Scenes From The Landfill: An Interview with Tony Quera
In this interview, we speak with Tony Quera, the Staten Island-based illustrator behind Garbage Dump and Scenes From The Landfill. A lifelong New Yorker, Quera has spent the past decade building a world where surreal characters—often part-object, part-animal, part-human—navigate everyday life in a place called The Landfill. Drawing inspiration from early webcomics, video games, and city life, his work combines humor, introspection, and a unique design language that challenges traditional ideas of what characters—and stories—can look like. Quera shares how Garbage Dump came to life and what it means to create personal art, even if it means pushing back against the algorithm.
Tell us a little about yourself — what’s your story, and how did illustration become part of it?
Been in NYC my whole life, with most of those years being in Staten Island. Art has been something that has just always been a part of my life. Even as I've gotten older and made a career outside of art, it still finds a way to exist around my life. As a kid, I would try to draw in the style of things I loved, like Pokemon, Mega Man, and Kingdom Hearts. I've found inspiration from video games, TV, and film to focus on narratives as well, but early indie webcomics were a big inspiration for me in junior high school. I would wait up til midnight for the next drop on some daily webcomics. I loved the universes they created in just 4 panels.
Your style often brings inanimate objects and animal-like characters to life — what inspired that creative direction?
Honestly just found it more fun to draw things that weren't 100% human. A lot of my big comic work during college were human characters, while my sketch books would have what I felt were more creative character designs. The switch happened around 10 years ago, my senior year, when I created the Garbage Dump branding. The last comic I made in college, Extraordinary, kind of saw an inkling of that change, but was still pretty human oriented since that was a comic making fun of "alpha male" super heroes. Going with the way I design characters now, I wanted each character to be unique compared to one another in the same way people are. With 195 characters, theres going to be similarities that keep them connected, but each one has their own story.
What inspired your Garbage Dump series? How did that concept come to life?
Coming up with the Garbage Dump was 3 parts coming together. One part self deprecating, one part a reference to Staten Island once being the landfill for the city, and one part a sort of "one person's trash is another's treasure" mentality. At first it was just a branding, but as I explored creating different characters and lore, it became a universe. So now Garbage Dump is the idea, while The Landfill is the place the characters live.
Your work often places surreal characters in everyday settings — what draws you to that contrast?
Its about making these characters feel real to the viewer. The environment and the location of The Landfill is a character in the story itself. So many of the scenes from Scenes from the Landfill are purposely nothing special. They're pretty much locations or interactions you'd find typical from living in any city. If the viewer is not able to visually connect with a character, the hope is that their actions and the scenery are relatable enough to make that connection.
What were some of your favorite cartoons growing up, and what animation are you currently a superfan of?
A Goofy Movie, Ed Edd n Eddy, Dragon Ball Z, Mega Man (both the Ruby Spears and NT Warrior). There's so many to count. Can't say I'm a superfan of any animation right now, but I absolutely loved limited series like 2018's Devilman Crybaby, Cyperpunk Edgerunners, and Pluto. I just haven't been keeping up with a lot of seasonal animation as much in the streaming age.
Where do you find inspiration in your day-to-day life or surroundings?
Seeing different types of fashion and clothing that catch my interest inspire the styles some of the characters have, but in general most every day things inspire the process.
Can you walk us through your process — from sketch or idea to final piece?
At least with designing Garbage Dump characters specifically, theres a whole background lore that involves 15 "elements" and making each element equal in terms of number of characters representing each element. So when creating characters, I started looking at what was missing from each group, and how to represent that in different ways. For example, Fire is one of the 15, but not everyone in the Fire group is simply a character with fire on their head. There's definitely some stretching of the definition for some groups but its been fun challenging myself in that way.
When it comes to the story process of The Landfill, it’s the culmination of 10 years of projects/stories I had started but never finished. Every little thing has influenced the story I ultimately want to tell while showing love to the things I never got to create.
How has your style or approach evolved over time?
There was an early point after college where I was doing a lot of fanart related things, and while a lot of those were because I wanted to do it, I started to feel stuck in this hole where I was creating things for social media instead of just the things I wanted to, which was my own personal stuff regardless of if it were as popular or not. My style evolved by me saying I didn't want to just keep drawing default humans in the same default outfits. So I would push myself to explore different styles of fashion, different hairstyles, different forms. I came to terms with my art's place in the world and decided I wanted to just make the things I wanted to see exist regardless of how long it took to make it real. That's removed a lot of the pressure off of creating art and has gotten me back to enjoying the ride.
What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects, shows, or collaborations we should look out for?
Currently working on a second artbook, plus a graphic novel, The Landfill. You can check out my first artbook, Scenes From The Landfill, on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/scenesfromthelandfill
I'm also a part of SaveArtSpace's 10th Anniversary show on May 30th from 6-9PM at the Satellite Gallery on 279 Broome St, so if you're in the city that night, come check that out for a ton of great artists.
Anything else you’d like to share with our community?
Don't depend on AI to create the things you want to see in the world. Who cares if you suck at first, it'll mean a lot more to you if you value the time and work you put into your craft. Don't look at art as just a product or content. Let it mean something to you.
To see more of Tony’s work, follow him here and on Instagram:
ArtStation | Instagram
Jahtiek Long is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, community organizer, and co-founder of the Shaolin Art Party. He loves photographing the island and playing the ukulele. Jahtiek is passionate about shifting the narrative surrounding Staten Island and showcasing the vibrancy of the borough. He’s also really excited about all the new Ramen spots popping up. @Jahtieklong