Talking About Rose Vampire With Josh Herbolsheimer

One of the advantages of living in San Francisco is the proximity to good toy stores and great toy artists. Earlier this week, I swung by Super7 to chat with Josh Herbolsheimer, creator of the needs-no-intro Rose Vampire. We talked about life and art and toys and Rose Vampire, with Super-7 president Glenn Pogue adding in his 2 cents every now and then. You might care about our conversation, or you might just want to know that Josh opened up two Rose Vampires and did an original RV sketch inside the header cards. These special RVs will be randomly sent out to two lucky customers who purchase the Yellow Rose Vampire from Neon Monster this Saturday after 11AM. While you wait, check out this interview. Don’t miss the little video of How To Draw Rose Vampire!

JB: What is Rose Vampire’s story?

Josh: It’s not a story in a concrete way. It has a concept. Rose Vampire is a creature born out of the earth as a retaliation (or tool) to fight against the earth being spoiled (or plundered) by industry–which we all do. The irony, of course, is the toxic vinyl. That takes a note from Hedorah, the smog monster. I love collecting these types of toys and the concept of this monster of pollution that’s made out of pollution. Rose Vampire is the same way. It has a similar message.

JB: Are there other characters who fit into the Rose Vampire universe?

Josh: I guess most of what I do, as far as my art stuff goes, kind of comes from a similar line of thinking. For instance, Earth Wolf or Earth Core. I wouldn’t necessarily imagine them and Rose Vampire hanging out or being in the same settings, but they come from a similar place and that’s as far as my thinking goes.

JB: What inspired you when you designed Rose Vampire?

Josh: In terms of the inspirations, I didn’t have anything terribly specific. There’s a few things that have certainly played a role. There’s a leaf monster [Plant Man, above left] from an old Japanese TV show. His arms and feet are made of leaves. There’s Hedorah, the smog monster, but that’s more of a conceptual inspiration than a visual or design influence. Then of course, classic monsters like Dracula. Dracula is a classic horror icon.

JB: On the subject of Dracula, is there any goth music that played into this?

Josh: That was really never my scene musically. I didn’t really hang out with any folks who exposed me to that stuff.

Glenn: But he’s always reading those Twilight books.

Josh: Not true, although I did read all the Harry Potter books. Not embarrassed to say. There’s probably lots of loose inspirations that played in subconciously that I’m blanking on. Really I’ve been obsessed with and collecting toys my entire life, and they’re always sort of at the back of my mind…

JB: Let’s have an interlude while Josh shows you how to draw Rose Vampire. [This is one of the two headers he illustrated for the release of the Yellow Rose Vampires.]

JB: OK back to the third degree! At your Weird Earth show, you had framed sets of four character drawings. Are there any plans to make more 3D characters?

Josh: Because I’ve been a lifelong toy nerd, I’m always thinking about toys: stuff that I’m interested in by other people or stuff I fantasize about making (realistic or not). I draw little doodles of what one character or other might look like as a toy, or maybe I’ll draw vehicles or playsets. Whether any of that is actually going to come to be as an actual thing, who knows.

JB: What was the timeline of Rose Vampire from idea to me holding this figure right now?

Josh: The Monster Family was a line of toys that Brian (Flynn) had been toying around with in various incarnations for quite a while. The original concept goes back about three years to when we were calling it Monster Factory. When Super7 got serious about getting on track and making this line, Brian invited me to pitch some designs, and we talked about the strengths and weaknesses and possibilities. From there, we settled on this character and went through some changes. The tweaks were more design-oriented and what was or wasn’t possible with production. It helped me distill it down into one idea that would work for the toy.

JB: I just connected that the Escaregoruge character is yours.

Josh: I did the Escarego head for Brian’s Snakes of Infinity Zombie. The snail head went through more iterations than the Rose Vampire. I pitched a lot more versions.

JB: The Rose Vampire toy has really crossed over and seems to be one of the most popular Monster Family figures. How do you feel about creating a toy that’s successful beyond male toy nerds?

