Back in the late 80’s I tried in earnest to get my band The American Devices involved in the “Flesh Gordon” (1972) sequel “Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders” (1989) directed by porn pioneer Howard (Mona) Ziehm, because the first one was considered a minor classic for its excellent stop-motion puppet creatures animated by the likes of Ray Harryhausen protégé Jim Danforth. Preproduction sketches piqued my curiosity with monster characters like a giant female dominatrix spider & anthropomorphized turds. Corresponding back & forth via snail-mail with the producers in B.C., I hoped they could at least get some of our music on the soundtrack & sent them a whole promo package, but no dice. Just as well, because the humor in Flesh Gordon 2 turned out to be sophomoric beyond redemption & the cheesy party-time music they ended up going with sounded more like Huey Lewis and The News. I still really have a soft-spot for this thing, though. It’s almost campy enough to recollect early John Waters. The heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 1999 Valentine’s issue of The Montreal Mirror was “The birds & the bees gotcha depressed? This Valentine’s Day, don’t repress, regress!” (To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

Original art for sale for $50.00 CAD. Unfortunately, only the original pencil preliminaries are available (signed & dated by author/artist Rick ) since this is such an early strip that I used to have to bring the art over to The Montreal Mirror for scanning before I was properly equipped myself & the original inks got stolen overnight. Includes B&W newsprint tear-sheet from where it was originally published. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Can’t wait to see FIFTY SHADES OF GREY POUPON (POOP ON)! Spread hot mustard on your privates till you poop your pants in pain just like they do in one of the most harrowing scenes in this doc about the notorious S&M website that got shut down because of torture-happy gov’t’s “Patriot Act”! (Poop-free) consensual screams from hot pepper cream applied to genitals actually attracted cops. Did they smell lunch? Heading for this Motion Picture Purgatory which originally appeared in a 2009 issue of The Montreal Mirror was “Blot calling the kettle black!” Artwork ended up as part of the extras in Synapse Films’ 2010 Special Edition DVD release. (To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

Original art for sale for $100.00 CAD. Includes three items total: The pencil art preliminaries, the original finished B&W inks (signed & dated by author/artist Rick Trembles in pencil on the back), & a color newsprint tear-sheet (or B&W gray tones, depending on when it came out) from where it was originally published. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

My Motion Picture Purgatory for this surrealistic 1970 Czech New Wave sex/horror fairy-tale ended up as part of the extras in Facets’ DVD release. It’s a functional maze whereupon you’re a 13-year-old girl trying to maintain your innocence just like in the movie. Give it a go. (To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

Original art for sale for $100.00 CAD. Includes three items total: The pencil art preliminaries, the original finished B&W inks (signed & dated by author/artist Rick Trembles in pencil on the back), & a color newsprint tear-sheet (or B&W gray tones, depending on when it came out) from where it was originally published. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

I remember seeing this in a film studies class in the nineties & some of the younger students, aghast, blurted out how it should be yanked from the curriculum. What do you think? It originally appeared in the February 19, 2004 issue of The Montreal Mirror with the header: “KKK TO THE RESCUE!” (To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

Original art for sale for $100.00 CAD. Includes three items total: The pencil art preliminaries, the original finished B&W inks (signed & dated by author/artist Rick Trembles in pencil on the back), & a color newsprint tear-sheet (or B&W gray tones, depending on when it came out) from where it was originally published. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

RIP Kim Fowley. Original header for the 2010 Montreal Mirror publication of this comic strip movie (p)review: “Think with your cock!” –Kim Fowley. (To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

Original art for sale for $100.00 CAD. Includes three items total: The pencil art preliminaries, the original finished B&W inks (signed & dated by author/artist Rick Trembles in pencil on the back), & a color newsprint tear-sheet (or B&W gray tones, depending on when it came out) from where it was originally published. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

An oldie but still relevanty. “Anybody who starts telling you what god thinks should be locked up immediately” -director Larry Cohen. “Out of chaos comes reason & out of reason comes science” is the way a tabloid justifies irresponsibly printing their scoop how god’s telling people to kill, spawning copycat murders & religious riots in this demented classic 1976 grindhouse flick. (To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

