Ind: Introduce yourself please! Why is your name shortened?
Mickmo: The darkened shadows of this world figured I needed a shorter and more memorable name for this host body. It is inscribed on a stone relic and trapped under ice in the Antarctic Region. My true name is not to be announced until the beginnings of the Thousand Year War between angels and demons. Anyway, as far as it goes, my art is pretty well received both in the metal community and the comics community. I play a dual role in both. I find myself jumping back and forth between them.
Ind: Which artwork collaboration do you think was the most exciting for you?
Mickmo: I would say the most exciting was the interior for Punished Earth: Ruined Empire from Uxicon Records. They gave me free rein on that piece.
Ind: What type of metal music are you into?
Mickmo: All sorts of metal, ranging from power metal to death metal. Grindcore and black metal are also worthy of kicking serious ass! You know, anything with balls that just stomps the prissy nu-metal acts into the ground!
Ind: You're on friendly terms with many famous metal folks, aren't you?
Mickmo: I have met many metal bands from many labels, and some were so underground they didn't even have a label. I have met over 70 metal bands. I think my favorites have been bands like ORIGIN, KRISIUN, IMMOLATION, CANNIBAL CORPSE, EXHUMED, CEPHALIC CARNAGE, MORTICIAN, COALESCE, HYPOCRISY, IMMORTAL (before the breakup), and so many others. I even sang a song with the legends in FLOTSAM AND JETSAM! It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but the song was Hammerhead. I won't ever forget it, and it was a hell of a lot of fun! I may have met one or two bands that I probably caught on a bad day. But sometimes they go through stress too. People know I'm cool with the metal road dogs from here and abroad — it's almost a legend in itself.
Ind: Tell us more about your comics! What are your main inspirations — horror, amusement, everyday life?
Mickmo: I really learned to do art from gut feeling — that extends into my mind and into the electrical impulses of my hand, then onto the medium I'm working with. I am at my best when I'm away from everything and everyone, working within my psyche. Then I come out of the house with this amazing image. I barely read comics. I just watch really good movies and television shows, ranging from Freddy Krueger flicks to Monty Python. It's a broad expansion of visual medium. But I do look at a lot of fine art, such as Giger and Beksinski. I have done work for so many freelance things, I forget them all. It ranges across all the stuff I've done in the past 10 years. You could see everything I've been involved with by just typing my name into a search engine. But as far as comics go, I am known for my creations Bug-Slayer and Tales of Retribution, and the new work I'm doing with the CCN (Kansas City Comics Creators Network) anthology, Show and Tell 2. As far as I know, I'm the only metalhead in the CCN. Well, so far!
Ind: You also take a lot of photos! Is shooting metal stage action a separate art form?
Mickmo: Whenever I go to a metal show and anticipate the excitement — and sometimes I don't sleep for like 20 hours — there is nothing quite like it! Because it's safer than jumping out of a plane or doing stunt work, yet you can still feel this raw creative expression that literally leaps from the sound of that stage on the night. So when I take pictures, I make sure I get to the front of the stage and capture the band's intensity and velocity. The true art and form comes when I get them scanned from photographs and look for something unique in the pictures. It's all based around solid composition.
Ind: Do you remember the days when the USA and USSR were enemies?
Mickmo: During the Cold War, yes I do! I remember the Rocky movies when he punched out russian boxers, and Sam Kinison making fun of Khrushchev and his ugly teeth, or Gorbachev's stain on his head. There was a big stereotype of russians being spies, even during the 80's and the Reagan Era. Stuff like the classic movies "Spies Like Us" or some of the James Bond films.
Ind: Do you feel any echoes of that attitude nowadays?
Mickmo: I don't see it too much now. I sort of hear about it here and there, but I hear more about the Saddam thing than anything else right now. I think college did it for me, dude — when I saw these stunning moscow girls and thought, "Wow, they are hotter than some American girls I know!" Too bad I didn't get them in the sack!
Ind: I know that most ordinary people think it was wrong to start the Iraq war...
Mickmo: Yeah, that whole thing was all hype because of the tragedy of September 11. They considered Saddam the main guy to go after, when they should have gone after Bin Laden. It was either this: you supported the propaganda the government was feeding you, or you were considered one of the bad guys along with them. It was a weird time.
Ind: Can we really fight terrorism, or will all efforts just force them to commit more terror?
Mickmo: I think when you get rid of the head of the problem, you're still going to have post-radicals supporting the ideals of a dictatorship anyway. It's the same as people who might support the KKK or Nazi parties. It's scary, but there are still people in this world like that — people who support dumbfounded ignorance and live in that sort of tunnel-vision shell.
Ind: Another political issue. Having the TERMINATOR as a politician! Will that be the starting point of a robot riot?
Mickmo: Heh! Good old Arnold Schwarzenegger! That race for California was funny because he was competing against a circus of people, including a few porn stars and Gary Coleman, the famous midget from Different Strokes! Then they made these accusations that Arnold was groping women's breasts. It was all a promotional thing for actors to become part of the government. It was all media hoopla to me!
Ind: Do you like films like "Tank Girl" — a mixture of comics and cinematography?
Mickmo: You know, I actually watched that movie on television the other day, a few weeks ago. Tank Girl was a funny yet quirky film, with a younger Jennifer Connelly in it. The Hulk was a movie I was really impressed with, because it went from panel to panel. I like Ang Lee's directorial style.
Ind: Do you know at least anything about the East European scene, apart from big bands like Behemoth, Vader, Krabathor?
Mickmo: I know about all of those, plus Pandemia and Root. I think there are a lot of heavy and innovative bands from overseas, some of which I still have to discover for myself. But I like it all the same if it has the universal heaviness to it.
