KEY POINTS:
Inspired by his love of 1920s and 1930s sci-fi, the conceptual designer got the unit into the raygun business. The collectable, full-scale and hefty likes of the Goliathon ("Some say its ambient radiations increase the manhood") and Manmelters ("Tired of waking up to miscreant Martian meanderings on your
estate?") have been selling across the planet. But while these steampunk zappers had no movie other than the one in Broadmore's imagination to spring from, now there's a book - Doctor Grordbort's Contranpulatronic Dingus Directory. It's part catalogue of fiendish gadgetry, part illustrated adventure of the trigger-happy Lord Cockswain cutting a swathe through the wildlife of the Planet Venus. It's hilarious in a Jules Verne meets Monty Python kind of way.
You've got a book. How did that happen?
I started moving my hand around, applying my pen to the paper and these squiggly marks came out and three or so months later, presto!
And then someone ran in with the stapler?
Some stapling, some spell-checking.
What came first - you've been making the rayguns for a while now. Was this the back story to the rayguns?
Yeah, it was. I've always loved 1920s/1930s sci-fi and earlier - Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and things. Particularly when it really got influenced by rocketry and Flash Gordon left a huge impression on me. I always had rayguns in my head as this iconic beautiful imagery even though I grew up with Star Wars. And the spaceships of that time as well - there is something retarded about them but they are just beautiful. I just started drawing these rayguns for myself and at the time we were coming off the back of Kong and Richard [Taylor] was saying: "What can we do that is original that we can put out to the world in terms of merchandising or collectables or art or whatever. And I said why don't we do these rayguns? Just make them as toys but make them feel real make them metal and glass and have them in a case really play up the backstory and the feel of it. Amazingly enough he just went for it. It sort of made sense to define the fiction behind it - as I got into designing these rayguns and illustrating them I started naming them and thinking about the inventor and the manufacturer and the pseudo science behind it all. And Richard said you should do a comic of it ... yeah, of course!
There's a very Goodies-Monty Python sense of humour to the book.
Monty Python was huge influence on me as a kid.
And the designs are a mix of a whole bunch of things - art deco, art nouveau?
That really came from the 1920s/1930s style which I had been playing up more and more and the crossover between nouveau and deco - when you blend them you get some interesting things. The architecture and design of that era is always really appealing and you see it in the sci-fi of that time.
Though, things in the book like the Trentington Terrestrial Terror Tike, apart from the gun on it, I'm pretty sure there was one in our woodwork class at school?
There might be a couple of bits of machinery in there that might have been photoshopped in. It might be partly built from a lathe. Dave Tremont the man who built all our rayguns, he is the lead modelmaker at the workshop and a genius at the most intricate stuff. his workshop is full of all kinds of machinery, so when I was starting to make the book I went downstairs and photographed anything retro-mechanical in the workshop and we used a lot of those for inspiration.
The Dauk and Duebb Dephagmotiser looks like a floor sander to me.
There may be something in there. I can't actually remember.
The rayguns are pretty pricey [$1000-plus] objects. Surprised people are buying them?
Yeah, surprised but at the same time it totally makes sense. They are beautiful and I'm really happy at the way they came out. They feel substantial and real. I'm a bit of a nut and I spend a lot of money on replicas of old firearms and those are always diecast or metal and they feel like they could work if you had the ammunition and that was very much the idea. Consequently they are very expensive to make and although they are art and they are very limited, ultimately they are just very expensive toys. I defy anybody who buys one not to want to run around the house with it. Every time I pick one up it's shameful, I'm strutting around like I own the joint and I am going to shoot someone with it.
So what should an interplanetary explorer look for in a good raygun?
Well it's not so much ergonomic. The ability to burn a hole the size of an elephant in less than a second. Russell Baillie
Doctor Grordbort's Contranpulatronic Dingus Directory (Random House, $25) More info: www.wetaworkshop.co.nz
