Smokers are treated like lepers, so I like bugging people with my smoking toys

Frank Kozik once said he didn't want to be regarded as an artist. It's ironic, then, that the Spanish-born maverick not only became a maestro of his craft, but - as creator of some of the world's most collectable vinyl toys - is now cooler than the 'berg that sank the
Titanic. If you've seen any US band flyers from the 1990s you'll probably know Kozik's work, as he designed posters for Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the Beastie Boys and many others. Here, the chain-smoking coffee addict opens his world to Bizarre.

Where and how were you raised?

I grew up in Spain under Franco. It was a very time-warped childhood.

Were you a rebel?

I came to the US when I was 15, and sort of just became an adult. I did have a couple of years of petty crime as a teenager, but nothing violent.

As you joined the Air Force, art evidently wasn't your first career of choice. Why did you join up?

It was either go into the military or go to jail for a while - easy choice. It was good. The military gave me tools to use my potential.

How did you kickstart a life in art?

I wanted to be in a punk band in the 1980s, but I sucked. So I did posters instead. I wanted to be a cartoonist, but didn't have the ability to draw or write. But I could paste up a decent flyer.

Retro-cartoons, religion, military, political propaganda and pornography are all recurring themes in your early poster work. Do these themes reflect your personality, or were they the things
you found most visually appealing at the time?

What I drew was a mixture of stuff I collected at the time, or things that were somehow 'cool' in relation to the scene or culture the bands were into. Later, I started doing 'anti' posters - stuff that was 'really uncool'. That worked as well.

For every halo-wearing innocent in your work there was usually a knife-wielding devil kid. Did this reflect your troubled upbringing?

There isn't a lot of my childhood or personal self involved in my artwork. It's its own thing. For example, there's none of my own work in my house - I don't keep an archive. I make stuff, disperse it, and then make different stuff. I'm more interested in it as a long-term 'one giant piece' rather than anything else.

Have your influences changed?

They change constantly. I've been spending time in Asia, so my focus has moved away from European and American 'pop' to the weird Asian version of it. The stuff I do now is bland, colourful and just a little off. There's no anger. I'm just having a good time.

There are moments, though, when confrontational elements have appeared in your work - like the Hitler kitsch stuff in your last UK exhibition.

That was just more about being entirely opposite. The gallery was a very 'leftie' spot, and the show was on May Day [international workers' day], so I wanted to do the most unexpected possible thing in that context.

Your vinyl toys are hugely popular. When did you first become aware of the material, and how did you get involved in the scene?

Around 1997. I got obsessed with the early stuff, and it turned out one of the innovators in Japan, BxH, was into my posters, so we hooked up and my first vinyl was released in 2000. I have more than 200 different toy releases that have either been released or are currently being made.

What's the story behind Dr Bomb?

He's a slightly crazed and burnt-out field surgeon on the Eastern Front in the Second World War, who tends to live on rage and sniffing ether. He got his duelling scars in Heidelberg and is involved in a plot to kill Hitler. He likes ice cream.

Why is smoking a recurrent aspect of your work?

In the US, smokers are the new lepers, and since I smoke this is my way to bug everyone via my toys. The Mongers were created to capitalise on the success of my Smokin' Labbit character.

Describe a typical day in the life of Frank Kozik.

I get up, fuck around, ride my motorcycle to the studio, get on the internet, sell some stuff, work on designs, hang out with my girlfriend... then the next day I might fly to Tokyo, have meetings, do an event... then a few days later I'm back at the studio. It's a mixture of normal days combined with weird travels. I'm very unsocial. I spend my free time riding my motorcycles. It's not a glamorous lifestyle, but it's a happy one. And I'm lucky to have a cool girlfriend who's as weird and antisocial as I am. It's a good life.

Kozik says to keep watch for his new website, Frankkozik.net, in 2007