ULTRAIST STUDIOS

Morpheus quote:

“Stop trying to hit me, and hit me!” *

Read as:

“Stop trying to make a comic, and make a comic!”

-

Todd McFarlane quote:

“The reason you’re not very good at drawing… is that they say the brain will pick up from where you last left it in terms of that skill, so if you haven’t really drawn, tried to teach yourself drawing since you were in the fifth grade, it doesn’t matter that you are now 35 years old, your brain has only got caught up to a grade 5 level, and it never got any better than that. So you miraculously don’t go ‘oh you know what, I’ll stop now that I’m 10, I’ll not do this thing called art for 25 years, and now I can paint like Michelangelo’… it doesn’t work that way. It will then say; what was the last thing you remember, it goes backwards in time and it says; oh okay now, you have to then start applying yourself to catch up to basically your age at this point.” *

-

Marcus Aurelius quote:

“If you’re troubled by something outside yourself, it isn’t the thing itself that bothers you, but your opinion of it, and this opinion you have the power to revoke immediately. If what troubles you arises from some flaw in your character or disposition, who prevents you from correcting the flaw? If it’s your failure to do some good or necessary work that frustrates you, why not put your energy into doing it rather than fretting about it?
‘But something stronger than I prevents me.’
Then don’t worry. It isn’t your responsibility to do what you lack the power to do.
‘But if it isn’t done, life isn’t worth living.’
Then quit this life in peace, as one who dies full of good works and forgiveness for those who opposed him.” *

.

Epictetus quote:

“Do not become a greater coward than the children, but just say as they say, ‘I won’t play any longer,’ when the thing does not please them, so do you also, when things seem to you to have reached that stage, merely say, ‘I won’t play any longer,’ and take your departure; but if you stay, stop lamenting.” *

-

Dave Sim quote:

“I think the problem was that you waited until way too late to get serious about finishing SPUD & HARRY #1 and then engineered a situation where everything had to go off like clockwork in order for it to happen…

But wouldn’t you rather just work on improving your time management?” *

-

King Solomon quote:

“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,” *

-

Lao-Tzu quote:

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” *

-

Dave Sim quote:

“A good war comic is the same as a good police comic or detective comic. It’s about the good guys and how tough it can be to be a good guy. It’s about the belief that the good guys always win. The going may get tight and the going may get tough, but hands down the good guys win in the end. How they win, how they almost lose, how they dig down deep for the needed fortitude to make it through, how some of them get wounded and some of them die, that’s all part of the package. Unfortunately it’s very easy to switch sides as Dr. Wertham pointed out, when police comics and detective comics become crime comics, glorifications of criminals and war comics flip over from interesting stories about soldiers into thinly-veiled racist sadomasochism.” *

-

Alan Moore (from Mort Weisinger) quote:

“If you’ve got 6 panels on a page, then the maximum number of words that you should have in each panel, is 35. No more. That’s the maximum. 35 words per panel. Also, if a balloon has more than 20 or 25 words in it, it’s gonna look too big. 25 words is the absolute maximum for balloon size. Right, once you’ve taken on board those two simple rules, laying out comics pages – it gives you somewhere to start – you sort of know: “OK, so 6 panels, 35 words a panel, that means about 210 words per page maximum” …and if you’ve got 2 panels you’d have 105 each. If you’ve got 9 panels it’s about 23-24 words – that’ll be about the right balance of words and pictures.” *

Alan Moore quotes:

“There’s that white page somewhere there at the beginning of the process, whether you’re talking in cosmological terms where the white page is the quantum vacuum. If you’re a novelist then it is literally a white page.”

“Now, what you have to do is limit yourself. You cannot work in a complete conceptual void. Which is what the white page is. You have to start putting restrictions upon yourself.”

“Then, what is productive very often is to immediately come up with a bunch more shackles with which to bind yourself.”

“Start imposing ridiculous little rules, just perhaps on a whim, or because you think they might help. You don’t have to be too logical about this, although logic can help.” *

Dave Sim quote:

“I’m tempted to use Larry Bird’s line when someone asked why he was such a good basketball player and he said, ‘The amount of time I practice, I should be good.’” *

-