“In this respect, our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences. A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they have taken no precautions.”
― Albert Camus, The Plague
Life Sucks..a short history.
Years ago, someone asked me if I had any cartoons I would contribute to this magazine they were starting. They would pay $20 a cartoon or something, it was one of those free magazines, about what to do in the city , so, mostly filled with ads, but, I guess they were desperate for any kind of content, which is why the asked me.
When I was maybe in my early 20s, I did think , very briefly, about doing a short cartoon strip , the type you used to find in newspapers. I guess I thought, maybe I could make some money, who knows, anyhow, I did 3 , and called it life sucks, then kinda gave up on the idea . So, when I was asked if I had any ideas, I pitched them 2, and drew up some samples . One was called “ those crazy gurus “, that my friend James had written, which was just a short and sometimes slightly humorous bit of text about various gurus , that I would illustrate. The other idea was to resurrect the life sucks idea, so, I did a few of them. In the end, they went will the guru pitch, so, for a while I did those , until the magazine folded after about a year . For some reason, I found I enjoyed doing the life sucks . I has always slightly struggled with that format , but one of my favorite comics of the 80s/ early 90s, was Doug Allen’s Steven . I loved that comic, and that was presented in this format.
I have never done work with an audience in mind . I most definitely have never thought that the world needs to see my artwork, I have always viewed it as an almost neurotic impulse, a private thing, some kind of compulsive behavior. However, I do artwork that is sometimes shown in small galleries, sometimes cartoons that have appeared in magazines and comics, and, I have self published comics of and on since I was a kid. But, with life sucks, i really didn’t think anyone would ever see them, and that made drawing them much more enjoyable, I felt I could take the story wherever it wanted to go, and, it was almost like it wrote itself half the time .
The “ story “ is centered around this cartoon bear, that is kind haplessly stumbling around while bad things happen all around him. He goes into different universes, some of them inside his own head, until you never really know where he is or what is going on. None of it really makes any sense, but I try to keep the internal logic consistent ,even in the mess of the absurd.
It blurs the line between the external world and the internal world, between the past and the future, and the kinda unconscious quality of the bear , who just haplessly accepts whatever reality is being imposed on him at any given moment. Somehow, the story ends up pretty much summing up how I feel about reality in ways I cant really fully articulate in any other way. The story can go on forever, I make it all up as I go along, but it has an endless quality it it. They are all signed by someone else because, I guess, I felt like no one needed to know who drew them, I mean, who cares right ?
Im planning on publishing a comic of the strips so far, when i can raise the money. maybe ill do a go fund me campaign, if i can figure out how that stuff works, but, ill do it somehow.
Original LIFE SUCKS idea drawn in the 90,s
doug allens steven comic
THE PROGRAM
For many years I was a drug addict. It was a pretty dark time .
I was homeless, in jail , it wasn’t glamorous.
It negativity effected all my relationships, I blocked me creatively. I don’t write about it much .
I got clean over 15 years ago.
I attended NA meeting for years and still have a huge gratitude for all the people i meet and helped me in those first 3 or 4 years.
I wasn’t in good circumstances, I was living in a crack House with my ex wife and her crazy crack head boyfriend in east London. Everyday I would get on a train to west London and go to as many meetings as I could , hanging out on the street or in cafes between meetings . I detoxed going to meetings, so, I was noticeably a complete mess . The amount of legal drugs I was on where the toughest , methodone, anti psychotics , benzodiazepines, ect , and every night I would go home to the crack house and stay in my room. I don’t think I slept for about 2 or 3 months straight, I probably did , but it seemed like I didn’t .
These drawings are over some of the leaflets that were around. It shows where my head was at the time i guess .
Watermelon comix
““The Enterprise Allowance Scheme was a product of the Thatcher Government in the 1980s which continued into the 1990s. It gave a small income to would be entrepreneurs to start their own business. Watermelon, a comic based in Brighton, was one such enterprise. The Welfare State in the UK has enabled many musicians, artists and writers to survive in times of high unemployment and a lack of market for their talents. Watermelon explored the kind of twilight world of Psychedelia and psychosis that was typified in the US by Philip K Dick. The best stories (by Nicolas C Grey, 1968-) have an artless style that is a style. There is a kind of graphomania at work here. The entrepreneurialism encouraged by the government found its apotheosis in Acid House; in the drug-dealings and Pay Parties.
