We Are Here To Destroy Our Life, Your Life, And Their Life: Interview With Destroy You Co

With a name like DESTROY YOU CO and collective visuals that both delights and scraps at your mindseye, I had to track the guys down for a wee bit of Q&A, with the answers coming furious from MCA and Ryan Maguire ~ both co-founders of DYCO, along with images to tantalize your collective acquired tastes! And if you missed the earlier posted TOYSREVIL blog-birthday sketch? Then you might well have missed a good thing. And frankly, good things are hard to come by these days, IMHO ... Meanwhile…

TOYSREVIL: The write-up says "DestroyYouCo is a working studio of artists; MCA of Evil Design, Ryan Maguire, Godzeero, MAGMO The Destroyer, Sam F. Chuunk, © OMG AM, D.P.F. and Sumo Santos." - please describe yourselves individually, and what you are about.

DYCO: Hello hello Toysrevil, yes... Ok, I will start, I am known as MCA of Evil Design, some of your readers may know me because of my Evil Ape figures & Qees I have made with Toy2R as well as some other fun toys I have done with companies like Jamungo, Circus Punks, and Kid Robot. As far as describing myself, I dunno it's always weird - but I guess I'll say I really enjoy drawing & making folks laugh with my goofy characters. As far as what I'm into... Umm, I really like making a nice pizza pie. I met Ryan in Boston, at the time, he was working on Magmo The Destroyer, a kinda social superhero who likes to destroy bad things, and teaching art in college. Since then we have worked together on all sorts of projects. Godzeero & Sumo are friends, who have worked with Evil Design over the years, so it only made sense to have them join in with Ryan and myself for our Destroy You Co vision.


If I had to describe Godzeero, I would have to say that he is more of the spazz out style in art and personality. He has a severe addiction to the world wide interweb and all the wonder it possess - have you seen his collages, Internet in effect. Our other close friends, D.P.F. and Sam Chuunk, are some funny characters to work with. Sumo has been around for a bit, probably best know for his Vampire girl series of prints & t-shirts. He has a nice way of combining hand drawn elements w/photographic & graphic elements. I guess no matter how different our styles are - we all see the world in the same destroy way. We have always felt that the Wu-Tang model works best when you gather the minds of many on any new new project. Everyone at Destroy You Co is in it together for one common goal: We think. We make. We destroy you co. Like a bloody nosed man once said "Keep on livin' in the red".


[The Wolf Man by GODZEERO]
TOYSREVIL: So what the heck are you guys doing together as DestroyYouCo? Is is an all-guy line-up? Why no girls?

DYCO: Well, MCA is taken and I’m divorced, so I guess there is plenty of room for girls... (Wait a minute that was Sam - He doesn’t know WTF he is talking about). This is Ryan, co-founder of DYCO, yea MCA and I have been working together since 2001, when we met at the rock poster show at Paradise in Boston. First and foremost, Destroy You Co is a working art and illustration studio. Destroy You Co is visual and conceptual. We like doing gallery shows, private works (commissions), commercial illustration, political cartoons, animated shorts, power stones and wooden crystals.  We’ve been friends and working professionally for the past ten years, one likes Evil the other likes Destroy, together, we are Destroy You Co.


Together, We’ve done all sorts of projects over the years; Destroy You, NYC at the Orchard Street Gallery (2004), GUM Magazine Release Party, LA (2004), and Destroy You, Boston (2008). We had talked about doing our own thing for a long time - in since the Internet tells us that the world is gonna end in 2012 - this was the year, Year of Attack! As for Girls - always welcomed. And of course we dig and respect the work of women in the art world, maybe soon a woman may work with us, a dynamite dynamic that makes the stew taste even better. Speaking of girls - OMG AM wanted to know if Toysrevil has ever seen a Sweet Black Moon Rabbit?


TOYSREVIL: Now that I have, my world-view has forever been altered because of OMG AM! LOL ~ What Is DestroyYouCo? (What are you trying to "destroy"?).

DYCO: I’ll have to answer in the words of Johnny Strabler  "Whaddya got?" But, if you want a more specific answer, We are here to destroy our life, your life, and their life. Think that covers it. Now is the time. We are not afraid.

TOYSREVIL: Fear DYCO. Embrace DYCO. Why do you think peeps will love DYCO? Do you think TOYSREVIL-readers will like DYCO?

