Behind The Figure: The Sucklord

ALL HAIL THE SUCKLORD. The high court of the Supervillain with the mostest is now in session! GOFN concludes its long-running interview series, Behind The Figure, with something truly special. And what's more, I secretly fluffed the whole thing - "roast" style - by peppering it with quotes from some beloved colleagues of the man behind the moniker that just keeps going, like the Energizer Bunny on steroids. In fact, just today I spoke with his buddy Kevin Malone who told me: "I still purchase from Morgan, but I was once picking up everything he released. He did a collaboration with Tyler Ham called the Suck One and it was basically a dick ship that Tyler had sculpted (lol) it was a great piece but I just couldn't bring myself to buy it and display it." Without further adieu, and with a hatful o' f-bombs....here comes the Sucklord, so candid, so righteously smart-ass. We bring you with the man of the (Suck)hour.

This is where I'd drop a drumroll......

©Bravo Networks

Q: Hey man, it's a nice pleasure to have you on, how are you doin'?

A: You sent me a lot of fucking questions guy, this is gonna take me way too long to fill out. I hope it’s worth my while.

"Everybody thinks my life is on a downward spiral, I call it riding the lightning!" - The Sucklord

Q: LOL. I'm down with brevity. So, you've done a lot of media (television and what not), your very own 'Suckhour', and lots of fun stuff over a variety of social networks. I know you are a fairly well-rounded guy culturally, but can you describe a most odd and unexpected moment being under a camera lens...perhaps something that really took you by surprise?

A: Getting eliminated from Work of Art (Season 2, Ep 6) for making shitty Street Art was rough. Up until that time, I had full control of the Narrative. Even when I was losing the game, I always had command of the camera. I got caught so flat footed in that one particular challenge, as I should have smashed that and everyone was rooting for me. The judges hit me with so many sound reasons as to why I should lose that I couldn’t muster an appropriate response. My silver tongue turned to lead and I was speechless (the edit was more merciful than the reality). I had lost control of the story and it really fucked me up. In some ways I have never fully recovered from that.

Q: Well, in the game of life it documents your creative perseverance. I'm mostly interested in your work as an artist, but first up...would you actually call yourself an artist, and why, what makes an artist in your view?

A: Oh God come on. You could write a whole book about this question. What is Art? (Author: my first-ever writing job for The Oregonian was a column called Is It Art?) Fuck you guy, you aren’t paying me enough to write this all out. I’ll Summarize: I have always thought that calling yourself an Artist was really pretentious and presumptive. I always felt that one just does the work and the world decides if it’s Art. But having turned myself inside out to avoid that term has just made things even more complicated. In the end you finally have to admit you're an Artist anyway. So as much as I don’t really know or care what makes someone an Artist or a so called “Real Artist” I just use the term for convenience sake. I always kind of just say it’s not really Art, but it’s “Like Art.” (Author: agrees with you 101%)

"Will you retire already! I've been waiting since 2011!"

-Killer Bootlegs

Q: You are one of the undisputed Godfathers of the carded resin mashup figure. Tell me what got you into the art of bootlegging? And what keeps you making these crazy lil' gems...?

A: I think you meant to say THE Godfather of the Resin Bootleg Mash up. I have been inclined to use toys as my principal means of expression all my life, and been already doing that in some capacity when the designer toy scene starting emerging. I was shut out of that game early on and was unable to get anything mass produced. Then Kidrobot came around and THEY rejected me also, so I was forced to take matters into my own hands. That was in 2004. I still do it now because it pays my bills and I still have something to say with it. Plus it’s fun and gets me invited places.

"The Sucklord is the most self-absorbed, narcissistic, egomaniacal person I know and I love him." - Dov Kelemer/DKE Toys

Q: Indeed. Of all the pieces you've done over the years, do you have a few mentionable faves?

A: Not specifically. I look at the whole series as kind of a singular body of work.

Q: I getcha. Is it the general awkward taboos, or the conceptual end product.....just what is it about things that are unlicensed that draws collectors?

A: It’s like moving from soft drugs to hard drugs. People get sick of collecting mainstream Star Wars shit and they want something edgier, harder to get. I think the wrongness of all of it makes people feel a little devious. None of these figures should exist in the first place. It’s absurd. I think people feel suckered when they collect normal toys. Buying Bootlegs is a way of pushing back on that and asserting your independence. (Until you finally realize you’re an even bigger sucker) Collecting fulfills some sort of creative or curatorial desire, and you express your values by what and how you collect. There just happen to enough brilliant, deranged people in the world who find SUCKADELIC in line with their fucked up values, so they collect that.

