COLLIDE-O-SCOPE part 13: SQUAGGROTH JR.

SQUAGGROTH JR. -- Reluctant would-be World Conqueror and Evil Overlord

One of H.E.R.P.E.S’ many wicked schemes included a plot to conjure up an ancient elder god called Squaggroth, who would grant them near-limitless power in gratitude for being released from his centuries-old prison. Squaggroth was supposed to begin a revenge-laden spree of destruction and debauchery upon gaining his freedom, but when the complicated spells and rites were complete, Squaggroth’s actual appearance didn’t quite measure up to DOCTOR HEDONISM’s expectations. The ancient tome of spells made Squaggroth out to be a hideous and twisted malevolent beast whose very countenance inspired madness and insanity, but the centuries had not been kind to the elder god. What they got was a withered, depressed and lazy bum of a “god” who just wanted to sit on the couch, eat greasy snacks and catch up on all the good TV shows he’d missed.

There was a slight glimmer of hope, however. Squaggroth had sired a son, who was destined to be even more foul and merciless than his father. With reluctant and grunting help from Squaggroth, DOCTOR HEDONISM and his fellow H.E.R.P.E.S. cronies tracked down SQUAGGROTH JR., only to be disappointed again. As is typical of many teenagers, SQUAGGROTH JR. had rebelled against is parents, choosing to forsake his destiny and ignore his potential in favor of hanging out on street corners, spray painting graffiti on alley walls, and hassling cops. DOCTOR HEDONISM had put too much time and effort into his scheme to give up, however, so they kidnapped SQUAGGROTH JR., taking him back to H.E.R.P.E.S. headquarters and hoping to instill the sort of values and character into him that his father obviously neglected to -- the sort of values that would cause him to rise up and enslave humanity, laying waste to the earth and devouring all who oppose him!

COLLIE-O-SCOPE part 10: ERGOPHOBOS and his RASCAL OF DOOM!!

ERGOPHOBOS & his RASCAL OF DOOM -- Ancient Egyptian Wizard and Handicapped Mobility Device

What's threatening about a fat, lazy white guy on a motorized "Rascal"? Nothing really. But when that fat, lazy white guy is possessed by the spirit of an ancient Egyptian wizard who was put to death for trying to assassinate the Pharaoh, THEN things get dangerous! ERGOPHOBOS is a glutton for culinary delights (obviously), and perhaps would be able to do more to further his goals of world conquest if the body he (accidentally) came to possess was a bit more on the fit and active side. So, Ergophobos rules what he can from the comfort of his recliner or his motorized Rascal. Ergophobos is a member of the perverse diabolical organization known as H.E.R.P.E.S., and has secret schemes of wresting control of the organization out of the hands of it's current leader, DOCTOR HEDONISM.

COLLIDE-O-SCOPE part 9: BLACKFACE HITLER and RED DWARF

BLACKFACE HITLER & RED DWARF -- evil performance artists

Relax, he’s a bad guy. BLACKFACE HITLER is one of the most outrageous members of H.E.R.P.E.S., and has devised many a scheme to befoul our heroes in COLLIDE-O-SCOPE. None of his peers actually calls him BLACKFACE HITLER, though -- they just call him BH for short. BH abandoned his long-forgotten birth name when he decided to really stick it to his parents by becoming a performance artist. His father considered art a waste of time (especially the twisted, offensive stuff his son was producing), and wanted young BH to follow in his footsteps, becoming a criminal defense lawyer. When BH came home to find his latest sculptural masterpiece vandalized during one of his father’s drunken tirades, BH calmly disemboweled his sleeping parent, and used his body parts to repair his violated sculpture. When BH’s mother arrived home that day, she found her husband dead and a note from her son claiming responsibility for the murder and announcing his own artistic awakening. Thus began BH’s illegal and underground career as the worlds most offensive artist.

BH firmly believes that true Art must be offensive and shocking. If it doesn't offend at least two demographics, then it's not Art, and he sees the world as his canvas. He began seeking to transform himself into an offensive work of art, which caught the attention of DOCTOR HEDONISM, whom he had surgically alter himself to look like the most hated man in history, Adolph Hitler. RED DWARF is his silent companion, a dwarf whom he met at an underground art show, and whom he thought looked remarkably like Vladymir Lenin. RED DWARF became instantly enamored with BH, becoming his devoted companion and toady. He is always by BH's side, unless he is "unleashed" to strike out at his enemies with his deadly skills brandishing and throwing cutlery.

COLLIDE-O-SCOPE, part 8: DOCTOR HEDONISM!!

