gorilla flicks: December 2016

Los Angeles is a melting pot of creativity that brings millions of people here every year to pursue their dreams, whether it’s to play guitar in a band, become a movie star, land a job working behind-the-scenes as a big-time Hollywood producer, or become a standup comedian. Or it could be just as simple as enjoying the warm sunshine all year long. Who knows? But someone once told me that your chances of making it in show business are less than 10-percent and most people end up moving back home with their dreams crushed wondering what the fuck just happened. I know that sounds a little harsh, but I believe if you work hard and spend your time wisely that your chance of doing what you want in life is just a matter of time.

Ryan J. Ebelt is one of many people who have made the big move to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams. He’s very smart and talented artist who works diligently to perfect his craft every day. You can see him every Monday night at the Comedy Store drawing the latest interpretation of the "Kill Tony" show. I thought I would take this opportunity for you to get to know Ryan and learn how the mind of an artist works, because it’s only a mater of time before he gets discovered. —Rick Kosick

Kosick: Where are you originally from?

Ryan: I was born in Houston, Texas, but my dad worked for General Motors and because of that I spent a lot of my life moving around. I went from Houston to Detroit to Dallas to West Palm Beach, back to Detroit, then to Austin and then out here. I tell people I’m the finance version of the Army brat, basically. My dad worked for GMAC, the finance end of General Motors.

How’d you get your start at being an artist?

That started in Detroit in either 4th or 5th grade, sitting in the back of the classroom. I had a bunch of friends and we all collected comic books, so while we were supposed to be focusing on lessons, we were drawing Spiderman and stuff.

So you’re truly a comic book nerd. Who are some of your favorite characters?

My longest running was Daredevil. I always had a thing for the "second stringers" in a way. I liked Spiderman and the X-Men growing up, and I didn’t really get into DC until I was older, but there was just something about Daredevil… he was like the second string version of Batman. Something about that was appealing to me.

What brought you to Los Angeles?

I originally came out here to work in the entertainment industry—and I did initially. I was a production assistant and assistant coordinator on a bunch of different movies and TV shows. I went to college for film, and when I got out it was kinda that choice, like either East Coast or West Coast, and after Detroit, I didn't want to live in snow again.

What’s with the Comedy Store that keeps you wanting to draw every Monday night?

I'd never really done live drawing, and a friend of mine who was a standup got me started on doing it for different things and I eventually got invited to do "Kill Tony." What's funny is, before that I used to always listen to these comedy podcasts when I would draw and paint at night, because it was easier to listen to somebody talk than listen to music. It was more engaging and less lonely to listen to people talking if you’re painting at 2am to listen to people talking. So all of a sudden, all these people whose shows I’ve been listening, now they’re on the show that I’m drawing for, and that’s part of what made it fun. There was a familiarity. And then eventually it just became the mechanics of the show itself, because it was unpredictable. It became fun just to see what was gonna happen from week to week and see what I could produce or what style I could I try.

So every week, you’re essentially trying a different style?

Not entirely… there are some times I’m not really sure where to go, so I’ve gotta fall back on what I know I can do or what I know I can get done in the time that I have. But anytime I get a chance to try out something new, or just to try something ‘cause I want to try it, like, sometimes before I come into the show, if I’ve got somebody in mind, I’ll sit there and look at their work and try to decipher what I think they were doing. And then it puts the pressure on, because I have two hours to figure out what they were doing as quickly as I can. And if I can’t figure it out, get whatever I can down so they'll still have something to show.

Wow, that seems pretty stressful.

Yeah, but if I don’t do it that way then I would get bored. A lot people ask me, “Do you want to go into comics?” And it’s like, I’ve helped some friends with some comic book work, but I can’t stand doing this. I couldn’t draw Spiderman for 28 pages. That would just get dull to me, you know, unless I was able do something wild with it to an extent. Not that my stuff is all that crazy, but just to keep it interesting page after page after page. But most comic book readers, they expect a certain amount of uniformity to how things look.

Was it difficult being a young artist in Texas where there are mostly tough guys?

No, not really. I was sort of an anomaly. Granted, this was in Detroit when I graduated from school, but as a senior in high school I was the captain of the football team and one of the leading members of the art society. So I was sort of an odd man out. But even in Texas, if you have a creative skill you'll still get admired for that. Like Terry Southern, one of my favorite writers, he’s from Texas. He wrote Easy Rider and Dr. Strangelove. There’s admiration for him there, because he's like the hometown team. Or even from a political standpoint, one of the ones that always cracked me up was LBJ. He was probably the most democrat of democratic Presidents of all-time, but in Texas, no matter how conservative they are, they still love him, primarily ’cause he was a tough son of a bitch.

