My First "Book"

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:19:00 -0500

Scary Robot 2: The Killing Robot: The Killer Robots

When I was very young, I liked to draw pictures and tell stories. I couldn’t quite read or write though, as I was still very young, so I would draw pictures and then ask my parents to write in the text for me afterwards. Sometimes what I would tell them to write didn’t make any sense or wasn’t grammatically correct; however, I was very adamant that it be written exactly as I had requested. It was my goddamn story, so I got to choose how it was presented.

After saying all of this, the very first “book” I made doesn’t actually have any text. It’s not really much of a story either. It’s mostly just violent images and drawings of robots; however, I’m sure if you went back in time and asked five or six-year-old Dustin (or however old I was), I could explain to you, in great detail, what was occurring on these pages.

I was obsessed with robots as a child. Growing up on horror films, most things seemed fake to me, but not robots. The Terminator films and Class of 1999 are the first that jump to mind that gave me nightmares. No ghost was going to “get me,” but the fear that a robot could break into my house and murder me while I slept was very real to me. I still loved them though, and continued to watch them.

Seems I’ve always been obsessed with violence. To this day I think lot of my tastes, when it comes to entertainment such as film and music, are deeply rooted in my childhood. Chasing feelings and memories. Many weekends, when I would visit my father, we would spend the evenings watching The Kids in the Hall, Tales From the Crypt and various horror films. This combination would seem to explain my sense of humor as an adult. Among other things, I’m sure.

So, anyway, I had this entire series called The Killer Robots. They all revolved around a scientist creating a robot with chainsaws for arms. Then something would go wrong and the robot would murder its creator and then go on a killing spree only to be stopped by the police (several members of my family have at one time been police officers). I don’t think I ever meant for the scientist to be “evil,” but I’m not sure what in the hell a “good” scientist would be creating chainsaw-wielding robots for.

Out of all of the Killer Robot stories I “wrote,” I like this one the most because it is far more abstract than the others. The stories I wrote later actually had some sort of semblance of a story. I think. Maybe. This one just devolves into incredibly abstract and messy drawings. The cover was always my favorite. Iconic even. At least to me. An image that has never left my mind. Though water damage has ruined the one red foot that I gave the robot on the cover. Plus yellow legal paper has always reminded me of my parents’ divorce, so it’s just a very interesting image to me when I put it all together. I think the original title was simply The Killer Robots. Later I would go on to create the backstory explaining how the scientist created the robot and why it turned bad, which is why my first book eventually ended up with a “2” in the title. In this one the slaughter appears to begin immediately and with no explanation. Shit, I mean, some poor guy is getting a chainsaw to the face on the cover.

Anyway, you can download a full-size PDF of the entire thing below.

•Scary Robot 2: The Killing Robot: The Killer Robots

Music Stuffs

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:11:00 -0500

So my band Draw O’ Coward is currently in the process of writing three to five new songs for a new EP we’re hoping to record in the beginning of October. I’ve always wanted to help out the vocalist during shows (I play bass), but I don’t know how to scream. Today I finally tried screaming and the results were not so good. I did a vocal cover of What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse by the Black Dahlia Murder. We named my version “What a Horrible Night To Be Dustin.”

Anyway, before I had the confidence to start screaming into a microphone, I wanted to attempt singing first. Something I’ve always been afraid of. Plus, I’m hoping to work on some non-metal collaborations with one of the guitarists in my band (Alex Tassoul) in the near future, which would require me to sing. Some comedic song kind of stuff. Hopefully I’ll have some of that to share soon.

Anyway (again), I decided to start with some acoustic covers of songs I know well. Lounge Act and Verse Chorus Verse both by Nirvana. Today we only got to Lounge Act. It’s kind of different. I slowed it down and there’s no bass. Oh, and I’m playing it on an acoustic guitar, so maybe it sounds nothing like it. But I think it’s not terrible. Maybe. Also, I must stress that I don’t know how to sing and I play bass, not guitar. So, yeah.

• Listen to my Lounge Act (Acoustic Cover) on SoundCloud

While recording this we decided to have some fun with Autotune and this resulted in the link below. Tassoul plans on taking the vocals and making a “dance mix” version of the song, which I’m pretty excited to hear, because these vocals sound hilarious. Also, the guitar track on this version is terrible. It was initially just something for me to try and play to and sing to. We weren’t planning on keeping it, but it’s there.

• Listen to Auto-Lounged on SoundCloud

• View Draw O’ Coward’s Facebook Page

• View my SoundCloud Profile

NO FIRES AFTER 11

My First "Book"

Scary Robot 2: The Killing Robot: The Killer Robots

Music Stuffs