Modern Toss
Cartoons and caricatures are meant to gently nudge their subjects with a hint of irony or a tongue-in-cheek look at situations. Not Modern Toss - these guys go straight for the jugular.
The cult cartoons created by Mick Bunnage and Jon Link began life in 2004 as an adults-only, lo-fi comic book that crudely but hilariously depicts the banality of modern life.
There's Mr Tourette, the rubbish sign-writer who usually creates the most offensive version of what his clients want painted. Then there's Alan, a psychopathic scribble of a creature who spends his life destroying the parties his middle-class brother-in-law holds. Most famous are arguably the Home Clubbers, who feature every week in the Guardian Guide holding inane 4am post-club conversations with each other.
Having linked up with the prestigious ICA in the past and with a Channel 4 show under their belt, Modern Toss have now created a series of short films in association with Kickers entitled Random Bandits. From April 6th, three new cartoons will appear online here featuring amongst others Mackenzie Crook (The Office, Pirates of the Caribbean) who does one of the voices for Flytalk, a couple of celebrity-obsessed flies.
We caught up with creators Mick and Jon ahead of the launch of Random Bandits.
You used to work for a lad's mag back in the 90s. What made you leave all that and pursue Modern Toss full time?
We first started writing and drawing cartoons when we met up at Loaded magazine back in the mid 90’s. We were both part of the original team. It was like being in a rock band as everyone was drunk all day and used to eat out of bins and sleep under their desks like dogs.
One of the first things we did there was a cartoon strip about a psychotic 60’s style cockney crook called Villain. It didn’t have any jokes or plot in it and it unsettled a lot of readers. After that we sat down and had a bit of a re-think and came up with the much more popular ‘Office Pest’ - a long running cartoon strip dedicated to experimental violence in the work place. Looking back the germ for Modern Toss was right there. Like a nut planted in the ground that turned into a tree .
Your characters are pretty eclectic and often bizarre - do you identify with any of them at all?
All of them. Some days you feel a little bit ‘Barney’ other days you’re up for a full on ‘Alan’. The Modern Toss characters reflect our many moods. Most of them involve ham-fisted idiots shouting at each other so that’s probably our default mode.
Our current favourite is in our new comic. He’s called Pete Peters. He’s a man with delusions of grandeur who specialises in arrogant phone calls. We reckon he’s got legs, could even get a Hollywood film out of him. Maybe we should hold De Vito back for that one.
As well as your Random Bandits films, are you up to anything else at the moment?
We‘ve just created a new range of motivational plastic bags designed to help kick start the ailing British economy. The first design has the slogan ‘BUY MORE SHIT OR WE”RE ALL FUCKED’ written on it. We’re knocking ‘em out for a quid each to show we’re prepared to knuckle down and do our bit. They’re selling very well apparently and we’ll have a cotton version out shortly for the organic types.
More Modern Toss at www.moderntoss.com
We have a pair of tickets to the exclusive launch party of Kickers Present Random Bandits, featuring DJ sets from Hot Chip (Alexis Taylor), Foals and Team Megamix vs Work It, taking place at the Lock Tavern, Camden, on Wednesday 1st April.
To be in with a chance of winning the tickets email feedback@openmagazine.co.uk, by midnight tonight ( 31st March ) with the answer to the following question: Who is the voice of Modern Toss cartoon Flytalk? Please include your name, address and a contact telephone number. The winner will be chosen at random.
