Geek of the Week: Joseph Game (AKA Chogrin)

Chogrin… with Dan Akroyd?!

Philadelphia is a city full of geeks. Me and my pals here on Geekadelphia love to show that fact off, and (sometimes) once a week, we highlight individual geeks here on the blog with Geek of the Week. Just another way for us to show off our awesome community, and hopefully, introduce you to some great people doing awesome things. Think you should be featured? Have a friend you’d like to see on here? Email us.

This week’s Geek of the Week is Joseph Game, also known by his artist name ‘Chogrin‘. You might know him from his music and animation, but we here at Geekadelphia know (and love, swoon!) him for his illustration work and collaborations with the Autumn Society.

So tell us a bit about yourself and your work.

Well, my artist name is Chogrin, but my real name is Joseph Game. I was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and I moved to the states when I was thirteen. I’ve always been drawing, its the primary way of expressing myself. Throughout my life I’ve always held onto characters from cartoons, video games, movies, comics, as inspiration vessels to do what I do. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

I do a lot of cartoony / character design type illustrations. Early Japanese comics and early animation (1930s) are my two big influences, which really compliment one another. Cartoons like Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye influenced the fathers of manga. Specifically Osamu Tezuka, whose work to me is pure enlightenment.

The great works of Ub Iwerks, The Fleischer Bros, and the whole rubberhose animation movement have had such an influential impact in the way I draw and create my vocabulary nowadays. Its a style that I feel needs to be rediscovered and given more attention and experimentation to.

These influences have always been with me growing up, I just never knew how to harness them. It wasn’t until 2006 when I had an internship at Cartoon Network studios that my eyes really opened up and the way I drew changed forever. Wizard and legendary animators, Ken Boyer and Bob McKnight taught me and helped me filter the key things that I’ve loved about art and animation since I was little.

You can view a short documentary of my experience at Cartoon Network Studios here.

My most recent work revolves around paying tribute to some of my favorite characters growing up. Characters like Popeye, Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, Mario, Link, Astro Boy etc. I feel its important as a geek/artist to showcase these characters through my work and remind other people that they’re still here.

I’m also working on my first comic, which will be released later this winter season. It’s on a Mexican folktale of tragedy and horror, called “La Llorona” (The weeping woman). It will be released through Powerpop Comics.

Read more about Chogrin & his work after the jump!

Seems like you’re a jack of all trades when it comes to your work. Music, film, art… what’s your favorite medium to work in? Why?

Drawing is my primary love out of all the things I do and create, but I also enjoy the process of creating an animation / film, and recording music. Like Illustration, animation / film is a vessel to tell a story, to focus on a character. And music is really the same thing, only more open to meanings and interpretations. But I guess that could be said about all art mediums depending on who you are and what your perspective is.

I’m currently thinking of going back to school to immerse myself in the world of film. I always find myself watching all the documentaries and special features that come with movies, and thinking how much I want to be a part of that. Animation is something I believe I will do before I get into live action features. I would love to create some cartoon series based on some of my own characters and stories I’ve written over the years. I would love to work with an animation studio like Pixar. They are truly the new golden age of animation.

The only live action I do now, are short documentaries about life experiences, and interviews with artists and their work. If I do get the opportunity to shoot live action features, I will mostly focus on bio-epics, personal stories, my home town (Ecuador), and historic events mixed with a bit of fantasy and sci-fi.

As for music, I like to write punk / acoustic songs that are short and sweet. My music side is definitely the one I’m the most shy about, since its very personal, experimental, and mostly sung in Spanish. But I do expose it and if you really want to, you can listen to some of it here (best enjoyed with headphones).

Is there any particular place in Philadelphia you like to go, to work on your art?

Any cozy coffee place will do really. Sometimes I get some great ideas while riding the train. Otherwise, all the magic happens at home at my kitchen table and on my computer.

Tell us a bit about the artist collective you’re a part of, The Autumn Society.

The Autumn Society is a wonderful art collective conformed of local and emerging artists from Philly and from around the world, that share and expose their art on a blog and through gallery shows.

The original idea for creating this community emerged in 2005 when my good friend Matt Cavanaugh and I decided to create a small zine publication, called “Patchworx.” The goal of the zine was to feature the work of a different artist in each page. A big influence behind such an idea came from the local Philly group, The Philadelphia Cartoonist Society.

Sadly, due to time and lack of resources the zine never saw publication and got buried with other projects.

It wasn’t until 2006, in my senior year of college that Sam Heimer, Eamon Dougherty, and myself decided to create a blog that would do the same thing as the zine, only it would be more accessible to everyone. It also served as a home for us to post our ongoing projects and ideas at the time. Sam, was responsible for the naming of the blog.

In 2007 I took responsibility behind the group as President, editor-in-chief, and art gallery coordinator.

Since then we’ve grown into a 200 member organization, that now does month to month gallery shows. Like I’ve told many people, we were like a band in band practice for two years and now we’re touring! Everyone plays a key instrument. A lot of these galleries and events wouldn’t of been possible without the help of Autumn Society members. We’ve also had the privilege in working with and featuring some great out-of-state artists.

We’re a group with vision. Each one of our artists has their own unique way on interpreting a theme and the world around them.

And we’re not alone. Groups like McJawn, and TrickGo are making a big impact in the Philadelphia art movement.

As of now we are completely booked with gallery shows for 2010, including an exclusive show with Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, CA, next summer.

Our next and final show for the year will be based on “Dia de los Muertos,” (the Mexican holiday that celebrates the remembrance of dead loved ones). The show opened this past First Friday, October 2nd, at the wonderful Proximity Gallery.

We will also be attending the 2009 Baltimore Comic Con, so if you’re planning to go, please stop by and say hi! We will be in booths 131-133.

As for other future projects and events, we would like to venture into getting our own gallery space, to host our own shows each month, and start publishing full-color Illustration books on our different themes and shows we have put together. We are also interested in hosting and sponsoring fund-raisers, premieres, concerts, animations, documentaries, films, etc.

You’ve been partnering up with Brave New Worlds for fun, First Friday events, right? Tell us about those. Any great new themes coming
up?

The Beatles had the Cavern Club, we have Brave New Worlds. We held our very first gallery event at BNW, with the Joker show this past April, and since then, we knew we were destined to collaborate even more.

We also did the 80s Pop Show, the Golden Age Show, and 8-bit & Beyond. The guys there (Rob and Brian) are sweethearts and totally down with whatever theme we offer to put on their wall. We are already planning some new shows with them including a 90s Show, a Sci-fi show, and possibly sequels to the Joker, 80s, and 8-bit Show.

There might be a 15th anniversary Hellboy art gallery show in the works, just in time for the holiday season… so stay tuned!

If you become famous in the future, what artists would you like to meet and collaborate with?

There’s a HUGE list, but right now Guillermo Del Toro, Marjane Satrapi, Pen Ward, Brad Bird, Leslie Iwerks, Spielberg, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Duncan Jones, Sebastian Cordero, John Lasseter, Mike Herrera, and Gustavo Santaolalla.

Lasts:

Last Comic Book I Read: Hellboy, the Wild Hunt #6
Movie I Saw: Ponyo
Video Game I Played: Ghostbusters, the video game.

You can learn more about Joseph and his art at his official website and blog, www.chogrin.com