 In what I hope will become a semi-regular feature here at Film Gutter, we’ll be exploring some of the great extreme horror projects out there looking for crowdfunding and support from the community. There’s a huge array of work in the subgenre that is only made possible by this kind of funding, so if you like what you read then drop by the crowdfunding page! Even if you’re not able to pitch into the project, a share on social media alone can be a huge help to people trying to get their projects off the ground. Today the focus turns to one of the most exciting artists in the field of extreme horror, Martin Trafford, who has recently launched his Hung, Drawn and Slaughtered book on Indiegogo. Having worked with some firm Film Gutter favourites such as Jorg Buttgereit and Phil Stevens, I’ve already put my order in for the book and can’t wait to receive it. So, what’s it all about? ‘Essentially it's a collection of a bunch of my favourite or better known pieces – be it VHS/ shirt/poster or DVD art – I've done over the last six years mainly, but I've been producing underground artwork for about 20 years now!’ says Martin. The book will be released as both a paperback and a hardback, both full of lavish illustrations. If you’re not familiar with Martin’s work, I’d very much suggest dropping by his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Traffart/ and taking a look for yourself. If you’re a fan of extreme and underground horror, you’ll probably see at least a few things you’re familiar with. Martin is known for his work on the comic-book sequel to the Nekromantik movies, which gave him the chance to work with renowned German director Jorg Buttgereit. ‘The nekrocomic was a real labour of love for me,’ says Martin. ‘I'd had an idea to follow the story of Monika and her son who is alluded to at the end of Nekromantik 2. To see where these characters were now, how messed up they possibly were! I wanted – as a fan and for the fans – to show some form of sequel to these outstanding movies of Jörg’s.’ Personally, I first encountered Martin’s work in exploring the world of director Phil Stevens, creator of the brilliant Flowers and Lung, which remain two of my very favourite extreme flicks of recent years. That’s a feeling Martin share. ‘Once I saw Flowers I was in love with it completely… and being lucky enough to be on the journey to creating Lung with him gave me a real insight into how he works, how he creates. It's just like he throws out this net and trawls in this beautiful flow of conciseness and drapes it over a bare bones framework. Things constantly shift and change, it's an exciting kind of creativity to be around as an artist! For me his films are bleak but beautiful and that's my favourite kind of film. I've included pretty much all the pieces I created for him in the book.’ We’ve not seen many underground art books of late, so what was Martin’s inspiration in putting this one together? ‘I love those VHS cover art books, you discover so many more movies you missed out on by flicking through them. So in some sense I want THAT… I want people to flick through and connect with what's on offer in the scene, discover a movie that might have passed them by, or just dig the gory artwork and be interested enough to check out the director. It struck me there hasn't really been an underground cover art book and thought it would be cool with the amount I've produced to give people that.’ I’ve been following Martin’s artwork for a while now, and if you’re a fan of this column and the kinds of movies we review, there’s a good chance this book will be just right for you. I’m expecting something both horrible and beautiful to be landing on my doormat in the near future. If you want to check the project out, just visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hung-drawn-and-slaughtered-movies-horror to watch the trailer and check out all the awesome perks up for grabs. That ranges from a thank you in the book, up for grabs at just $5 Australian – three British pounds where I come from – to a headline ‘… presents’ on the front cover of the book for $500 Australian, still a steal in its own right! Look at for the next of our special features, where we’ll be highlighting more exciting extreme horror projects!  |
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