Jeffers is an internet artist re-contextualizing pop culture characters through synthetic media. We sat down to talk chaos, control and which of his creations he’d enlist to rob a bank.
Jeffers also went IN on a LORE - you can dive in here.
Read to the end for a chance to win a lifetime subscription to Lore Machine.
Who are you?
I’m part graffiti kid, part comic book nerd, part anime addict and now full-time AI troublemaker. I grew up in the 90s in New York with a stepdad who collected comic books and toys like they were gold. By the time I hit my teens, I was deep into anime and manga and sneaking around leaving tags on walls. I’ve always been obsessed with making a mark — first with spray paint, now digitally with pixels.
I launched my first Instagram while Myspace was still a thing, then didn't use it for a long time. When I returned to it recently, I had no clue what I was doing. I didn’t come in with a formula or a strategy. I treated it as one big experiment and that worked in my favor. The thinking behind every piece is, “What happens if I mash this with that? Will it break the Internet or will it just break my sanity?”
I refuse to be a one-trick pony. I’m constantly trying new concepts, flipping characters into places they don’t belong and seeing what happens when nostalgia collides with nonsense. I respond to every comment and DM as part of the process. The art matters, but so does the community I'm building around it.
I’m looking at TMNTs eating pizza with Hello Kitties, steampunk SpongeBob buying vending machine jellyfish, Princess Peach stuck inside a digital firewall. WTF is going on here?
What you’re looking at is my brain on WiFi. It’s chaos, nostalgia and way too much marijuana smashed together. The Ninja Turtles eating pizza with Hello Kitty isn’t random; it’s tapping into that feeling we all had as kids — cartoons, video games and toy commercials bleeding together on Saturday morning.
But beneath the absurdity, there’s intent. SpongeBob buying vending machine jellyfish? That’s the internet on acid. Princess Peach trapped in a digital firewall? That’s me trying to log back into MySpace after a ten-year hiatus.
I like throwing characters into worlds they don’t belong in and showing they could. It’s fan fiction without rules. The mash-ups are designed to make people wish these universes actually existed.
So yeah, WTF is going on? Everything, all at once. It’s chaotic, it’s nostalgic, it’s funny. It’s my way of showing that art doesn’t have to make sense to have an impact.
What is your ideation process? Aka how do you start?
The starting point is usually a concept, not a character. I’ll think, “What if SpongeBob was dropped into a Berserk panel?” or “What if I treated Batman like he lived in the One Piece world?” Once I’ve got that mashup in my head, I cast the characters to make it happen. That’s when the fun begins.
Inspiration comes from everywhere: anime, manga, graffiti I grew up with, music blasting in my headphones, memes that make me laugh at 3AM and even other AI artists who are experimenting the way I do. If it gives me that “oh this could be ridiculous” spark, I run with it.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, you’re robbing a bank tonight with 5 of your creations…
If I’m putting together a heist crew, I’m drafting straight from my most viral characters — the ones that broke the internet when I dropped them. No weak links here.
Mastermind – Yoda
Old as hell, wise as hell, and shady as hell. Yoda doesn’t rob the bank for money, he’s just bored. Dude’s been alive for 900 years — what else is there to do but plan felonies? He’s sitting in the corner dropping backwards sentences that somehow double as a getaway plan: “Out the side door you must run, stupid you are if caught.” Nobody dares argue because if you question him, he’ll probably Force-choke you while roasting your life choices.
Muscle – Shrek
Forget subtlety. Shrek’s the guy who kicks down the vault door just to flex. Ski mask fully loaded, no gloves, just raw swamp stank and anger issues. He’s chucking security guards like cabbages at a medieval market, yelling, “BETTER OUT THAN IN!” The alarms? Shrek is the alarm. He’s sweaty, pissed off and definitely shirtless before it’s over.
Wild Card / Inside Source – Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty is the embodiment of “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Everybody thinks she’s soft and harmless until she walks past security with a bow in her hair and C4 in her backpack. She’s the one planting bombs under the desk while security guards are like, “Awww, so cute.” Nah bro, she’s about to detonate the lobby while smiling for a selfie. Inside source? More like psycho inside.
Getaway Driver – Toad
Imagine the most annoying Uber driver you’ve ever had... now crank it to 100. That’s Toad. He’s 3 feet tall, screaming the whole time and driving like he’s on Rainbow Road with three red shells behind him. Everyone in the van is fearing for their life, but somehow this cracked-out mushroom sticks the getaway every time. He’s got no license, no chill and definitely no insurance.
Vibes – Jason Voorhees
Jason is the absolute worst “vibes guy” imaginable. He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t blink. He just sits there in a blood-stained hockey mask breathing like he’s trying to fog up your soul. Basically the story of my life. The whole crew is terrified of him but nobody says anything because you don’t tell Jason Voorhees to chill. Hostages are handing over their wallets voluntarily, not even because of the robbery but because they’re convinced he’s going to follow them home if they don’t.
Is your work all digital ephemera or are you telling a story?
Right now, my work leans more toward temporary snapshots of ideas, multiverses and mashups. I don’t sit down and say, “Here’s Chapter One of a grand narrative.” Instead, I drop people into moments: SpongeBob in a shiesty mask, Pepe the Frog pounding a beer, Batman reimagined as a samurai. It’s less like handing you a novel and more like tossing you random pages from a manga that doesn’t exist yet.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a story happening. The story right now is connection. I take pride in responding to every comment, DM and reshare because those small interactions are the real narrative. It’s me saying, “Hey, I see you. Thanks for vibing with this weird little world I just made.”
At the same time, I do think my work is building toward something bigger. Right now it’s multiverses, fan mashups and nostalgia trips. But long term? I want to expand into original characters, clothing lines, maybe even full-on animations. Imagine all these seeds I’m planting now growing into full universes later. For the moment, I want people to laugh, get inspired and scroll on. But in the future, I want to create the worlds people get lost in.
Is there one aspect of your work that you would love to expand upon, into a manga or anime?
I’d love to expand into anime-style storytelling but not in the traditional sense.
For me, the bigger picture isn’t just about turning one image into a manga or anime — it’s about building a whole world that can live beyond the feed. My main focus right now is creating a YouTube channel. That’s where everything I’ve been experimenting with will come together. I can’t dive into details yet but when I do, it’s going to be on a level people aren’t expecting.
Every mashup, every crossover, every weird multiverse scenario I put out is a teaser trailer. People laugh, get inspired and move on. But what I’m really doing is laying the groundwork for something much bigger. Eventually, those seeds are going to grow into a channel and a world that has the same mix of chaos, nostalgia and originality but on a scale that hits way harder.
When I finally pull the curtain back, it’s going to feel like those random posts everyone scrolled by were just prologue.
Oh, and we’re having a lil contest! Inspired by our favorite response to this interview, we invite you to visualize your dream bank-robbing accomplice. Post it to your Instagram Story, tag @lore.machine and @nastyjeffers and win a lifetime subscription to Lore Machine. Here’s how to generate your image ↓