This is the second in a series that will focus on the talent
and celebrities that will appear at this year’s Erie Horror Film Festival. The
Eerie Horrorfest will take place from October 11th to the 14th
at the historic Warner Theater Erie , Pennsylvania
“Monster” Mark Kosobucki is a talented local Erie
artist. Those who know the contemporary Erie
arts and entertainment milieu know Mark’s artistic talent well. Not only has
his artwork highlighted many local bands and adorned some covers of popular
local news publications, he is also a talented motion picture special effects
artist (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2396651/) and sculptor. In addition to his hectic schedule in the arts, Mark has
been giving seminars on how to do practical motion picture special effects at
the Erie Horror Film Festival for the last couple of years. I caught up with
Mark at his home studio last week.
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| "Monster" Mark's Loft Lair |
How did you get the
name Monster Mark?
It sort of happened in High School, because I was really
getting into movies and all that and someone came up with that. I thought if it
is easier for them to remember that rather than Kosobucki then it’s good.
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| Just a small portion of Mark's movie collection |
How did you get into
art?
I had been drawing since I was a kid and I really loved
watching movies. I would watch them over and over again. One in particular was
“Dick Tracy” the Warren Beatty. It
was an all star cast, and the make up was perfect! All those characters, they
brought them to life. I always tell people when they bring up comic book
movies, that was really the best one, ever. I started with pen and ink and
eventually went into photography. I always loved special effects in movies. And
everyone always has that pipe dream that they would really love to do that. And
before I went into High School they started the Savini program. And I was like
‘I really wanna do that!’ so, when I graduated it was new and they were not
accredited yet, so I waited after I attended Edinboro University and so here we
are.
What was the first
medium that you started working in?
Just pencil, pen and ink. Just working on little doodles and
stuff. I used to get sketch books for Christmas and stuff.
The entire attic of
Mark’s house has been converted into a monster makeup and art studio, along
with an extensive collection of movies from the horror, sci-fi and fantasy
genre. He has a few recent zombie face molds sitting next to his couch and
television. Mark explains:
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| Mark's current project: a Zombie head |
I try to keep my work confined to up here because if it
would tend to be cluttered downstairs if I take up the living room and
everything. I just watch movies and plug away at stuff. These are two of ones I
am going to have at the Horrorfest this year. This is a new guy, I actually had
him molded and sculpted for over a year, it took me forever to clean out the
mold. I really wanted to have a real cool zombie, I had one of him made for a
movie premiere I went to in August and I sold him within like 10 minutes, so it
was great.
What is your favorite
medium right now? Besides special effects, but what else are you currently
working on?
I love sculpting, I
love sculpting monster heads it is something from nothing, you know? That is
kind of really cool to me but I definitely get more work in graphic design,
illustrating and stuff like that. I have always loved the artwork that would
tag along with movies. It is almost unheard of now, but in the 70s and 80s not
having a hand drawn illustration for your movie was almost unheard of. And I
always loved the hand drawn artwork as opposed to photos and stuff.
So what are some of
your current projects now in the medium of pen and ink artwork?
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| Some of Mark's posters for local bands |
I just finished a poster for The Crooked I last night, they
are doing a tribute to Black Sabbath on the 27th. It is called
‘Electric Funeral’ and they are one of my all time favorite bands and when they
came up to me and said they were doing this I was like wow, I know all the
lyrics to their songs. I did a poster for that it is 24X36 , I had a friend who
commissioned me a print for the movie “Them” the giant ants. I’m working now
with the Erie Reader, that is free around town. I did a cover for them called
the “Weight of War” about PSD and I asked if
I could do a Halloween cover too and I did that. The Halloween cover is going
to be so cool, it has Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein’s Monster. The PSD
article is a good story, it makes you think. I am happy they let me be the
voice for that as far as art goes.
Now at this
Horrorfest you are in a movie as well as doing the special effects.
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| "Skull Forest" (2012) |
I am in a movie called ‘Skull Forest’ I was the Key effects
artist on it. My friend Len Kabasinski made it, and I have shown it to my
family and friends and they say it is his best yet. I am really proud of it, I
think everyone did a good job on it and I think it will go over very well.
Hopefully he will get a really good distribution deal from it. It was filmed in
Erie , a lot of it was filmed in Fairview .
One of the guys in the movie James Howells, his family had a fairly large
amount of land and we used the woods out there. The Plot is kind of like “The
Most Dangerous Game”, these four girls go into the woods to have a weekend
away, and they end up being caught in an organized hunting ring where they put
in bids like a lottery and if you are selected you get to go into the woods and
hunt somebody.
Were the effects
challenging?
What scared me the most, because I had never done it before
was the scalping. There is a Native American character in the movie, when she
takes the life of one of the girls she scalps her. I always remember the movie
“Maniac” when it comes to that because that movie had the best version of that
effect. I don’t know who Savini had working with him but they had some really
good effects for removing the scalps of these women in this movie and it always
stuck with me. But it was challenging and I had a plan for it and it worked
pretty good. And I think it looks good on screen, when they did the premiere
for it, it was all cast and crew and everything and that was the one effect and
when it appeared on screen there was somebody down front that actually screamed
out because it actually grossed them out heavily. It was very vindicating,
because you are like, “they are buying it!”
Is there any other
work that you are involved in lately?
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| Mark and his "6 Degrees of Hell" poster at the movie's premiere |
I have been working with a producer that I met at Horrorfest
last year, his name is Harrison Smith. I believe he produced the movie “The
Fields” with Cloris Leachman and Tera Reed. He was down there and just finished
filming the movie “6 Degrees of Hell” with Corry Feldman, and he met me
through Josh Emmerich who did the ‘Basket Case’ comic and Herrison like my
artwork and gave me the job to do the graphic novel of Six Degree’s of Hell’s
opening sequence, which is quite a story it has a beginning, middle and end of
course where the girl dies. I got to allude to what Cory Feldman does in the
movie as a paranormal investigator and in addition to that he gave me the task
to do the official poster for that movie. We got to meet Corey Feldman, the
premier was in the Pocono’s it was red carpet and the media was there. All the
VIPS got a copy of my poster and it was up on a billboard. It was pretty cool.
He has a new movie in post called “Dead TV” and I did some poster work for it,
I don’t know the plot yet, but I heard that he wants me to do the movie poster
for that as well. Eric Roberts is in it, and last I knew Daniel Harris I don’t
know if the cast has changed or not.
What are your future
goals?
I did the poster for the event for band Calabrese and they
liked it so much they made it the cover for their album. I had listened to the
band since I was in school and it totally surreal for me; they have a huge
backdrop of my art. It is crazy. I would love to do art for a living and not
have to worry about a paycheck so much. I would like to turn this house into a
studio, a fully functional mass media studio that has graphic design and
special effects and video production. I would like to offer that to the
community. I have one friend named Richard who is going into the Savini program
and asked me to mentor him for his senior project and I hope that we can work
together on these movies. Because right now it is ok to do these smaller
independent movies, but it would be nice to give someone these mold making jobs
while I sculpt other things. I would like to bring on a few friends and pull
resources and get something functional in this creepy old house by the
cemetery. It really fits in with the community.
To look at more of Mark’s work or to contact him to do
professional work visit his website at http://www.monstermarkweb.com/
Tickets for the Eerie Horrorfest and a list of other
celebrities appearing there this year
can be found at their website http://www.eeriehorrorfest.com/
. A daily pass will also be available for purchase at the door during the
event.
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