Nicolas C Grey,
Cover of Watermelon #6,
36 x 21 cm,
Having spent time in both prison and mental institutions he now lives in Cambodia, where his work is appreciated for its ‘ghost-world’ qualities. His recent work is very much influenced by the region’s politics and culture. ‘‘
exert from a book on Psychedelic Art by Thomas Taylor
HELP…….
He just appeared one day, as everyone did, on the wing.
You never knew what they would be like, but everyone sizes them up, to try take a guess.
He was a slight man, unassuming.
Clean.
No threat, no problem.
After a while it became clear he didn't speak English. I assumed he was one of those folks that just got dumped in prison by immigration, left to wait for the “”powers that be “”to decide his fate.
Most waited a long time.
It was about 2 weeks in, when the trouble started.
He just wouldn't do as he was told. The officers thought that shouting orders in a very loud voice would somehow bridge the language divide. He only knew one word…””help””. it was funny at first, when they wanted him to go back to the cell, to see them almost chase after him, shouting at him, as he just wandered around saying “”help””, in his quiet voice. He would disappear occasionally, taken to solitary, then be back again. He never uttered any other word, never raised his voice.
He drove them mad.
They just didn't know what to do, violence, threats, all this they handled with an ease verging on enjoyment. Thinking back, it was one of the finest displays of disobedience to authority I have ever seen. I don’t know what happened to him, when I was released, he was still there. I caught his eye once, and with a very slight smile, almost imperceptible, he quietly said “”help””, then walked away.
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Around 2000 years ago , at the time of the fourth industrial revolution, things were not looking good. The previous industrial revolutions has created a world based on infinite growth, the exploitation of labor, war, and a necessary veneer of propaganda and consumerism, creating an uniquely confused and alienated population.
By the time of the fourth industrial revolution things had began to get weirder. The world was mostly run by technological monopolies that hardly anyone understood . Because of the years of exploitation of the natural world, a collapse of some kind seems inevitable . Wealth inequality has become so vast it became difficult to hide under veneers of Democratic platitudes.
The elites became understandably worried that the situation would become unstable, so, enacted a vast conspiracy. With the help of the newest technology and propaganda, they managed to inject the worlds population with a seemingly benign chemical, that really contained nano technologies that could neurologically alter peoples perceptions of reality.
That was when the first domed pleasure cities where built , fully protected from the increasingly uninhabitable earth. The general population were now no more than slaves , but , thanks to the nano technology implanted in there DNA, they would imagine themselves to be living a life of freedom, or any configuration the elites choose for them .
As the years went by , the elites passed their time in the domed pleasure cities indulging in altering their brain chemicals to induce all the pleasures they could possibly imagine, while everyone else toiled in the toxic wastelands , mining for the last of the precious minerals needed to keep the domed cities computer systems running. But, as generations passed, they no longer thought of themselves of elites , they were just people. And their domed cities, once of source of such pleasure and pride , had for some, began to feel like domed prisons . They were bored . They could see, on the huge monitors displayed in most public areas as a form of entertainment, what the slave population outside looked like , and how they lived . Ugly , short ,brutish lives , with thick leather like skin , often ravaged with disease. The domed city dwellers bodies had changed as well , taller, lacking in muscle, smaller jaws and an almost androgynous look, big heads , they had an almost alien look .
Eventually , it had become a pastime to hack into the neurological programming of the slave people, and experience life as they imagined they lived it . Though confusing, the Slave people still imagined they inhabited a world long since gone . They had contact distractions, strange forms of entertainment, emotions not designed solely to maximize pleasure, but , difficult conflicting emotions and experiences. The elites had taken to tweaking the slave populations reality when they were bored , and there were endless variations, rerunning various scenarios of what the past could of been , amused at all the variety and reactions their simulations could induce . The more rebellious had taken to hacking inside their reality, and living out their virtual simulated lives, as they seemed more interesting than the now dull familiar cycle of living in their perfect pleasure domes. Occasionally, they would cut the cord , and , even though they knew they really were living in the now toxic pain filled world outside the dome , at least they could experience the neurological programming in a more authentic way .
In one of the billions of simultaneous, people would entertain themselves by drawing and trying to sell weird comics books ,trying to make social commentary on a totally fictitious world, a thought that the elite hackers inhabiting the slave race found both ironic, humorous, and , philosophically puzzling. You are now living in this particular simulation, you imagine it’s the end of the year 2020, and , in this world, the latest comic book has been published. It was always such a fringe interest, there were always only a very small print run , but , if you are curious, here it is . Headache no.4…..