Who are some of your other influences?

One of my favorite painters is a guy named Henry Fuseli. He was a Swiss painter, but he had to leave Switzerland and primarily worked in London. He painted a very famous picture called The Nightmare, which is this woman laying across the bed and there’s a goblin sitting on her chest. I saw it for the first time as a kid, because it’s at the Detroit Institute of Arts. We went there on a field trip to see these Diego Rivera murals of the auto industry. Those were beautiful, but walking around the museum, like the minute we came across that Fuseli I was transfixed. I’ve gone back and seen it so many times. So Fuseli’s definitely one that’s always stuck with me, but there are a lot of classic illustrators, guys who are excellent draftsmen. I love John Tenniel, he’s most famous for Alice in Wonderland, but he was an editorial cartoonist for years and years in England. And then what I think is funny is that the guy who illustrated all the Oz books in America was a guy named John R. Neill. So, John Tenniel and John R. Neill. Then there’s a guy not many people know… he’s more of an antiquarian book dealer guy that people know as Joseph Clement Coll, who looks like he’s painting with ink. Like he’s a superior draftsmen, but there’s so much beautiful fluidity to his work. It’s absolutely gorgeous what the man can do in ink, and it’s something to me that is kinda lost now.

How does your love for movies affect your drawings?

Well, it’s all interconnected, ’cause just like with comic books, it's thinking in movie terms as well. When you are composing whatever you want to do, where you want the figures to be, if you’re doing a background—you are the director. It’s like if there was this figure in the background of a painting, it’s not where anybody focuses their attention, but the way the painter took the time to do that right, they really captured something with just the way that person is standing. Like they say with the director, the mise en scéne, the way they put everything together, that really affects how I come to doing the artwork, like how to approach it.

What would be your dream gig be, drawing a courtroom hearing session?

No, god, no. Drawing people accused of horrible things does not sound like fun. I came out here to make movies and I’ve always enjoyed telling stories—like I’ve been writing for a long time—and part of the reason I was engaged with the entertainment industry is that it's a chance to combine visual storytelling with actual storytelling. So in a way, making a movie would be the dream job, but then at the same time, I’ve sort of moved passed some of that. So I don’t know. It’s tough to pin down now… it’s sort of in a transitional phase.

What about making a movie poster?

Oh yeah, that would be a ton of fun. I love that ’60s and ’70s painted poster art. Again, those guys were superior draftsmen. They could work so fast and yet at the same time be so inventive in the way they decided to put things together and what they chose out of the movie. So if I could do something like that—but in a modern sense, you know, not just trying to look like throwback stuff—that would definitely be an ideal job.

Since you’re in the front seat of "Kill Tony" every Monday night, who are some of your favorite comedians?

Some of them I have to say are my favorites just because they make my job easier, you know, like Doug Benson. I like Doug’s work, and "Doug Loves Movies" is one of my favorite podcasts. So I love when Doug’s on the show, just because of that: it’s movies. The minute I know he’s on the show, I start thinking of the movie theme and that makes things so much easier. Dom Irrera is another one of my favorite people. He’s so subtly funny, and he can seem like the sweetest guy in the world and then just cut somebody off at the knees. But for me, for my job, I love having Dom on the show because he’s the easiest person to draw. He has such distinct features, so if you just come close there’s still no mistaking who it is. But yeah, it’s hard to say… there have been so many fun ones that I’ve enjoyed watching.

Don’t you like Tony [Hinchcliffe]?

I love Tony. Tony is a lot of fun to draw as well from week to week. He’s so expressive and he’s got such distinct features that he’s always engaging. But I don’t hear a lot of the show because I’m do busy doing what I’m doing. The one that almost always gets me, though, is [Brian] Redban. If he gets on a roll with the soundbytes, I start to crack up and then I can’t draw because I don’t have a steady hand.

Do you sell the posters from the shows that you draw? If so, how can people purchase them?

It’s all in the shop on my website. There are prints of everything from the show, along with prints of a lot of my personal work and a couple of t-shirts I’ve designed. I’m trying to get more up on there, but it's just time consuming to get it all up since I’m a one man show.

What do you want to happen in 2017?

Well, I've spent a lot of time keeping my nose to the grindstone, producing stuff and working with people and trying to meet new people, so I'm hoping 2017 is where a lot of this stuff finally comes together and coalesces into something. A lot of people I know—who I want to do better and who I think deserve to do better—we all seem to finally be at the brink, and it’s just that one final shove over the edge and we’re there.

(Photo by Rick Kosick; Los Angeles, CA; 2016)

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