 40th anniversary of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’
 
More Bertmer after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.26.2019
01:36 pm
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‘Happy happy joy joy!’: Hyper-realistic Ren & Stimpy masks
04.14.2017
10:23 am
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Andrew Freeman of Immortal Masks made these insanely detailed Ren & Stimpy masks! The only word I can think of for these is “grotesque.” I simply cannot get over how real they look. They’d give me nightmares if I owned them.

The masks made their debut at the fabled Monsterpalooza convention last weekend. Bravo.


 

 

 
via Nerdcore

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.14.2017
10:23 am
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Disgusting hyper-realistic busts of Ren and Stimpy
10.14.2016
09:17 am
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The Ren & Stimpy Show, often simply called simply Ren & Stimpy, was a madcap and often subversive cartoon show produced by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon between 1991 and 1995. The sometimes controversial program featured Ren, “an emotionally unstable chihuahua,” and Stimpy, “a good-natured, dimwitted cat,” and was filled with gross-out humor and and jokes that only the adults in the audience were likely to get. The show paved the way for more adult-themed cartoons such as Beavis and Butthead and South Park, and still enjoys a large cult audience today.

Artist Andrew Freeman of Immortal masks has recently paid homage to Ren Höek and Stimpson J. Cat by creating “hyper-realistic” silicone busts of the duo.

The masks are absolutely grotesque, keeping in line with the original show which often featured disgusting close-ups of the cartoon pair. The intricate details on these busts are amusingly disturbing, from the gross rotten teeth to the “magic nose goblins” in Stimpy’s nostrils.

The full silicone busts were designed, sculpted and painted by Andrew Freeman with the assistance of his team at Immortal Masks, and the finished pieces are being displayed at Think Tank Gallery in downtown Los Angeles October 8 through the 31st

Happy happy, joy joy!
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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10.14.2016
09:17 am
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‘Starring Frank Zappa as The Pope’ in Ren & Stimpy’s ‘Powdered Toast Man,’ 1992

Powdered Toast Man!
 
Early in the second season of Ren & Stimpy, there appeared a rollicking and utterly disrespectful segment called “Powdered Toast Man.” 1992. The character of Powdered Toast Man unified the clueless and self-important silliness of The Tick with the tendency to wreak havoc of, say, Inspector Clouseau or Maxwell Smart. Voiced by the incomparable Gary Owens—and you might not know the name, but if you’ve ever seen Laugh-In or Space Ghost, you sure as hell know his voice—Powdered Toast Man was the spokesman for, obviously, a product called Powdered Toast, which was billed as tasting “just like sawdust!” According to Wikipedia, he was based on the character of Studebacher Hoch, from the epic song “Billy The Mountain” of off the Mothers of Invention’s 1972 album Just Another Band from L.A. I frankly don’t quite see the connection, but anything’s possible.
 
Powdered Toast Man!
 
It’s kind of amazing just how dark and subversive the Powdered Toast bit is. The anti-advertising message is just the start of it. Tasked with saving a kitten from being run over by a truck, Powdered Toast Man causes a passing jetliner to crash into the truck, thus saving the kitten at the expense of who knows how many lives (the injured survivors cheer him on anyway). A few moments later, Powdered Toast Man thoughtlessly tosses the kitten out of frame, where he is apparently run over by a truck, to judge from the sound effects. Later on, he uses the Bill of Rights for kindling. He induces projectiles to emerge from his armpits by doing that “fart noise” maneuver, he uses his own tongue as a telephone…....... actually, you really need to see the video to believe it. The satire of the prevailing superhero ethos really couldn’t be more savage—or more entertaining.
 
