A Conversation with
Erik Von Gorr

What monsters are in your product line?
I started doing the silent movie monsters like the 1920 silent version of Frankenstein because nobody has made them. They weren't available.

You make them by hand?
They're supposed to be action figures and are completely manufactured by me out of plastic and are mass produced from molds after I sculpt an original prototype. I sew all the clothes, costumes and things. I do that by finding patterns of old doll cloths or I buy old dolls and take apart the outfit and make a pattern. That's it.

How long have you been doing this?
For two years, and I have to say that it has all come full circle. I'm sitting in my room with a sewing machine and strange vials of liquids and there are body parts all over the floor and I'm on the phone and I have a list that says "Call Fiends" and "Call Zombo" and all of these people with monster names. Then when I go to meet one of the guys to sell him stuff he has two vampire women at his side with fangs and he is working out the deal sitting there in a lab coat. It's like I started making these monster toys and now all my friends are monsters - it's become monster world.

Your given last name is Gorr. Do you think that has influenced you in becoming who you are?
It could be destiny or a self fulfilling prophecy, everyone in my family has had that last name but none of them are like me. The name is good for business. Some people think it is made up but its not, and it sticks with them, which is good.

If one day your monsters came to life, what would you do?
I'd get out my superheroes and see who would win. In my life I have never been afraid of the monsters. The true monster of any monster movie, with the exception of Dracula, is people. It's mobs, it's you and me. Frankenstein was Frankenstein because he was different. He wasn't like the rest so they came to kill him. That's the issue. The reason monsters are scary is because what could be more horrifying than not fitting in? Look at Frankenstein. He'll never be popular. He doesn't wear the right clothes. You'll never take him home to your family. That's the real horror.

What would you say to someone who would say, "You're almost 30 and you're playing with toys?"
I don't drink. I don't do drugs. Sometimes when I meet someone and they offer me a drink I tell them I don't drink, and they either say something guilty like, "I really shouldn't either," or "We'll have to change that. I don't trust a man that doesn't drink." I should say, "You can't trust a man who doesn't play with toys. What is he afraid of?" It's the most natural thing to do. Imagination is something that is suffering these days.

Who are the real-life monsters?
Land developers. That is something that really bugs me. It's that whole Monroeville thing - strip malls and that whole homogenization.