Posted on: August 10th, 2009 Gavin Goes To Harlancore! Pt 1
Gavin here, and I love me some papercraft. It’s like oragami on crack. I am totally addicted to the stuff. But of all of the awesome papercraft sites out there only one stands above and beyond the rest. It’s models are amazing, the style is intriguing and the design template is friggin’ sweet. I speak of course of www.harlancore.com, run by an artist named Jason. I got the chance recently to sit down with Jason and have a talk about the entire world that is harlancore. Enjoy as I give you part one of my interview.
Gavin Stone: First off, tell me why you got into making papercraft?
harlancore: I had been collecting kubrick and bearbrick toys and was doing sketches of my own ideas. I wanted to make some customs but didn’t want to buy a bunch of blank toys. I mean, I wanted to, but couldn’t afford to. Then I bought Cardboy’s CMYK cartridges and discovered, hey this model is half paper…I bet I could make a paper model that I could customize. That’s the simple story of how I started.
Gavin Stone: I loved kubricks. I was all over the Evangelion ones. What were your favorites?
harlancore: I have some of the ALIEN kubricks that are really cool, a 300% pushead anniversary bearbrick, and yeah I really like the EVA ones too. I also like the Cry for Dawn and Devilman kubricks.
Gavin Stone: Devilman is awesome. The first BoxPunx I ever made was Spider-man. It was hard as hell to put together once I got to the legs. It just confused me. How hard was it to create the template?
harlancore: The hardest part is definitely making the template. What seems simple to you may not be so simple to others, especially if there are little to no instructions. I have since gone back and changed the legs, but it did take a while to come up with a better way. I always make quite a few templates before deciding on one, usually because how I imagined it would look vs how it came out is very different at first. As time has gone by, I have got better at thinking in 3-D.
Gavin Stone: Was the redesign more of a forced thing since there were weird people like me who just kinda looked at it and went ‘huh’ when we got the legs? Cause since then it’s second nature to me now.
harlancore: Right, once you understand how the legs are supposed to go, it’s pretty simple after all. I guess I changed it in part of people’s comments, but also a desire to simplify the model as well, from a “cutting” aspect. When cutting out so many models, the mind tends to focus on things like “how can I make this easier?” So changing the model also meant quicker to cut out.
Gavin Stone: I have to agree with that. Why do all of your designs stick their tongues out? Are they pissed at us or something? Are they mad we cut them out, cause I think if someone cut me out it might be a little painful.
harlancore: Haha! My favorite question. Ultimately I intended it as a trademark. An easy way to recognize my models. If the tongue is sticking out, people would think of me. As far as interpretation, I will leave that up to the collector. Maybe it’s because punx can be rude. But they can also be poetic as well.
Gavin Stone: Why did you make BoxPunx 2.0 without tongues? I was designing some custom designs and I realized there are no tongues for that model!
harlancore: When I was changing the legs to simplify that model, I realized I could fit two models on one page, if I lost the tongues, and make it that much quicker to cut out. Plus I thought it would be fun to do some models without the tongues for a while. Mix it up a bit and all that. Although I did just finish adding the tongue back to the 2.0 template and plan to release that soon.
Gavin Stone: Sweet, though i would have loved to see Nemisis with his tongue out at Leon. Now that would have been a funny ass rasberry match.
harlancore: hehe, indeed.
Gavin Stone: The DollPunx line. Explain to me how you came up with it cause when I first tried it I made the pimp from ‘Innocence and Rainbows’. My Pimp did not come out very good and I was ready to scrap that line, but then you threw DarkStalkers out there. Why did you feel the need to make a new template past the boxpunx?
harlancore: I have sketchbooks where I draw tons of various shape combinations. I started experimenting with the idea of giving the basic boxpunx shape some long sexy legs. Eventually I sketched this scary looking Japanese schoolgirl character into the dollpunx shape and thought it looked kind of interesting. I built it and really liked it, especially how it was both similar and different to what I was already doing. Like the shapes were now reminiscent of my style, not just the drawing. At least that’s the feeling I got. So I started drawing more characters into the shape, liked the results, and decided to go ahead and release it as a new model.
Gavin Stone: When I think of Donovan, I don’t think Long Sexy Legs. 
harlancore: lol, me either, my hurdle with the dollpunx was how to make the “skirt” each model has look masculine when it needs to. Luckily I think it worked out.
Gavin Stone: I had that issue too. When I put together John Talbain I looked at it and said “What the Hell?” but the design grew on me and as a set it comes together.
harlancore: Sometimes in order to make something work you have to MAKE IT WORK. That is the boxpunx manta I guess, hehe.
