But you’ll live, and you might even be happier for it all.
Although We Kill You sounds like a temp agency for assassins, it’s anything but violent. In fact, their work springs from a combination of concern for the environment and a desire to make people’s lives a little more exciting. According to the WKY website, “The name comes from the expression ‘You Kill Me!’ used when something is really funny.” The project has gone from the pasting of whimsical paper monsters in assorted places in Toronto to merchandise that is making worldwide journeys. WKY monsters have been sighted on everything from walls and chairs to people and discarded computer monitors in downtown Toronto, and merchandise has been shipped as far away as Australia.
The Ghost is the founding member of We Kill You. The idea came to him when he was in bed watching television. “I started to draw six characters. I’m not sure why, but I just did!” He enlarged them until each one was the size of a sheet of paper. “Then one night I decided that I would go to a bridge near my house and glue all these monsters to a pillar under the bridge.” The Ghost didn’t know what wheat pasting was then, but remembered the recipe for the homemade flour-and-water goop from his childhood papier-mâché projects.
Over the next two years, The Ghost expanded his operation and explored the surfaces of walls and people’s throw-aways. As he added victims, he has also added partners. He’s the head of the operation, does the design work, and deals with people. The Bat goes pasting with him, The Bear “helps out,” and The Bunny (The Ghost’s girlfriend) helps paste and makes the one-of-a-kind items. The Sasquatch helps get the word out about WKY, and The Ghost says “he’s actually kind of famous in Canada.”
The WKY team is on a mission to promote recycling, amuse others, and maybe make a modest living, not just change the face of people’s junk. The Ghost says he’s “big on recycling, and not even a gum wrapper goes in the garbage on my watch!” So when he sees useable items in people’s garbage—like a chair or cabinet—he covers them in WKY monsters and puts them in highly-visible places, like a busy intersection. Sometimes people steal the items, but that just means they’re being reused and someone’s happy.
Even if that old chair covered with new monsters never ends up in someone’s living room, it might give someone a chuckle as it sits at a high-traffic, high-stress intersection. “As long as that piece of garbage has been reused to make one person laugh or smile or say ‘what the fuck,’ then that’s all that matters to me. There are too many people who walk around thinking life is a boring nine-to-five job. Well, I hope to brighten at least one second of those people’s day.” One person was inspired and “brightened”—on a recent covering event, a man in a business suit pitched in with the pasting.
We Kill You apparel monsters have gotten trips to Belgium, Australia, Viet Nam, 
“somewhere in India,” and a lot to the United Kingdom. So, as the WKY website says, it’s spreading like butter on a hot day. Even folks who would ordinarily be angered at having their properties pasted smile on the project. A few months after a ledge-pasting session, The Ghost got an email from someone who worked with city writers. It contained a forwarded email she had gotten from the local police. Someone had complained that WKY had pasted private property, and they were considering it a hate crime towards the people in the building. Fortunately the email recipient explained to the police what it was all about. “It was pretty stupid,” says The Ghost, “but at the same time funny. The best part of it all was the end of the original [forwarded] email from the building manager. It read, ‘Watch out, We Kill You is a new face in town!’”
If our luck holds out, we’re going to keep getting killed—and in bigger and better ways. The Ghost has already turned his garage into a studio, new tshirt designs are in the works, and an underwater creature will soon join the monster team. Gelaskins is coming out with two We Kill You iPod skins, and Nibus will soon be producing WKY sweaters. The Ghost also warns, “The pastes on walls are going to get larger and more witty as well, and I have some plans for some street sculptures, like ghosts coming out of signs…just keep your eyes peeled!”
The Ghost is also supportive of others who have ideas that inspire them, whether it’s wheat pasting or something else that feeds their spirits. “If you have a good idea and can execute it well, people will like it. I don’t think that what I do is something I could have sat down and said, ‘I wanna be a wheat paster, let me come up with a character.’ When that idea comes to you and you think it could make other people think, stick to it. Also, never be an ass to people. You never know who is going to help you in the future!” 
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September 19th, 2006 at 8:08 am
I like this guy
September 20th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Blown away by his work.
September 21st, 2006 at 10:00 am
I liked him, too. I’ve been looking around Denver for some monsters.
September 27th, 2006 at 8:11 am
loveit!
bigup!
September 27th, 2006 at 11:26 am
That’s awesome…I love seeing people doing interesting, meaningful, creative work like this. I wonder if Bob, Toro, and Nose know about WKY…