Please welcome Toeken, long-time collaborator and artist of “The Sons of Victor Levitak” and “Unblooded Gospel” in The Future Fire #74, for this week’s installment of our microinterview series.
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| Art © 2025 Toeken |
TFF: What was the image that really stuck with you from “The Sons of Victor Levitak”?
Toeken: This is kind of funny in a way; after reading and re-reading Rowley Amato’s superb tale I started getting visuals involving what I can only describe as a disgruntled bowl of stew. At one point I spent so much time painting hunks of meat, potatoes and lentils that I thought the whole piece would be just that; a painting of an angry meal glowering back at you. Amato’s story was a beautiful haunting piece that was a real education for me for me as I went about researching the visual cues I wanted.
TFF: How did you go about illustrating “Unblooded Gospel”?
Toeken: As is usual for me this started out as a much more abstract response to Justin Taroli’s fascinating text, which in turn then morphed into a series of disparate sketches and drawings that were of a multitude of images, hospital tiles, the color schemes of Mount Sinai hospital, wearable archictecture, rib cages, dirty bandages and scan codes. Was a real treat to compose and arrange, and a challenge to edit out the things that I thought might give the game away in the narrative.
TFF: What is the most “punk” thing you've ever done or made?
Toeken: Not sure if it qualifies as “punk,” but I can recall quite clearly a Sunday afternoon dog rescue back in 2011. A little mutt owned by some neighbours had disappeared down an uncovered bolt hole while they were out walking near the mountains. Had a few drinks in me and thought “Why not?” With help from some friends I roped up and went down after the little fellow. What I thought was a ten meter vertical shaft turned out to be close to forty meters. After hooking up the dog (a miracle the poor animal was still alive given the depth he’d bounced down) to the ropes I had to wait a good fifteen minutes before being hoisted back out. I’m claustrophobic. That was one of the longest waits I’ve ever experienced and for years afterwards I would wake up in the night sweating and panicking about the whole thing. Dog was a-okay though!
TFF: What's the most unusual or challenging medium you can imagine working with?
Toeken: I’d like to try screwing up an ice sculpture or two.
TFF: Can you tell us about an artist whose work you're particularly enjoying at the moment?
Toeken: The sculpting duo of Liquette-Gorbach, Sarah Ross-Thompson’s prints and the photography of Phil Penman. All fantastic, inspiring stuff.
TFF: What else are you working on now?
Toeken: I’m working with Gavin Chappell on the late Gregory H.Bryant’s Caves of Mars books, David Blalock on a ParAbnormal Magazine project and finishing up the first issue of Phil Emery’s Hammek graphic novel project.
Reminder: You can comment on any of the writing or art in this issue at http://press.futurefire.net/2025/09/new-issue-202574.html.
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