Gavin Stone: You took on a very ambitious project with the PF4 series – A ‘player vs player’ concept. Why? Did you not have enough to do? I mean I am not complaining, but being an artist myself I know how much time things can take.
harlancore: I guess it’s just a desire to make as many as I can. I love these characters, I have for many, many years, and it just seems natural that they would be a part of boxpunx. It would be easier sure if there were only 12 Darkstalkers, but I think, if a fan likes these models, and I left out their favorite character, that would be a disappointment. So the PersonaFAN series is big, because there are so many characters. Plus I like having an endless pool of model ideas. Being a fanboy, I don’t expect to run out of inspiration any time soon.
Gavin Stone: So do you like Darkstalkers or Persona better?
harlancore: I am definitely a bigger Persona fan than Darkstalkers fan, but I really love the character designs for both games on an almost equal level.
Gavin Stone: I haven’t played Person since the first one, but Darkstalkers is eternal to me. I am all over Felicia. I play her and make fighting cat noises and it is just a lot of fun. Which, but the way, you gave Felicia some weird hair. I saw in the strategy guide you had some issues with it. Did you just run out of glue or what cause she has a lot of hair.
harlancore: Felicia wasn’t easy, no. I made a bunch of different hair styles and none of them looked very good. I wanted her hair to be “big”, but didn’t want to just glue a big piece of hair to her back. The first one I made was like that, and instead of hair it just looked like this big blue piece of paper stuck haphazardly to her. So I decided to dial it back a bit. Sorry to all the Felicia fans out there if you aren’t happy with the hair! I invite you to fix it and send me the template! At some point I have to just go with something and move on. Or else I will never finish!
Gavin Stone: You blogged that you wanted to get back to more original artwork? Does this mean you will leave the fanboy types of designs to someone else? I feel you have a great mix of original and licensed items to offer. It would be a shame to lose that variety. You have Johnny the Homicidal Maniac next to some Disco Queen. Awesome.
harlancore: I will never stop doing fanboy stuff, I just want to bounce back and forth really. I really like the variety as well. Plus, I absolutely love making the promotional images for the fanboy stuff. It never gets old!
Gavin Stone: So will we see a Squee to go with Johnny?
harlancore: Maybe. I am wearing a Squee T-shirt right now! I love Jhonen’s characters, and imagine I will make one or two more before it’s over.
Gavin Stone: I love it! Jhonen Vasquez is odd. I can not imagine Nickelodeon approaching him of all people to make a cartoon, but we got Invader Zim from it
harlancore: Yeah, unusual story for sure, but we the audience did indeed benefit! Thanks you guys! hehe
Gavin Stone: I would love to see Filler Bunny, or that thing from Everything can be Beaten. That thing was creepy.
harlancore: Indeed. Either of those in animated form would be cool to see.
Gavin Stone: One thing I do not see a lot of in your archive is movie based papercraft. Why is that? Where’s the love for some awesome movie characters?
harlancore: Although I love video games and sci-fi fantasy stuff, most of the movies in that genre fall flat for me, so I gravitate to more dramatic, independent cinema. Not good inspiration for papercraft. I like directors like David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sophia Coppola, and Michel Gondry. I like movies with great soundtracks. Plus there are a lot of toys, both papercraft and vinyl, based on movie characters already. I did make R2-D2 and C-3PO though. Right now I am just waiting for the next good idea.
Gavin Stone: Yeah, i’ll get to your lacking oversight in the star wars category later…:P
harlancore: lol, ok
Gavin Stone: Also I notice you make a lot of unique decisions in your character choices. Like for [adultswim] you made Number 21 but not the Monarch. What draws you to make those decisions?
harlancore: I thought it would be cool to occasionally make characters other than the main characters. Especially if someone has already make excellent versions of those characters. Take Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies for example. I love those shows, but there are already great Cubeecrafts for all of the characters. Instead of making more, I just downloaded and built those! It’s all an attempt at being different really.
Gavin Stone: as much as i love #21 do you plan to make more [adultswim] guys? I need some SuperJail things.
harlancore: I love Superjail. I am definitely going to make Superjail boxpunx. That will be coming sooner than later, I have already begun sketches.
Gavin Stone: That is like my favorite freaking show on [adultswim]. I was sold from the pilot when the meat monster rose up and ate the werewolf inmates and the pink bunny inmates. Awesome freaking show. You have to do a Combaticus.
harlancore: Yeah, it’s great. The art is tremendous, and all the voice actors are hilarious. I have always loved David Wain, so hearing him as the warden is a real treat.
Gavin Stone: I like Alice. She is a real character.
harlancore: Indeed. I want to do them all, definitely. A whole set could be awesome.
To Be Continued On Wednesday!
One Response to “Gavin Goes To Harlancore! Pt 1”
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cubeelog » Harlancore Interview over at Giant Killer Squid Says:
August 18th, 2009 at 7:30 pm[...] HARLANCORE interview part 1 [...]