Q: While I still struggle with the whole clash between hippies and hipsters - hey I was born in the mid 60s and spent some serious time in Oregon (I hear you did too!!!) - I wonder about how we label ourselves as a "community". Would you consider yourself a geek or a nerd? I remember when this was an insult, what happened, when did it become hip to be either?

A: Never really used the word Geek all that much. I think of that as sort of an awkward person. A nerd is someone who is just really into something to the degree that they don’t care how it looks to other people. You can be a nerd about anything, Toys, wine, maritime history. I think it’s fashionable to be nerdy because people love intelligence and passion and individuality. As far as there being some sort of Nerd “Community” seems like a construction to me. I don’t know if it exists as some sort of mono-culture. And Yes I lived in Oregon. I love it there.

"The first time I met the Sucklord, he was hiding in a bathroom in Corona, Queens, scrubbing a dick. Not much has changed since then."

- Benny Kline/Tenacious Toys

Q: Don't mind me I was nodding at your thoughts on communities as constructions, fabrications, artifice. Let's turn back time. When you were a kid can you remember the first time you picked up a paintbrush or some creative tools or supplies? Can you share a little of what that was like?

A: I painted some Fisher Price Little People into Custom Osmond Brothers toys. I was really into the Osmonds and they didn’t have toys (Yet). I really wanted them, so I made them. I was around 4.

Morgan's got a vision that nobody will ever be able to bootleg.

- Healeymade

Q: (a lil bit country, a lil' bit rock n roll) You have this lil' splatter technique that you use in some of your more recent work. Can you tell us why, is it a signature?

A: I have used that since the first figure, SUCKLORD 66 in 2004. I really was trying to make the piece look like it came from a really shitty factory where it didn’t matter if paint spilled all over the product, they would ship it anyway. It was funny to me so I kept doing it. Later it became sort of a cynical “This makes it Art” maneuver. I can’t paint or draw and everything I’m putting together here is stolen from something else. It’s bullshit, but if I just throw a little paint on it, THEN it’s transformed into “Real Art”.

"It was my first time meeting a "real New Yorker" and I remember the second day, I wanted to punch him in the face! But the next day we got to know each other a little more and have been close friends ever since and look forward to hanging out with him every year." - Aaron/Retroband

Q: Personally I have had many teachers/mentors (several long dead before I was realized) from Marcel Duchamp to John Waters. How about you?

A: I never had too much of a mentor, which I hear is essential for success. They say it in all the seminars. I never had one, so that’s probably why I’m so fucked up. I kind of just bashed my way through this all the way. I’ve had supporters, teachers, patrons etc, but I never was an apprentice to anyone. I just became the Master. Now I have my own disciples. I’ve set off quite a few young creatures into the world to wreck it up, That’s fun. As far as influences, all the regular greats that everyone looks to. I take it all in. I’ll steal from anybody if it fits my narrative.

"No one clears the floor harder than the Sucklord. When the breakdown begins, he has NO friends." - Dollar $lice

Q: OK, one of my favorite subjects, and yours - Star Wars! How old were you when you first saw it, and how did it inspire you?

A: I saw Star Wars in 1977 at age 8, if that puts it into perspective. To be brief, I always found Boba Fett to be an avatar that I could inhabit that could take me places my civilian self was unable to enter.

Q: Any thoughts on fellow NY'r Donald J. Trump?

A: Oh, Fuck you.

Q: I deserve that. Has anyone ever referred to you as the 'Hugh Hefner of the underground'? If not, I like to be the first. ;) Not to be snarky, I just find you have a certain sensibility when it comes to sexuality, women, men, and how sexuality can be morphed into toymaking as far as adult collectibles are concerned. Am I overstepping the mark, or do you feel me?

A: No that’s 100. I’ll take it. I most definitely am pushing that more and more. Toy making for me has always been aspirational and personal. This whole exercise, the Boba Fett and everything, has been an attempt to advance and actualize my greater self. I have a lot of sexual ambitions and interests that I want to maximize, and working it out, in part, with my toys helps bring it into reality.

Q: You were just involved in this year's Drag Con put on by RuPaul. How did that come about and what's your connection with drag? Have you done any related releases?