DOCTOR HEDONISM -- leader of H.E.R.P.E.S.
This is Dr. Hayden Dulgent, otherwise known as DOCTOR HEDONISM, de facto leader of the wicked and creepy H.E.R.P.E.S. organization (Hedonistic Empire of Reprobates Perverting Earth's Stability). Hayden was raised in abject poverty and was denied any and all luxuries by his overly-strict and miserly parents. Once he left home, earned his doctorate and began making some real dough, he went completely overboard, pampering and spoiling himself with every pleasurable vice he could conceive of or invent. His growing lusts caused him to run afoul of the law, so he formed his own little empire, which he saddled with the unfortunate name H.E.R.P.E.S., and began calling himself DOCTOR HEDONISM! He began surrounding himself with other like-minded caution-to-the-wind pleasure-seekers who shared his common goal of the pursuit of "happiness", no matter how deviant, perverse or illegal, and heedless of its effect on others. Despite his haggard, withered, gray appearance, DOCTOR HEDONISM has not yet celebrated his 50th birthday. His constant indulgence in all manner of sick and harmful vices has ravaged his body, so he employs a team of physicians whose sole task is to keep his heart beating and to prevent the many diseases he has contracted from snuffing him out entirely, so he can persist in his perverse quest.

DOCTOR HEDONISM must get around with the aid of his "Pleasure Chair" (patent pending), which is custom-built to handle some of his rare needs and desires. It houses ether and oxygen tanks along with respirator mask, interior massage devices, and a swivel monitor which he can use to monitor the feed from his security cameras, or simply view any of his collection of rauchy and/or illegal porno. He loves to dine on endangered animals, and can often be found enjoying panda steaks, horned owl cutlets or cream of snow leopard soup.

"It's okay... he's a BAD GUY!"

At last, my most offensive character ever finally gets his moment in the spotlight! BLACKFACE HITLER (and the RED DWARF)!! This is the guy who rendered my Illustration instructor speechless when the prelim drawing was unveiled. I thought his eyes were going to bug out of his skull as he just sat there repeating, "Oh. My. God." I was a bit hesitant about posting this guy on here for fear that the snap-judgmentalists and knee-jerk reactionaries out there would immediately assume I'm some whacked-out closet racist/ nazi, but it's just not so, and I'm going to give anybody who has wandered onto my humble blog the benefit of the doubt. And, hey -- who makes better villains than Nazis and racists? Lemme 'splain...

I needed some more skeevy characters to populate the ranks of H.E.R.P.E.S. (see previous post) for my COLLIDE-O-SCOPE concept. I had already created a couple of loathsome and disgusting characters in ERGOPHOBOS and DOCTOR HEDONISM, but no one truly vulgar and shocking. I decided to brainstorm and toss every offensive/ controversial idea I could into my Create-O-Bucket (where all my ideas are born), shake 'em up and mold them together into one attention-grabbing eyesore of a concept. So you've got Hitler, bald-faced throwback racism, cross-dressing, false sainthood, self-induced stigmata, communism, and a mostly-naked dwarf on a leash! What more could you possibly ask of me?! Truly this guy is worthy of the label "bad guy", no? But...

I had to come up with a reason why this guy would dress/ appear like this as his normal modus operandi -- why would anyone go out of their way to chisel so many offensive facets into their persona? Just 'cuz they're a "bad guy"? No, that won't work. Then it came to me -- he's a performance artist, you see. But not just any old performance artist -- this guy is [b]heavy[/b] into Art with a capital A, and believes that true Art must be offensive and shocking. If it doesn't offend at least two demographics, then it's not Art, and he sees the world as his canvas. RED DWARF is his silent companion, a dwarf whom he surgically altered to look like Vladymir Lenin (as he himself underwent surgery to look like Adolf Hitler). RED DWARF is always by BH's side, unless he is "unleashed" to strike out at his enemies with his deadly skills of cutlery brandishing and throwing.

So, there you go. Next, I'll have to post some cute li'l puppies playing with a snail or something equally syrupy to make up for this.

THE DISGUSTING DOCTOR HEDONISM!!

New character posting for the COLLIDE-O-SCOPE concept. This is Dr. Hayden Dulgent, otherwise known as DOCTOR HEDONISM, de facto leader of the wicked and creepy H.E.R.P.E.S. orgainization (Hedonistic Empire of Reprobates Perverting Earth's Stability), who is out to pervert the world into his sick playground of around-the-clock pleasure at any price! Hayden was raised in abject poverty and was denied any and all luxuries by his overly-strict and miserly parents. Once he left home, earned his doctorate and began making some real dough, he went completely overboard, pampering and spoiling himslef with every pleasurable vice he could conceive of or invent. His growing lusts caused him to run afoul of the law, so he formed his own little empire, which he saddled with the unfortunate name H.E.R.P.E.S., and began calling himself DOCTOR HEDONISM! He began surrounding himself with other caution-to-the-wind pleasure-seekers like himself who shared the common goal of the pursuit of "happiness", no matter how deviant, perverse or illegal, and regardless of the consequences to others. Despite his haggard, withered, gray appearance, DOCTOR HEDONISM has not yet celebrated his 50th birthday. His constant indulgence in all manner of vices has ravaged his body, and he employs a team of physicians whose sole task is to keep his heart beating and the many diseases he has contracted from snuffing him out entirely, so he can persist in his pervers quest.