Josh: It feels nice. It’s satisfying for sure. It’s also a little strange because I didn’t expect that to happen.

JB: A reader posted on our blog asking about Super7 edition sizes and releases. He wanted to know why there can’t be another run of the initial Rose Vampire figure?

Glenn: Businesswise, everybody who has done it has failed. Their brands have fallen apart in six months. It breaks a trust. You’re selling collectibles. It’s not a printing press. People who bought the first Rose were paying attention to Super7 for a long time. Why not let them have something great? That’s the business point of view. Josh can speak to it as an artist.

Josh: That has been the history in this particular niche. When that’s happened [re-releasing figures], it’s played out as a negative. From my point of view personally, it’s more interesting for me to go forwards than backwards. On the one hand, if there’s other people out there who want to have that figure and can’t get it, I can sympathize, being a collector myself.  And at some point, we may make something in the future that’s loosely close to those colors or hits similar notes. But I wouldn’t wan to redo something we’ve already done. You can make another toy or make this toy in a different color. For instance, the green one has already been done, so why go back to the green one?

JB: Ummm…You can always go back to a green one! How many Rose Vampires have there been so far?

Josh: This yellow one, green, red, blue, pink, glitter…There’s been 6 painted ones and the black unpainted version for the fanclub and the white we did for Comic-Con. That makes 8 all together.

JB: Are there any more Roses coming up?

Glenn: There’s the yellow one coming up on Saturday, and one for Comic-Con. There’s nothing in between. We’re waiting on the next sketch from our genius boy here.

JB: So there will be another toy?

Josh: Potentially. Brian and Glenn have been nice enough to invite me to submit designs for something else, so as soon as I’m happy with something I want to submit, I will. If they’re into it as well, then we’ll go forward, and if not, I’ll go back to the drawing board.

Customized Rose Vampires by Le Merde and Dril One

JB: Besides Smog Monsters, what else do you collect?

Josh: The last few years, I’ve been getting pretty deep into just the old and some current vinyl stuff. Lately I’ve been collecting a lot of old weird obscure Japanese monster stuff; sort of based more on the straight character design than what the show or the story was. There’s a lot of really strange villains from different shows like Kamen Rider and what not, just really really weird characters–and that interests me quite a bit. I get into things that are unusual, whether it’s just some toy line I’ve never heard of or a style I haven’t seen. I started collecting bootleg Skeletors over the last couple years. Before all of this, I collected Star Wars toys and Transformers. I still have bins and bins full of old He-Mans and Thundercats at my parents house.

JB: Your parents didn’t throw them away?

Josh: No but they’re anxious to, though, they can’t wait to.

JB: What do you do when you’re not drawing and collecting toys?

Josh: This stuff has been keeping me busy lately, so I haven’t been doing a whole lot else. I do like to ride my bike, go hiking, be outside, get out of the city, go camping, that sort of thing. I still have my old Nintendo; I play a lot of that.

JB: Do you see your toys, specifically Rose Vampire, as fitting in more with He-Man and Transformers (ie. toys) or are they art?

Josh: That’s always the weird tricky one. I consider toys as toys and art as art for the most part. At the same time, artistry goes into making toys whether its something mass produced or limited edition. I think that there probably is a distinction between toys and art, but where that distinction is doesn’t really interest me all that much.

JB: If you draw Rose Vampire on a saw, is that art?

Josh: In some ways it is, and then that gets into the line of what is art and what is product. I think to some extent I would say both are art and both are products at the same time. The way I set my own collection up, I think of them as outside of the realms of where they originated. They’re a bunch of strange things hanging out together as opposed to “this is the section for the warriors of eternity”. It’s just like…these are all the strange characters that I want to have around.

Well, if Rose Vampire is a strange character YOU’D like to have around, the figures will be on sale in the Neon Monster shop after 11AM on Saturday. Remember, Josh has done a drawing on the inside of two Yellow Rose Vampire header cards. These will be packed at random. Good luck!