A: I was offered a chance to show at Dragcon while I was exhibiting at Designercon. I went for it cuz I did see a lot of crossover potential. Drag and Cosplay are two sides of the same coin, it’s aspirational, it’s a multi-disciplined craft (sewing, make up, hair, acting, singing, comedy, dancing etc). It’s similar, but Drag has a sexual and gender aspect to it that is sorely lacking in the Comicon world. I feel at home there. I did make a Monsters In Drag series that was exclusive to Dragcon. It went well, people loved them, but I was the only Toy vendor there. Everything else was wigs and shoes, so it was a bit of a hard sell. Even at a paltry $20, they seem expensive to someone who never heard of a Designer Toy. It’s gonna take some marketing to make it work, but I plan to do the New York one in September, so we’ll see.

"Sucklord is a seedy, shit talkin', low-brow art making scumbag kind of guy, who smokes all your weed and then shows up drunk at your hotel room to sleep on your floor at 1am. But I respect him, he has a big heart and there ain't no one else like him!"

- Galactic Jerkbags

Q: I met RuPaul at the March on Washington back in '93 I think. At 5'6" I was morphed, but I was there in solidarity. Are you occupied in the love dept.?

A: Yes I am dating Meg Spectre right now.

Q: I recently picked up a coupla of your 'Suckpanels' - a quasi venus fly trap meets slave Leia meets science journal. Love the wild references. Where do you get your source material? Can you say more about this one-off series?

A: It’s weird right? I just pulled those, as with all my great successes, out of my ass. I had a month where I couldn’t do any resin as I was between studios, and I needed a release. I was already experimenting with wood panels and collage, and I just somehow had tons of old magazines and broken Toys laying around, so I just started slapping stuff together in a sort of “I’m so crazy I’m gonna go bankrupt, nobody’s gonna buy this kill me now ha ha ha” kind of way. I crossed myself and put them out and they blasted through. So I kept milking it, going back to it when I get tired of resin. I must have gone through about 600 over the last 2 years. I still feel that they are ridiculous and I’m laughing all the way, but I think that’s what makes it work. I don’t take it serious, the dumber the better. I just get wasted and go through my piles. (I source from everywhere: Gifts, old stashes, friend’s collections, flea markets, ebay, everything). Then I just start flowing, putting it together, no plan, just exploring. It's like I’m not even making them myself, they just happen in front of me and I capture it. The whole time saying to myself “this is the series where everybody realizes this is bull shit.” Then I assemble everything and put splatter and varnish and whatever else on it and hang it. Then when I finally see them all on the wall tighter I’m like “This is amazing!” and people fucking buy them. So why question it. It’s the most effortless yet most satisfying aspect to my craft.

"Stunt On 'Em!" - Wasted Talent

Q: Outside of New York, where have you shown your work, and ever in "legit" white-walled style galleries, blue chip or otherwise?

A: Not too much TBH. Except for that one show at a real gallery in Tokyo called Gallery Target, I have never shown in a proper art gallery. (I did one in Chelsea in 2011 at place called Boo-Hoorya which was in a real gallery, but it was supposed to be a joke. The curator’s whole thing was “Can you believe I’m actually showing such crap in a real gallery? Fuck you art world” kind of way, so I don’t know if it counted. I have shown in most of the main Toy Galleries in The USA. Toy Tokyo, Munky King, Wootbear. Never at MPH weirdly…

"I can't see a Stormtrooper without picturing it pink and silver because of The Super Sucklord." - Kevin Malone

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take three records to listen to what would they be?

A: Did you just copy paste this question from a stock interview question website? Next...

Q: No, I'm all ears, always and gauge people by what they listen to. My top ten was once published in Tower Records Magazine. Anyhow.....Do you make your living solely off your guise as the Sucklord or do you have another persona working a day job?

A: No day job. This is it.

"I never thought I would have to caveat a toy of mine with "Don't stick this up your ass"......"And then I worked with Sucklord." - Tyler Ham

Q: Right on. What do you think of the carded art bootleg scene these days, anyone that really sticks out from the crowd in your opinion?

A: Who? Oh those guys, yeah there is some good stuff out there. Don’t wanna play favorites here. I have a Review Show that people can submit their Bootlegs to if they really want my opinion: SUCKADELIC, PO Box 130134 Chinatown NY 10013

Q: Plug This. What's upcoming for you in the near future?

A: I have lecture about all of this that I put together. I did it for the first time this April at a con and it went well, so I’m looking for venues to do that. I want to put a book together of my body of work and hopefully stop pouring resin to focus on other creative things. Developing new ways of production that’s more hands off for me. Finishing my Movie, Toy Lords of Chinatown, and continuing my YouTube shows The Suckhour and Sucktalk. There’s even more shit on the further horizon, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. Back to music eventually….

"First face on the bootleg Mt Rushmore!" - Mike/Falcontoys