CHAD MICHAEL WARD We all know Zolo is lazy, but we didn't know just how lazy until we sent him to the San Diego Comic Con, where he arranged to do an interview with evil artist CHAD MICHAEL WARD at home on Instant Messenger so he wouldn't have to transcribe it. Nonetheless, Zolo deserves biggups for bringing Ward to our attention. His work is dark, disturbing, and occasionally arousing... which makes it a perfect addition to the universe of madness we deliver here at UnitShifter. Chad's art book BLACK RUST is available through NBM Publishing, and you can see previews of his upcoming AUTOPSYROTICA at his website www.digitalapocalypse.com.

Zolo: What CDs or MP3s do you have in heavy rotation these days?

Ward: Mudvayne's Lost and Found CD, Cradle of Filth's Nymphetamine CD, Gun N Roses on MP3, Green Day's American Idiot CD, pretty much Manson's entire catalogue on CD, Motley Crue's new one...also on the lighterer side--Dresden Dolls, Goldfrapp, Fischerspooner, Gorillaz, old Heart, Pink Floyd...

Zolo: What's your favorite political or celebrity scandal?

Ward: Anything that has to do with Lindsay Lohan's skanky ways. Gotta love them Hollywood kids.

Zolo: I hear there's an unrated Parent Trap DVD where Lindsay dykes out with her sister... played by herself.

Ward: Now see, who WOULDN'T love a little Lindsay on Lindsay action?

Zolo: So your book BLACK RUST... it reads like a cross between an epic poem and a graphic novel, but it looks like an art book. Was it your intention to make a hybrid like this or did you start with one approach and it evolved?

Ward: It was always intended to be a hybrid. I'm a big art book collector, but I didn't want to just do a book the way everyone else was doing theirs. There's always SOME sort of backstory to each picture I do, so I wanted to show a little of that with the micro-stories I included in BLACK RUST. There's a whole universe that exists behind the images in BLACK RUST. All the images are tied together in some way. The stories in the book only just barely touch upon a larger story that may or may not ever get written.

Zolo: So are the chapters literally composed of images that were constructed with the story in mind, or did the images get linked together into chapters when compiling the book?

Ward: A little bit of both. I'd say that I had about 20 images already done before I started laying out the chapters/book, but, once I started putting the book together as a whole, the remainder of the images were created specifically to fit within the story chapters.

Zolo: Is the book in chronological order? For example, is the Blue Mia Lux story one where some images preceded the book idea, and the Death Of God chapter has images more specifically based on the book's storyline?

Ward: It's definitely not chronological. Some of the stories were written before the art, some of the art was made before the stories, and the stories are not in any kind of order. It's intentionally abstract in that way. It's meant for the reader to put the pieces together his/her own way so that the story and images become whatever he/she wants

Zolo: Do you have plans to expand the mythology into future projects?

Ward: I am considering a sequel, but, at the same time, my brainspace is in a much different place now. The bulk of BLACK RUST was written/drawn in 2002, and I've come a long way since then. I'll probably do a sequel to my next book, AUTOPSYROTICA, before I do a BLACK RUST sequel.

Zolo: Tell me about AUTOPSYROTICA.

Ward: AUTOPSYROTICA is my second book. Like BLACK RUST, it's an art book with micro-stories. This time around, there's a (mostly brief) story for each image in the book. The whole book is themed around sex and death, and is a pre-cursor to my newest project, PAIN BOX. AUTOPSYROTICA took about 2 years to do and is much more photography than art this time. I just finalized the contract with my publisher, and the book SHOULD be out in time for Christmas.

Zolo: How does each project differ from one another in your mind? Besides just becoming a better and better craftsman, do you separate them in your mind based on their internal mythologies or storylines like a movie or novel... or are they more compilations of your current work at the time like a CD or traditional art book?

Ward: Each book has its own theme, which is usually based on my interests and mindset at the time. BLACK RUST is a fictional, erotic, sci-fi story & art book, AUTOPSYROTICA is a non-fictional semi-autobiographical book about sex and death, DEVILENGINE is just a compilation of my commerical work, and PAIN BOX is a photo book based on a fictional story that I'm currently writing as a screenplay. I should add that THE PAIN BOX is a medical horror story.

Zolo: Ack. The concept of medical horror gives me intense shrinkage. I'm curious about "non-fictional semi-autobiographical"... since everything is semi-autobiographical, I presume you mean autobiographical but just not totally obvious?

Ward: Exactly. The stories in the book are more symbolic of actual events.

Zolo: Was it therapeutic?... cathartic?

Ward: I'd like to think so, but looking back, I don't think it really was. At the very least, it gave me some direction and ideas on where to go creatively with my next book and I'm much happier as an artist now (well, at least, as happy as an artist can be).

Zolo: On the topic of autobiography, I'm finding it interesting that you have an admitted fascination with "hollywood kids" (i.e. The Lindsay) and probably the most fleshed out character in BLACK RUST is Jeanna Marie Atkins, the subject of Chapter 1: Love & Death. Did you have a particular muse in mind?

Ward: I don't think there was any SPECIFIC muse for her--I've just always been fascinated by the ol' Hollywood tradition of taking fresh young girls and completely transforming them into barely recognizable new "hot things." The name came from a rather memorable ex-girlfriend.

Zolo: I'm gonna take the bait and ask if you can elaborate on "rather memorable."

Ward: Well, we were all young and dumb once, and I'm no exception. She was very much a party girl at the time and introduced me to a lot of new experiences that I had never had--having grown up in a small town.

Zolo: Tell me about Jeanna's transformation from "B-Girl Bimbo" to Blue Mia Lux, the "A-class sexless barbie doll." What does that mean to you?

Ward: It's the Marilyn Monroe story all over again--small town nobody becomes a superstar. But everything has its price, and, in this case, she was giving up her soul, her very sex, to this fascist future government (symbolizing, in my mind, the religious right) in exchange for becoming something supposedly better. And, as the narrator points out, what they considered better wasn't necessarily what a person in their right mind would consider better. It's about being censored in order to be heard and the loss of freedom that ensues and the narrator's attempt to free her one last time, but, again, not without a price (her death).

Zolo: Do you think popular success requires sexlessness?

Ward: In the Disneyfied Americana as run by GW Bush? Absolutely. Any perceived sexuality in the mainstream is nothing more than a facade used to sell more product. It's no better than your parents trying to listen to rock music to be hip. True sexuality, real sex, is still as much in the closet/underground as it was in 1950.

Zolo: So on which side do BLACK RUST's fuckdolls come in? Are they Disney using sex to sell product?

Ward: I don't think I was really thinking about sexuality vs. consumerism when I wrote about the fuckdolls. Mostly that story was about taking high technology to a low point. The Japanese are already making humanoid robots (in the shape of women, of course), and it wasn't a big step to see how this could be perverted--such as the case of the pedophile in this story. I was pointing out that if the technology is there, why use it for conventional means? And if you're going to sexualize it, once again, why stop at what society deems acceptable--hence the addition of extra vaginas and the age change.


Zolo: Which is still a commentary on cultural sexuality... no?

Ward: Oh yeah, definitely.

Zolo: Do you consider BLACK RUST's transgressive sexuality to be subversive?

Ward: I'd like to say I was trying to be all cool and subversive with BLACK RUST, but really, it's just me on paper. Coping with the world around me.




BUY BLACK RUST

SEE WHAT'S NEW WITH CHAD MICHAEL WARD