Powdered Toast Man!
The Pope, “clinging tenaciously” to Powdered Toast Man’s buttocks
 
Appropriately enough, the role of the Pope was voiced by Frank Zappa. According to IMDB.com, it was the last time he would ever portray a fictional character (granted, he didn’t do this all that often). How did this come to pass? As often happens in showbiz, Zappa had expressed some admiration for the early Ren & Stimpy episodes, and ... one thing led to another. John Kricfalusi tells the story on the commentary track for the episode:
 

Yeah, Frank Zappa was a fan of the show, and I was a huge Frank Zappa fan growing up. I had all his records. and when I found out he was a fan, our mixer, one of the sound engineers, was also mixing some Frank Zappa records, and he ... handed the phone to me one day and it was Frank on the line. So Frank invited me to his house that weekend. ... and I went with Elinor Blake and Frank and his family and I, Moon Unit and Dweezil. We all sat around watching Ren & Stimpy cartoons all afternoon. He was laughing all through them, and after it was over I asked: “Hey Frank, you want to BE in a cartoon?” and he said: “Yeah, that’d be great” and I said: “You want to be the pope?” and he said: “Yeah, I always wanted to be the pope.”

 
(Note: Elinor Blake has had a successful musical career in her own right: After working as an animator on Ren & Stimpy, she released several albums under the name April March.) As it happens, Zappa has hardly any lines, but that’s all right.

Another interesting link between Zappa and the show: There was a recurring Ren & Stimpy segment called “Ask Dr. Stupid” in which Stimpy would respond to letters in an incredibly stupid way. Turns out, Zappa recorded a track called “Ask Dr. Stupid” all the way back in 1979.

The episode is available in full on The Ren & Stimpy Show: The First and Second Season (Uncut)
 

 
via Showbiz Imagery and Chicanery

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Ren & Stimpy creator John K animates The Simpsons
‘Make Me Laugh’: Frank Zappa and Gallagher on bad 70s game show

Posted by Martin Schneider
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03.24.2014
02:50 pm
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Navel-gazing: Stimpy takes a trip

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Ren, Stimpy and Stinky, by Laberzink

This is one for all you fans of 60s psychedelia, and especially pastiche 60s psychedelia. Not to mention being one for fans of transgressive cartoons, and in particular one of the best cartoon shows of all time, John K’s Ren & Stimpy.

In this clip Stimpy gets invited to climb into his own stomach by his belly-button, which disturbingly enough looks like a talking foreskin. Im sure that’a a metaphor for something or other, but as I have not seen the full episode I can’t offer the context. Once inside his navel Stimpy is treated to some pretty great visuals and a very neat tune called “Climb Inside My World”, performed by Chris Goss (producer of Kyuss, Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age among many others), here channeling that groovy ‘67 spirit of the Beatles and the Small Faces.

It’s great that what was nominally a kids show could get away with something like this. Of course, this was before cartoons were taken seriously as “adult” entertainment, and we can thank Ren & Stimpy hugely for that change in perception. A bit like Stimpy’s own changing perspective.

Ignore the German intro and skip straight to 0:23 for the action. Ooh, there’s that pesky number 23, but I’m sure it’s just a co-incidence…
 

 
Thanks Joe!

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Ren & Stimpy creator John K animates The Simpsons

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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04.19.2012
06:36 am
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Ren & Stimpy creator John K animates The Simpsons


 
Ok, so it’s just the sofa section of the show’s opening, but as a huge fan of both The Simpsons and Ren & Stimpy I just had to share this. Those two shows were the high watermarks of the 90s golden age of mainstream animation, and very influential on an entire generation of young, impressionable minds. So in a way this is the cartoon equivalent of the Beatles jamming with the Stones - but much weirder. A lot of people won’t like this (and some would say it’s a good fifteen years or more since both were at their peak), but it’s still great to see John K’s dark and twisted take on America’s first family. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I detect a subtle swipe at the character’s roles here, and Is that a hint of bitterness I can taste in the his rendering of their front room in such gloomy colors?
 

 
You can see a lot more of John Kricfalusi’s work at his blog.

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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10.04.2011
08:38 pm
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