PSYCHEDELVIS

Rebelvis, the fifties king of rock and roll has been stripped of his crown by refusing to fight in the Faraway War. (Rebelvis is so livid he burns his guitar on local tv!) The evil mayor Boss Crunk secretly puts Rebelvis to sleep. At rest in a secret place Rebelvis' hair begins to grow! Then one night his body disappears! Boss Crunk is in a frenzy! Turns out Rebelvis' old mentor Cap'n Whiz casts a sleepwalking spell and helps Rebelvis escape! What a sight it is when the sleeping and haggard troubadour sleepwalks the streets of Memfaux. He looks downright folkie! But Cap'n Whiz doesn't know how to undo the juju and awaken Rebelvis. So Rebelvis sleeps for years and he dreams of being a troubadour. By the time he is awakened by a crowing rooster, the world has changed - and he's a hippie! Rebelvis gets a new haircut and becomes Psychedelvis! In remembrance of those lost souls in the Faraway War (which still rages) Psychedelvis spells his name with an upside down peace symbol. The NEW king of rock and roll that exists in this psychedelic sixties world is in the BE ALL and END ALL of the artistic end game. The intellect of Dylan, the politics of Lennon, the fashion sense of Jones (either Brian or David), and the sleeping habits of Brian Wilson. Trained by the Guru, Psychedelvis karate chops the chords on his guitar to deal IMPACT with his enemies! He surfs his guitar in the dream world of the Hearafter. The rooster is all that can awaken him. Psychedelvis is a redneck Beatle, a "lover not a fighter", a sun king, and his fave color is BLUE.

GURU

He's Jesus with a shave! He teaches Kung Fu during the day and his favorite color is PURPLE! Guru plunks away at his old electric bass guitar (painted with an ETERNAL SMILE) - but all guitars are forbidden in Memfaux - so he's gotta be careful. He often makes the peace sign but says it means "Vote for Boss Crunk!". And don't forget the tiny tattoo cross on his back. He trains Psychedelvis in Karate and makes deep statements like "Yes, we can".

FLAG

A street wise capitalist brother who is all "SOUL'D OUT!" They call him "Flag" cause he showed up at a flag burning and got all sentimental. He saved the flag from being completely burned (intending to sell it) - now he wears it round his neck like a flipped out tie. There are constant ramifications for this act of individuality: Sometimes bricks and water hoses barely miss nailing Flag. He seems to be followed by noiseless & unseen hateful bunch! Flag has big plans to cash in on the revolution but no resources to pull it off. He is a faithful listener to Bang's! BROADCAST and his fave color is GREEN. Oh yeah, Flag has a pet rooster named Rosco! His rooster is the key to awaking Psychedelvis to the new world. Psychedelvis enlists Flag to play drums in his band. "Africa is my Mother and America is my daddy!"

BOSS CRUNK

It all started with that famous b/w photo of Rebelvis shaking hands with Boss Crunk - and then their relationship went south when Rebelvis refused to fight. Crunk has run politics in Memfaux for 40 years and he hates ALL color! Now resistance grows stronger to the Faraway War. "Rebelvis started it, now I'll end it! All guitars must be destroyed!"

With Rebelvis a king without a throne and lulled into a dream state, Boss Crunk takes over his mansion overlooking the bluff and turns it into southern headquarters for the Faraway War. There he recruits 'all colors' to fight, until finally there is no color left in Memfaux.

GUITARS AFLAME! (The newspaper shows mounds of burning guitars). He rules out music for sounds of cash registers, canned meat, and mechanization. What really happens to these disappearing people that get drafted? They are fed back into the machine that powers Memfaux! Boss Crunk unveils a massive colorless statue of his head in Town Square. Psychedelvis makes his first appearance in Memfaux by blowing right through the top. "He's flipped his lid!" Color spills everywhere, in every nook and granny! Psychedelvis has arrived! In fear, Boss Crunk now only appears as a TV image, a 'big brother' from then on. Where is the real Boss Crunk? You have to turn him on!

GROUPIE

Now hear this! Groupie is crazy and her fave color is ORANGE! Ten years ago Rebelvis signed Groupie's hand (for lack of paper) and she hasn't washed it since! She abides in the Memfaux Asylum, filled with other hysterical women that Rebelvis drove crazy years before. (It's a scientific study Boss Crunk is carrying on to show the dangers of rock and roll). Groupie looks forward to the day when the big breakout will occur, then she will find her 'pop sweetums' and wash her hands of him.

