Ahoy-hoy Aggressors, Taffeta Darling here with another talented artist spotlight with the hopes of taking the mundane out of your Monday.  Please enjoy the works and comedy styling of artist Zack Morrissette of Zacksploitation Comics !

TD: Hey Zack! I already love your work and your sense of humor, but please tell the rest of the world about yourself and art so that they may know too.

ZC: I’m a cartoonist in the tradition of Mad Magazine and I make fun of the things I love. I herald from a time when calling someone a nerd or geek was an insult. But growing up, my favorite things were nerdy. Tron, Clash of the Titans, Pac-Man, comics and of course Star Wars shaped my interests and I never shied away from the things I liked. It’s kind of vindicating now to live in a time when nerds rule. So there’s absolutely no cynicism in my work. If I’m making fun of it, there’s a good chance that I’m really into it.

TD: What was the first piece of art you can remember doing and selling?

ZC: I’ve done commissioned stuff before for friends but the first piece of art I sold at a show was actually just a couple of years ago. I went to a liberal arts school in the 90s, where art was whatever you wanted it to be. Except for comic books. Students and faculty alike HATED my stuff. So I figured the art world wanted nothing to do with me and I stayed the hell away until early in 2014. Early that year, friend asked for some stuff for an art show she was having as a fund raiser. The reception to my work was really positive and I sought out some group art shows and I finally sold a drawing of a little Stormtrooper holding a Death Star balloon. I don’t really do commissions, but I’ve made about 6 of those and they sell like hot cakes at art shows and comic conventions. It was a real breaking point for me as an artist to know that people liked my stuff enough to actually pay for it. Now it’s nothing but champagne and limousines for me! And by that I mean root beer and my Toyota Yaris.

TD: Within your work you do a good amount of mash up humor; are you more into doing parody / satirical art more so than fan art?

ZC: For as much as I’m into sci-fi/fantasy, I’m also a big comedy fan. My dad and I used to watch The Stooges when I was a kid and he loved Steve Martin. Later I really got into Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes and especially Bloom County. In fact, Berke Breathed is probably my single biggest artistic influence. I love making people laugh and there is nothing more gratifying than when somebody thanks me for giving them a badly needed laugh on a rough day in the comments of one of my posts. So my stuff tends to be incredibly silly. But if I can make a total stranger’s day a little better with a good chuckle, that’s enough for me. I never want to do just straight mash ups. Give me a bad pun or some silly bit of dialogue to pass between Darth Vader and the Emperor any day.

TD: Where do you get your inspiration from?

ZC:Frickin’ everywhere. Usually the way it works is, I think “I wanna draw Bill Murray today” and then I think of a joke or dumb pun or rhyme or something. But it’s entirely fueled by whatever I feel like drawing when I sit down to my drafting table. I work full time as a graphic designer, so I want my free time drawing to be as fun as possible. So I throw on some Netflix (currently making my way through The Twilight Zone in its entirety), and start sketching out ideas.

TD: What would be the best project or job offer you could receive?

ZC: I’d love to make a book of my stuff and just somehow figure out a way to draw full time. But I’m also a writer. I self published my own novella that I cowrote a couple of years ago called The Other Side of the Fence. It’s the story of a man trying to survive a zombie apocalypse with the biggest jack ass he’s ever met. Think The Walking Dead by way of The Odd Couple. It’s about bad relationships and the bad decisions we make when we’re in them. And also hordes of zombies. It’s available as a Kindle download or paperback at Amazon.

TD: Any upcoming events, shows or ideas working on?

ZC: I’ve been doing art shows and comic cons around Southern California for a few years now. Not sure when my next one will be, but I constantly update all my social media profiles, so Facebook, Twitter or Instagram are the best places to keep up to date. I’m putting the finishing touches on the next chapter of Harryhausen: Private Eye. It’s a series of short stories I’m doing about a cyclops detective named Harryhausen who solves fairy tale crimes in 1940’s enchanted Los Angeles. chapter one can be read at AnthologyPress.com. In that one, he has to solve what seems like a simple breaking and entering case at a house of The Three Bears. In chapter two, a mysterious woman in Red contacts Harryhausen about a wolf impersonating her grandma. I love noir detective stories and I’m fascinated by 1940s Los Angeles. So I guess a dream job would be for somebody to offer to make a stop-motion version of this for TV? Anybody out there know the Robot Chicken guys?

Big fucking thanks to Zack Morrissette for his always hilarious work and this interview. To see more of  Zack’s work find him on the following social media links:

Facebook Page: Zacksploitation! Comics
Twitter: @zackmorrissette
Instagram: @zackmorrissette