Interview with John K.

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN K.
by Marz Richards

John K., legendary creator of Ren & Stimpy, has entered the fray of our recent election cycle with his usual wit and charm in the form of his Political Toys, a 3-figure line of vinyl creations featuring caricatures of Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain & Senator Hilary Clinton. Each figure is limited to a run of 3,000 and prices out at $24.99 each. John K. will be speaking and signing this Saturday, Nov 1st at 2:00 p.m. at Meltdown Comics, 7522 W Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90046.

What toys did you enjoy as a kid?
I mostly liked cartoon toys. I wasn’t into cars, trucks and stuff, although I had a pretty big arsenal of guns. I also liked Nutty Mads and Weird-oh model kits. I had lots of Hanna Barbera toys. For some reason those characters translated into fun figures better than most other cartoons. Warner Bros. made my favorite cartoons, but they never had great merchandise; I don’t know why.

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/10/which-characters-make-best-toys.html

What toy do you remember breaking and how did you break it?
Well I don’t remember a particular one, but every year on Firecracker Day we would purposely try to blow up all our favorite toys. Nutty Mads were indestructible though. They would just get black burn marks on them but refused to explode or even melt.

We had one great explosive kit called “The Burning Schoolhouse”. It was a cardboard box in the shape of a house with flames and horrified teachers hanging out the windows printed on the box. The box came filed with all kinds of fireworks and made quite a display at night. We would fill these with army men and cowboys and whatever other toys we had and we named each toy after a teacher. Then we would light the box up and watch our teachers melt and give off toxic spumes as we enacted all their screaming cries for mercy. The Nutty Mads always survived the carnage.

Tell me a little of your toy philosophy; are you a pristine collector or a box opener?
I mostly collect old toys and I like the ones that are off model and painted the wrong colors. I like them displayed so, no I don’t keep them in the boxes.

Have you enjoyed this particular election cycle more than others that have occurred in your lifetime or has it been all too much?
I am not all that political myself. I watch all the news and debates and am amazed at what all the candidates get away with. I’m Canadian, so the extremes of Republican and Democrat hatred amaze me. I find them both equally bizarre and arbitrary. And funny.

Do the political figures at the fore of the election lend themselves to caricature more than previous candidates?
Hillary was easy to do. Barack was very hard, because he has so many unique features. McCain was sort of in the middle. We really wanted to do Huckabee because he was the funniest of all.

Here are a couple of Jim Smith’s designs for the sadly aborted Huckabee doll. (I attached the designs) Jim will be at the signing too. We both did the designs for the toys. They were sculpted by Chris Peterson and Arshak Nazarian.

Do you plan on doing more figure/toy work?
I definitely want to make lots more toys. Of my own characters, of classic characters that I like and all in a funny vein of course. Most toys tend to be kind of serious, but I think toys can be as entertaining and funny as cartoons. That’s why my toys tend to be less “according to the rules” and why I cover my packaging with as many jokes as possible. I want my toys to be caricatures of toys, just as my cartoons are caricatures or satires of the whole form.

How did you come to work with Chris and Arshak?
Well I’ve known and worked with Chris since I started in the business. Chris used to be my assistant! Then he branched off into toy sculpting and became tops in the field. I only met Arshak for the first time this year and he did a great job on Hillary. He made her cute and funny at the same time. Brian Romero did a great job on the package design too.

How long was the process, from conception to boxed item on your desk as we see it today? Do you enjoy the toymaking process or is not the child’s dream of an elven workshop that one hopes for?
We did these toys really fast, but maybe not fast enough. We wanted to get them out before the election. The whole process took about 5 or 6 months which is a fraction of the time it usually takes to make toys. Especially since I’m such a nitpicker for quality and humor. RFX toys is a new company and they handled the manufacturing and got it done with a quick turnaround. Richard Vanover of Wheatywheat helped us with casting and getting handsome prototypes made.

Now we just need to hook up with a good distributor who can get these and our next toys into stores. I’m designing the stuff so that it will appeal to the Vinyl collectible market, but also just to regular folks who like fun and laughs. I want to branch out and make toys for a wide market – the same market that watches cartoons.

Other than toys and drawing, what do you find yourself enjoying on a regular basis nowadays?|
Tap dancing.

A perfect ending! After the interview, John wrote to say that he wanted everyone to know that the Political Toys are not the end of the line for vinyl from the minds of Spumco. He and Strangeco will be producing figures of Jack and Kyle from Tenacious D and he sent over previews to share. Here they are!