KEANKS

Four little midgets of Beatle persuasion who have incredibly large but SAD eyes (ala the big eyed paintings of Margaret Keane). Their names are Peter, Loring, Heinz, and Margret! At first Psychedelvis befriends them (because they are so cute!), patting them on the head as they run around like little elves. Then he discovers they are really mischievous little gremlins out to get him. Especially when they tie Psychedelvis down (ala Gulliver’s Travels). When Psychedelvis tries to stomp them with his heel, they always escape by becoming ladybugs. Finally Rosco eats them. Their favorite color is PINK.

THANG

When the characters or plot lines reach an impasse or when things can get no worse, THANG comes! THANG is foreshadowed by the sound of a locomotive. When THANG arrives it takes everything with it in a gust of tornado-like energy. Often displacing characters or entire scenes in a psychedelic 'one-two punch'. Ex: Psychedelvis and crew might be taken back to the Renaissance for 30 seconds, then back home again. Sometimes THANG makes items fall from the sky and land nearby (like giant ears you can crawl inside!). Any object is a clue to the plot; a word or a shape that figures in later. Eventually Psychedelvis notes that is the broken pieces of Boss Crunk's bust that is falling back down to Memfaux.

TESS PATTERN

The stern but curvaceous secretary of Boss Crunk. She dresses in GRAY and hates the new psychedelic sound. She wishes Psychedelvis would grease his hair back and return to the past. But she keeps these thoughts to herself as she seduces and recruits for the Faraway War.

"Welcome to the comic book underground town that Psychedelvis built up, and Priscillavis tore down."

PSYCHEDELVIS came to me on the (platform) heels of comic book characters Helvis and Rebelvis as a necessary component of how I understood Sixties rock and roll mythology from my own backyard. Since Elvis ruled that backyard, it became an intriguing puzzle as to how to fit the King of Rock and Roll into a musical decade that he, purportedly, almost missed. Now, I don't quite believe that at all, but I'm afraid that is the PERCEPTION.

PSYCHEDELVIS lived in my sketchbooks circa 90-'92 (and later in 2001, see FIXATION)- and made a cameo in my Fantagraphics Comics in 1993. In 1994, Hippie Mike (of Helium Grape) played PSYCHEDELVIS in my feature "DAMSELVIS, DAUGHTER OF HELVIS" (shot at the Lorraine Hotel, no less.)

In 2002, I saw PSYCHEDELVIS as a white-clad, greek god, so loved by his queen Priscillavis and killed by Rachel the Groupie in a live rock opera to be performed at the old Memphian Theatre where Elvis had attended movies in the Sixties and Seventies. I thought that a rock opera having to do with a "psychedelic Elvis" arising from the home front would be a fantastic thing to nurture and promote, and quite different from the same old stage tours from the East Coast that inundated our live theatres.

After making a handful of feature films with mostly local talent, now I wanted Bob Fosse types to come out of the woodwork. Midtown musicians Shelby Bryant (Cris Clarity) and Paul Woodard (Poli Sci Clone) staged an elaborate presentation for the powers that (still) be. But the response was tepid. The conclusion was there "wasn't enough talent in town to perform it." (This audition tape still exists).

In my last, great attempt to give the character a conceptual home, I studied (and lived) the great 'wavy gravy' art of the late sixties (Yellow Submarine, Stax LP covers, 'Chocks Vitamin' ads, and the most AMAZING drive-in intermission short film I have ever stumbled across, called simply, "Refreshment Time" (see ANIMATION on this page). If PSYCHEDELVIS could ever live as an animation, the "Refreshment Time" would be as major an influence in tone and potential chaotic style as "Yellow Submarine" or "Fantastic Planet".

As Poli Sci Clone and I had continued to collaborate on a sound that would constitute the core of PSYCHEDELVIS, yet have nothing to do with Elvis music in general, a series of promo spots were produced at Scott Taylor's home studio. We took samples of Poli Sci Clone music and interspersed with movie trailer hyperbole with whoever might have dropped in. Click on VIBRATIONS #1-3 to hear these whacked out promos. Shelby Bryant also re-created the score to the "Refreshment Time" animation (VIBRATION #4)

How does Elvis figure into this? Not as the real person at all. Rather in the things he did, and the things he did not do. The things we meant to do. Perhaps even if we are very lucky, Psychedelvis is the thing he wishes he had done.

PSYCHEDELVIS could be the animated feature that Elvis never did. It could have been released in 1968, the same year as The Beatles "Yellow Submarine".

Therefore, "'68 Comeback Meets Yellow Submarine."