Mr.Rick Trembles – Artist, Exhibitionist, Enigma
Originally Published in Sequential Pulp Special 2009 TCAF Edition
Rick Trembles has written and drawn some excruciatingly honest comics in the last 30 years. He’s constantly putting himself out there, warts and all, in every medium he can penetrate, making him a very unusual entity in the comics world.
To date, he is an Animator, Illustrator, Writer, Musician, Song Writer, Radio DJ, Make up and Special Effects Artist, Movie Reviewer, Actor, Sculptor, Designer, and Photographer. His band, The American Devices, has lasted for 3 decades and is still going strong today with new shows and songs every year. Yet, he somehow manages to have his finger in all those pies without any formal training. Mostly known for his movie/comic reviews ‘Motion Picture Purgatory’, the second collection of said strip is due out this summer at Fantasia. His work is not for children and his two favourite movies of all time are ‘King Kong’ and ‘Videodrome’.
“My father was a cartoonist” Rick says, and that was his first exposure to the medium that would become most of his career. “Growing up in Verdun, Quebec, he did WWII airplane dog-fight comics and Canadian war comics.” His father, J. Tremblay, tried to encourage young Trembles through osmosis. Besides his father, other major influences were old British comics, newspaper strips of the 30’s and 40’s and Ray Harryhausen. “That’s what I wanted to be, before anything, I wanted to be Ray Harryhausen.”
Once out of high school, Rick put together ‘Sugar Diet’ #1. Published in ‘84, it was full of interviews of local bands, comics, and reviews. And in the true spirit of punk, it was printed and paid for by funds stolen from a CEGEP one of his friends went to. Unbeknownst to Rick until later, because of complete student apathy his friend was able to funnel money intended for school projects into his ‘zine without notice or recrimination. In ‘93 he sent an issue of ‘SD’ to Robert Crumb and got published in ‘Weirdo’ #11. “He liked it. He said my stuff reminded him of Gary Panter. He gave me a few tips, on a postcard, handwritten. He said, “You should do more shading.” Which I didn’t, I never used shading again. But it was only because I was being reprinted in ‘zines, and the more details you have, it’s harder to reprint. So I decided to keep everything clean.” ‘SD’ #2 came out in ‘92. Gone were all the band interviews and reviews, it was all comics, all the time. It’s here that his art style begins to appear almost OCD in its detailing. ‘God’s Cocksuckers’ alone can make you stare for hours at the writhing mass of Lilliput people, in various sexual positions. “I like to cram it full of details.” ‘SD’ #3 has a retelling of the original ‘MPP’ debacle, complete with offensive comic strip and transcript of a phone conversation with one of the ‘Montreal Mirror’ (a free weekly) shills, attempting to explain why they got rid of the strip. Padded out with random comic bits, the variety is endless, interesting and innovative. “That’s my problem, I’m always biting off more than I can chew. Cause you gotta keep yourself challenged, you know?”
Motion Picture Purgatory
‘Motion Picture Purgatory’s’ initial incarnation started with the advent of the Mirror in ‘85. After 3 years of horror movie comic reviews, Rick found himself unceremoniously dumped when he was accused of being a misogynist. (He had the nerve to draw feminist Lydia Lunch’s all time dream special-effects sequence.) “They thought a lot of the stuff I was doing was misogynistic and the problem was, I was reviewing slasher movies. Anyone who can sit through that crap must have a problem, right?” Then in ‘98 the ‘Mirror’ got a new editor and it was a whole different ball game. “He was a pop culture journalist and one of his first articles was about my band in the early 80’s. He was always a fan of my stuff and my band and I think it was Rupert Bottenberg that suggested bringing ‘Motion Picture Purgatory’ back.” I’m continually amazed by what he gets away with in ‘MPP’. The censorship under the new regime is virtually non existent. “The only time I’ve ever been censored, I was talking about Tom Cruise. They actually put black bars over his name. It was a strip about Kenneth Anger’s gossiping and they censored it because of a possible lawsuit, not because of the content.” Trembles seems born to do ‘MPP’, as it encompasses the majority of his favourite things. He’s certainly created a niche unto himself. “I figure I’m under the radar somehow. Because it’s a comic strip, reviewing films. And it cancels out comics and it cancels out film reviews at the same time. It’s just this odd duck. It’s a comic strip and that’s just too low brow for some people. But for people that are completely into comics, it’s just too much text and you have to be into film. Also it’s possible, a lot of film nerds don’t want to be told by some smirking cartoonist what’s what in film.”
‘MPP’ is all splash page and few panels. It’s rare when there are more than 6 panels, unless he’s making a point about repetition. Like in his ‘Irreversible’ and ‘Friday the 2 Millionth’ review. He has clever art ideas. The review of ‘House of 1,000 Corpses’ was a Möbius strip of opinions and information. His characters, while simple, also can become distorted and surreal. Even something innocuous like a background has so much more going on. While the men and women do look the same, there is a reason. “It’s a pack of work. I’ve got to put all this text together, so I’m not going to bother with likenesses. They’re icons, they might all look the same but they don’t all act the same.” His art is easy to dismiss due to its simplicity. But if you spend the time, it’s intricate, experimental and educational.
I also enjoy the way he writes. Alliteration abounds and he has a neato’ slang movie review shorthand, it’s almost poetry. You also get way more information in an ‘MPP’ review, than in your average movie magazine column. “The reviews are usually 3 times as long. I heavily self-edit. I’ve got to have room for the drawings, the little icons.” I find his absurdity fun too. His ‘Men in Black’ review was just the stars spouting non sequiturs.
The first ‘MPP’ book was released in 2004 by FAB Press. When the publisher came to Fantasia the year before, Rick proceeded to stalk him, pitch the book and ‘An incomparable collection of comic strip concoctions configured to critique film’ was born. 188 pages of movie reviews, a short history of ‘MPP’ scandals past as well as a bibliography and an index. It’s a well laid out book that gives one good bang for the buck.
“I’m dying to see obscure B movie grind-house stuff in the film format, you know? I would jump on that like crazy. I’d do strips like that non-stop if I could. I’m sick of that Hollywood dreck, I want to learn more about film history.” He may be sick of the dreck but they spawn some of his best comic reviews. I adore his scratch and sniff review of ‘Twilight’. And while he feels the state of horror movies today has regressed since the 70’s, at least we’ve got his reviews to make them more interesting.
For the new ‘MPP’ book, he plans on throwing in some current and first run movie reviews, so they aren’t all entirely impossible to find obscure movies. The new cover will be in beautiful glossy colour, and there will be way more content than the last book. “The thing is MASSIVE. People are sure gonna’ be getting their moneys worth.” He plans on launching the book at as many festivals, time and money will allow him to attend. So if you’re in Montreal during Fantasia, come check out Rick’s Rock and Roll, Comic Movie Extravaganza Launch.
“The way I see it, I haven’t been able to get work in so long, I may as well enjoy myself. Just do whatever the fuck I want, you know?”
Rick Trembles
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