Robert Stark and co-host Rabbit talk to Cartoonist Mark Velard. He publishes his work at Refractor Industries
Topics include:
How he got into drawing comics
His influences, including Daniel Clowes, Robert Crumb, Jack Kirby, and Jim Woodring
The 60s-80s influence in his comics
Why he prefers to work in Pen & Ink instead of digital graphics
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars and Mark’s parody “Pepe John Carter”
His short stories, including his recent one Cliff Wretched’s Escape, and the themes that drive them
How his stories tend to be tales of journeys and heroism
His upcoming graphic novel “Clowns of the Apocalypse,” about evil clowns who invade society and want to be seen as equals
His stand up comedy
His fascination with Space Travel and Escapism
John Carpenter’s Film In the Mouth of Madness
How he ended up associating with the AltRight
How his politics influences his work
His experiences with political correctness at Comic Cons
Whether his political views have interfered with his art career
How Robert and Ray both have personal connections to Santa Barbara and how the city is almost too idyllic
Crime Fiction Novelist Ross Macdonald who’s work captures Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara as a place with strict zoning laws that was modeled after Andalusia in Spain
The contrast between life in Santa Barbara and New York City
How New York City has changed in Ray’s time there in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s
How Cuisine is the one area that has seen increased innovation in New York
Ray’s cameo in the film Exposed set in New York in 1983 staring Nastassja Kinski
How films such as Exposed and Taxi Driver are documentaries for New York in that era
The new peculiarly shaped skyscrapers going up in New York today “See through buildings” where wealthy Foreigners are buying up real estate in New York and leaving them empty
How Ray is drawn to architecture because it is art you can experience and changes the world in a way that regular art doesn’t
How most of the general public has little input and interest in architecture
How places without zoning laws tend to lack any aesthetic value
How the main rule in urbanism is not to do anything that harms the city Art Deco and how it succeeds in bringing tradition and modernity into one Architectual Revivalism which seeks to recreate older forms of architecture Robert Stark’s Artwork
Ray’s work at Newsweek as a reporters covering art, culture, literature, film, and theatre
How Ray’s most significant interviews were with Writers Philip, Roth, and John Updike, filmmakers Francis Coppola, and Robert Altman and Architect Christopher Alexander
How conservatives tend to avoid culture and leave that domain to the left
English Philosopher Roger Scruton as a model for a cultured conservative
Front Porch Anarchist Bill Kauffman New Urbanism
The The Retro Cocktail and Locavore movements James Howard Kunstler
Ray’s involvement with Environmentalism and Bioregional Anarchism
How the environmental movement abandoned the overpopulation issue due to political correctness and mass immigration
The Alternative Right
How the real political divide is between globalism and decentralization
Cultural trends and how Ray views himself as a cultural radar
The trend towards a focus on muscles for young men and men are more self-conscious about their bodies
The value of pleasure and leisure
Erotica and the debate about what’s art and what’s pornography
Controversial nude photographer Jock Sturges, who Ray interviewed
How society is a taking contradictory paths towards lewdness and prudishness Students Still Sweat, They Just Don’t Shower
How having taste and style has become equated with homosexuality
Young women moving to New York City because of Sex and the City “Sex Scenes” which is a raunchy, satirical audio entertainment that Ray created with his wife playwright Polly Frost. Check it out.
