Gus Fink’s Boogily Heads
06.07.08By Collin DavidI knew nothing of Gus Fink before I met him during 2008’s Toy Fair, but anytime I meet an artist as prolific as ‘Gus’ (nee Josh Fields), I can’t help but be inspired. Visions of quitting my job and replacing it with painting and drawing for weeks on end fill my head, and then I get in the car and go to work and another delicate layer peels off of my soul because student loans don’t pay for themselves.
What I encountered at in Gus Fink’s Toy Fair booth was row after row of small, bobble-headed figurines - bright, colorful, and occasionally creepy. While I’ve never been a big fan of the ‘cute ‘n’ creepy’ illustrative art movement that was popularized by Tim Burton, Jhonen Vasquez and Roman Dirge (and which has subsequently devoured the back pages of nearly every issue of Juxtapoz), I liked Gus Fink’s stuff. There was 
so much of it, and so much energy behind it, you could almost feel the freneticism, if ‘freneticism’ is in fact a word. If not, I’m sure that Gus Fink has freneticized it into being.
After the president of collectibles company Rocket USA saw Fink’s work, the rest was history. Rocket USA took Gus’ artwork and sculptures and transformed them into an army of ‘Boogily Heads’ - a wide array of small bobble-headed characters from all manner of the strange. Despite being mass-produced by Rocket USA, the figures retain a very handmade, DIY feel. In fact, I’d ignorantly assumed that Gus was creating, painting and casting all of these little guys himself when I’d met him at ToyFair. I must have looked quite the fool, but such is the illusion of the Boogily Heads - that even an experienced and self-appointed toy expert such as myself was taken in by the ruse. Fink is no stranger to clever ruses, though, given the various pseudonyms that he creates under.
Three series of Boogily Heads have been released thus far, with six figures per series, and a good deal of exclusive and limited figures in addition to these, including paint variants and limited ‘gold’ and ‘platinum’ painted figures offered as retailer incentives. Each figure is packaged in great little window boxes, replete with Fink’s artwork, and just to keep that trademark air of Fink mystery, each figure is 
packed in with a random mini-comic, backed with a small poster. The comic you get won’t necessarily match up with the figure you’ve bought, and you might even find a super-rare comic in there somewhere, detailing a character that hasn’t been made - yet. Check out our community for a full gallery of these little guys.
The aforementioned ‘Gold’ editions were produced in quantities of 500 each, and are repainted versions of Series 1’s Oinks, Series 2’s Paperbag, and Series 3’s Zuggs. Platinum versions of these three also exist in quantities of 250 each.
It should be no surprise that I really, really dig the robot Scantron from Series 3, not only for the rare combination of intentionally awkward organic forms comprising the robot, but because he’s painted in a radiant silver. We’ve entered art toy territory, and we’re not settling for dull, grey silver on these toys.
‘Creepiest’ goes to Series 1’s Milq, a squinty and scratchy devil-bull figure with a split skull. Perhaps it’s my affection for Hellboy and Mephisto and the surreal nature of demon imagery in general, but the doughy innocence of Milq has a real appeal. If I had to choose one figure for a ‘third favorite’ position, it would be Series 2’s Paperbag, which is exactly what it sounds like. It has a certain Rob Schrab feel to it, if only because Schrab uses brown paper and cardboard in many of his sculptural creations and figures. Maybe the real strength of this series is in quantity, displayed together, assembled in some unholy cute-union, living together in whatever passes for ‘harmony’ in their scratchy, spindly little universe.
It’s easy to write them off as ‘another cute and creepy thing’, but the variety of characters, forms and ideas together presents something a bit deeper than that. Take a look at Gus Fink’s collected stuff over at his site and draw your own conclusions about ‘depth’, but the guy knows what to do to sell art, and he’s livin’ the dream. My envy of this power is not small, and these Boogily Heads are pretty neat stuff.
Scantron now surveys my web-browsing, and Milq looks disdainfully down upon my paintings. Being included among the general displays in this mess is a position of honor indeed.