Ind: What's up with US labels? Most brilliant American metal bands end up signed to European labels!
Mickmo: I'm just guessing that metal labels are more abundant overseas. I know that as an artist for metal bands, it's easier to get my album art across to a foreign label. I imagine it holds true if you're trying to press a CD in Europe or abroad. I had an easier time getting album work with Uxicon Records in Belgium than I did with Relapse in the States. It took me a long time to break through with a local comics scene as well, but they always say what comes around goes around. I think it all just happens in cycles. But somehow it all balances out in the grand scope of things.
Ind: Do you mind telling us about your problems with the police? Was it really because of your art?
Mickmo: Yeah dude, one time I had a cop tell me that my comics were evil, because some kid killed himself from reading my comic. So then I get called up by a detective and they think I've got this plot to kill people. The parents were ticked off and angry at me, and I did not think anyone would get weird ideas about suicide based on one of my comics. The comic was called "Tales of Retribution". I've had cops strip-search me and interrogate me because I fit their quote-unquote "stereotype" — because I was different from them. Because they did not understand me in their police-state tunnel-vision minds. About 95 percent of the cops I've encountered in the area did not give a damn about me as a person. So for the longest time, I found myself harboring somewhat of a prejudice toward this revolving-door policy of jurisdiction and the savage tactics they often used to bend people's wills. I've seen a police state go after its own taxpayers, send them to court, force them to plead guilty for things they knew they were innocent of, and extort money from people. A lot of it is frivolous and just set up for their own bulging pocketbooks. Yes, I had to seek psychiatric help and deal with all of this crap just because they thought I was crazy. It turned out that I did have a mild form of depression. Turns out it was just an active imagination in a normal mind, as I suspected. Fortunately, I haven't been locked up in jail yet. But my publisher for the CCN (Kansas City Comics Creators Network) is also a cop — probably the coolest guy I've ever met. I just see him and think, "How on earth could he be a cop? He doesn't even act like one!" It sort of changed my views a little bit and showed me a different side of the coin. I think he understands creative people quite a bit. My publisher does an online comic book called Void Pulp that you should definitely check out. I'm included on there as well.
Ind: Have you ever suffered from censorship?
Mickmo: Yes, unfortunately I have. I had this dickhead of a publisher for an old indie comics company dump me out on the street. He got too big for his head a lot of the time. I got dropped by a comics promoter out of envy and jealousy. After that unfortunate episode in my life and dark time, I rediscovered metal shows. It was there at clubs that I discovered the correlation between art and metal. It made so much sense at the time as it does now — it was a release of built-up tension. I guess after the ban was when others thought my art and stories were cool. The stigma turned into a true mystique over time. I think the metal scene helped me at a time when the comics scene didn't. But I'm thankful to both, regardless. I had seen myself tested against freedoms of speech and expression when I knew it was not right. I had gotten fired from jobs because I was a creative person, or they saw me as some sort of competition because they wanted nothing to do with me. For a long time, I felt as if I was very misunderstood. But after all of that, I still stayed true to myself and the art that I really wanted to do. Because of that, people found me to be alright.
Ind: Do you have a family, close friends, pets?
Mickmo: I have 2 wonderful cats named Webster and Gravy. They are like sons to me and are so loyal! Then I have 2 roommates, a father, and a few brothers. My friends do metal zines and are in bands, and also artists and creators that I come across. I have some buddies in the CCN as well. Check out the link to http://www.kcccn.com when you get a chance. Other than that, I hide under incessant shadows and tend to be a recluse!
Ind: Are there any artists (doing art for metal) you think are absolute gods?
Mickmo: I really like the current guys — Wes Benscoter, Travis Smith, and Mike Bohatch. They are the new gods of our era in metal art. H.R. Giger is an absolute dark art god altogether! Then you have Joe Petagno, whom I would consider near art-god status. Richard Corben is definitely an art god in comics and of course album covers! I can't leave out the Polish master Zdzislaw Beksinski either. It's not unusual to see great artists who bridge the gap of fine art within comics and album covers. Heck, I'm doing it myself!
Ind: How important is it to have a gripping front cover, or does the music come first?
Mickmo: A death, black, or grindcore metal cover is something that has to say "dark and heavy" without the use of words or dialect. The art you do has to have something strong about it — something that the person looking at it can remember. It has to stand out and have something to it that may be somewhat unusual. You're almost considered to be like another member of the band whenever you get accepted into doing album art.
Ind: Don't you think our life is a pack of lost opportunities? Sometimes we're too lazy and don't even care about our actual wishes?
Mickmo: Yeah, I see these people sitting around and doing nothing with their lives, which is both sad and pathetic. People going day to day with no cause of any sort. For some people, that's all they know or want to care to know. I was both blessed and cursed with art, but I also had to work normal jobs to maintain it. For me, it was usually a duality between normal work and art. Chances are, they balance my life out and brought some sanity to my restless and darkened mind.
Ind: Do you have anything to say to metal maniacs in ex-USSR states and to The MetalList readers?
Mickmo: Yeah, I would just say: keep true to yourself for whatever you're striving to put out from your heart and soul, and soak up as many ideas as you possibly can! Also check out some of my websites! Check out the art galleries on all of them to see what sort of stuff I've been doing... I am on all of these finer sites on the web for those who can't see my art otherwise! Ambiance: www.go.to/mickmo2001 Bug-Slayer: bugslayer.homepagehere.com Continuum: www.continuum.pagehere.com Bushmado WebZine: www.bushmado.com Halo And Sprocket: www.haloandsprocket.com Void Pulp Press Online: www.voidpulppress.com Keep the artforms of music and art dark and evil, always — and hail true metal!