Original art for sale for $100.00 CAD. Includes three items total: The pencil art preliminaries, the original finished B&W inks (signed & dated by author/artist Rick Trembles in pencil on the back), & a color newsprint tear-sheet (or B&W gray tones, depending on when it came out) from where it was originally published. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Cartoonists slaughtered in France. What a wacky world. I got death threats for one of my cartoons once. The editor of The Montreal Mirror apparently played the recorded messages off his speaker phone out loud to the staff until they told him to quit it. I wasn’t at the offices, I was working freelance from home. At least they called first. It was for a (p)review of a Good Friday (the 13^th) screening of Karim Hussain & Mitch Davis’ sacrilegious film SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY wherein I depicted naked girls urinating onto a disemboweled Jesus Christ while sodomizing him with a branch. It appeared in the April 12 – April 19, 2001 issue of The Montreal Mirror. “A Trillion Hail Marys!” (Pictured below: Scan from original newsprint version. To see image full-sized, click on it to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

Original art for sale for $100.00 CAD. Includes three items total: The pencil art preliminaries, the original finished B&W inks (signed & dated by author/artist Rick Trembles in pencil on the back), & a color newsprint tear-sheet (or B&W gray tones, depending on when it came out) from where it was originally published. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.

As I explained in this guided tour of my production offices in 2009 for the intro to my second book Motion Picture Purgatory Volume 2, “we eat, sleep, breath, & live our vocation,” illustrated by a pair of coworkers being pumped a percolating brown mystery broth down their throats for inspiration before jumping into the simmering vat from whence the gooey gravy came. “It’s our calling & the alphabet soup that is this daunting field can occasionally provide warmth & comfort, however fleeting. But as the exchange of ideas comes to a climax, room has to be made to allow the growing pains of our thesis to burble forward & take on a life of its own.” And we’re still very much open for business, so please do drop us a line. The artwork, minus any text or titles, was actually originally drawn for Montreal artist Eric Braun’s limited edition embossed self-published comic zine 106U #7 in 2003. (To see images full-sized, click on them to open in a new window & use the magnify function).

HOW MOTION PICTURE PURGATORIES ARE MADE page 1: First a conference must be held over at Motion Picture Purgatory headquarters involving radar beams from key personnel sending out feelers in search of our next topic. Full concentration is necessary in order for our chosen satellite to put their finger on the pulse-beat of what’s currently being made available for our perusal out there. Juices begin to flow as research department locks in, gathering info & ingesting the task at hand, while our creative division attempts to tap into the fruits of their labour. It’s “all systems go” once orders have been successfully sent out & contact is made so a direct pipeline to the flickering lights of the cinema may be established.

HOW MOTION PICTURE PURGATORIES ARE MADE page 2: An encouraging hand lets our captivated reporter know that the capacity for crosschecking is just a heartbeat away if need be, in one eyeball out the other. Bulletins are routinely telegraphed to cross-pollinate a multitude of conceptual approaches that may or may not be calculated to compliment the theme being explored. Once all our information’s been gathered, preparations are made for brainstorming sessions anticipating the blossoming of a panoply of presumptions to pick apart. A symposium sampling the flavours that encapsulate what the silver screen has to offer ensues, an unpleasant undertaking more often than not but we’re professionals.

HOW MOTION PICTURE PURGATORIES ARE MADE page 3: After pooling our resources, a watchful eye arranges an extensive immersion to help fully grasp what ramifications reviews of any given work may sustain. Fully hooked into our assignment, the lonely process of pondering the inevitable must get underway whether it’s to be an agreeable endeavour or not. We eat, live, breath, & sleep our vocation, it’s our calling & the alphabet soup that is this daunting field can occasionally provide warmth & comfort, however fleeting. But as the exchange of ideas comes to a climax, room has to be made to allow the growing pains of our thesis to burble forward & take on a life of its own.

HOW MOTION PICTURE PURGATORIES ARE MADE page 4: Exuberance often accompanies trepidation once a concrete argument has mutated thoroughly enough to become palpable to the senses & rife with potential consequences. Awkward baby-steps are gently encouraged but profusely monitored in order to avoid unforeseen premature ejaculations, temperance being a key factor at this junction. Only once our monster’s been successfully assembled, unleashed, & telegraphed into the ether can we proudly raise our heads & finally find cause for celebration. Boldly we move forward, servicing our loyal fan-base with the kind of quality manufacturing that’s come to be expected out of the trusty Motion Picture Purgatory foundry!

Original art for sale (as they were drawn for 106U #7; a silent strip without any text or titles, just four panels per page): all four pages for $400.00 CAD. Includes final inks & B&W pencil preliminaries both on 8 ½ by 11 inch paper. Postage & framing not included. Motion Picture Purgatory Volumes One & Two available at FAB Press. For original art info, contact Rick Trembles @ ricktrembles (at) hotmail (dot) com.