DYCO: Ha, Love is such a strong word don't ya think? I think I read once in an interview where Bob Dylan said there is nothing more sweet in the world than love and next to that the sweetest thing is hate. We hope all enjoys the work. What you see on the site is how we think, it’s how we see our world, it’s what we make. I’m sure not everyone will like our work, we gotta pretty funny bunch here (maybe not so funny to some) “The last time we saw humor this dark is when I crapped my pants” ...oops That’s a quote that OMG AM slipped in here. he’s a definite wise ass).


We know that Toysrevil readers appreciate good character design, and hope you guys dig what you see, because much of what we think and draw is character based and story driven. Just ask "Choke Man" ... on second thought , that would not be wise. Ahh yes, we want to play and party with toys and friends, new and old. Destroy You Co Toys sounds’ good to us. All we know is that DYCO makes ideas and responds to our world with visuals. Love or hate? - that’s your choice.


[Toy-Character Concepts from DYCO]

[SSS to be in a Red dress for the TOYSREVIL-exclusive edition
when production happens, without exception please ~ thanks]
TOYSREVIL: What does DYCO has, that nobody else has? What be that magic-mojo which makes DYCO-tick?

DYCO: I dunno, that's kind of a question that others may have to answer - right? We do have the magic spirit connection if that is what your referring to. The spirit world is all around us, of course, and by channeling these spirits into Destroy You Co  WZRDPWRSTNS and Wooden Spirit Crystals, the power can be seen and felt with eyes and soul. Choose and we choose too, you. Yes indeed, don't take DYCO lightly or you may suddenly feel it heavy on your head one day.


[Above visual by Sam Chuunk]
TOYSREVIL: Never "lightly", no … What do you folks intend to do to the world? What are your currently plans of world domination?

DYCO: As far as world domination, I don't think we are trying to dominate in a Mistress Katya Von Calder type of way. Though, Sam does have heart made of blackness and leather. Destroy You Co exists in the year 2011 because of all the incredible people, from real life and over the world wide suck whole, that we have had the fortunate opportunity to meet and work with over the many years. We have always liked how John Waters defines success, "True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks." Destroy You Co wants to enjoy the entire world as much as we can. 


We recently released our first Destroy You Goal Chart, Year of Attack> reusable dream calender.  MNWKA will be releasing a shirt designed by Godzeero, late spring. This spring Ryan will be traveling to San Francisco, with Hartford Art School MFA Program, to visit the Pixar Studios. Choke Man, The Dumb Police and The One, three short films written and animated  by Ryan, have been submitted to a few national film festivals, check them out here on http://www.youtube.com/user/DestroyYouCo.

The next project on Sumo’s plate is a collaboration with photographer Ronnie Hiromi - should be nice, with some exclusive images done just for DYCO. DPF has been busy recomposing the beautiful people, As Seen On TV. MCA & JK5 have been working on a new project called MAJK and be on the look-out for a collab with mad man Tony Stamolis - good stuff.



TOYSREVIL: What can folks and new-found friends have to look forward to DYCO? What does 2011 entail?

DYCO: The 2011 Lunar New Year (Rabbit), is the beginning of DYCO, our first year of Attack. We will make as many interesting visuals as possible, drawings, toys and movies. We look forward to meeting new people that may relate to our work in a positive way and share happiness with their spirits. The year is young and will grow strong. We will continue to make drawings and original artwork, available at the DYCO online shops http://destroyyouco.bigcartel.com/ and http://www.etsy.com/shop/destroyyouco. The stars are aligned to attend NYCC this year. Burn bright.


We have been working on a few new gallery show proposals and will be launching our first online gallery show, The Tum Tums, which opens February 14th on our tumblr site @ http://destroyyouco.tumblr.com/. Each drawing in the show was inspired by our totally awesome tumblr followers. The tumblr screen names bugged our minds out and couldn't help but be inspired by such word creativity. The show will be strictly online & will kick off on Feb. 14th and last one moth. We'll show six pieces on the opening day and then we will post one new drawing every day for the rest of the month. The Tum Tums are coming.

TOYSREVIL: My eyes are sore and I am liking it ... In closing, let's go all cheery and welcome worldwide-hugs ~ what have you guys got to say to the TOYSREVIL-readers, and to the world?

DYCO: Destroy You Co just thanks Toyrevil and all of your readers for taking the time to learn about us and our vision as artists - that's awesome. We appreciate your support. Feel free to contact us, we always love hearing from people, their pets, and the spirits. Put your hand to the ground, the power you feel is the energy of Destroy You Co. We feel you.


[Above visual by D.P.F.]

http://www.destroyyou.co / Flickr / Facebook