As he appears here, DOCTOR HEDONISM and his PLEASURE CHAIR are decked out with his ether tank and breather-mask, rare panda steak for dinner, latex gloves (to satisfy his latex fetish), 24-7 porno feed on his monitor, and nipple clamps.

Basically, I just wanted a really creepy, withered pervert in a life-supporting chair. He started as simply a mad scientist, and he was going to be the dark wizard who was responsible for PROFESSOR FLEETWOOD'S squid-head (his body ravaged by the use of dark magic), but my initial sketch of Doc H seemed to demand a back story with a bit more perverse and icky angle. I decided to make him the leader of an evil organization with one of those kitschy-cool acronym names (like S.M.E.R.S.H. or S.P.E.C.T.R.E.). His physical appearance suggested a hedonistic, pleasure-seeking organization, and H.E.R.P.E.S. was actually the first name to spring to mind (and well-fitting, too, I must say). Coming up with an extended name to fit the acronym, was a bit harder, but not too difficult. Thus was born DOCTOR HEDONISM and H.E.R.P.E.S.. Then followed the task of creating more possible creepy members for the organization. ERGOPHOBOS, I had already created, and he seemed a good fit. There are 2 1/2 more members of the group that I've created so far, and they're rather ridiculously offensive (but rightly so, as they're meant to be heinous villains -- there's a reason Nazis have been very popular bad guys: they're easy to despise!). They will be posted soon, but don't get your panties in a bunch once they're up.

"ERGOPHOBOS and his RASCAL OF DOOM!!"

What's threatening about a fat, lazy white guy on a motorized "Rascal"? Nothing really. But when that fat, lazy white guy is possessed by the spirit of an ancient Egyptian wizard who was put to death for trying to assassinate the Pharaoh, THEN things get dangerous! ERGOPHOBOS is a glutton for any and all food (obviously), and perhaps would be able to do more to further his goals of world conquest if the body he (accidentally) came to possess was a bit more on the fit and active side. So, Ergophobos rules what he can from the comfort of his recliner or his Rascal. Ergophobos is a member of the perverse diabolical organization known as H.E.R.P.E.S. (more on that later), and has secret schemes of wresting control of the organization out of the hands of it's current leader, DOCTOR HEDONISM.

My inspiration for this guy was rather simple -- I wanted to have a big fat guy who seemed pretty harmless, but was actually rather dangerous, though his appearance would border on the ridiculous. I combined this with my desire to incorporate an Egyptian-themed bad guy, and thought that a giant white guy on a Rascal would look quite silly decked out in a Pharaoh costume. To make him at least a bit threatening, I made him a wizard. I also originally had the Rascal souped up to look more Egyptian, with Sphinx paw wheelguards and a giant cobra head mounted on the front rising up to the steering column that would fire projectile venom spikes from his mouth, but in the end, I opted for the traditional Rascal appearance, as this just made him look more pathetic. The ham in the basket tops it off nicely, I think. Maybe, during the course of this character's story, I'll have him acquire his uber-Rascal as he gains power and becomes more of a threat, but for now he sticks with the factory model. Oh, and his name is simply an Egyptian twist on the word "ergophobia", which is simply a fear of movement (in relation to his lethargy and lack of exercise). The end.

"THE RETURN OF THE CHARACTER SKETCHES!!"

Just a few more character sketches for the animated series concept.
First up, Doctor Hedonism. He's a nasty old bugger who's take-no-prisoners pursuit of pleasure puts him in conflict with my group of heroic super-musicans. He's the de-facto head of the evil organization H.E.R.P.E.S., but more on him later. His second-in-command is a bit nastier, and much more offensive -- I'm not sure the world is quite ready for him yet (I actually rendered by Advanced Illustration instructor speechless -- he just sat there repeating "Oh my God... Oh my God", a fact of which I'm quite proud -- , so I'll hold off on introducing him until later.
Next up is the benefactor/ father-figure for my heroes, Professor Syd "Squidhead" Fleetwood. He used to have a normal head... now it's a squid. Why? Wait for it -- more on him later.