ULTRAIST STUDIOS

Lao-Tzu quote:

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

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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.” *

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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.’” *

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Dave Sim quotes:

“Principles of Comic Store Reality.
1) Successful comic books immediately go up in dollar value in the aftermarket
2) The most successful comic books continue to go up in value in the aftermarket while less successful comic books level off or decline in value
3) Fewer and fewer comic books are in either category these days
4) Virtually all comic books in either category are from Marvel (and, as Mr. Boyle puts it, DC to a lesser degree)” *

“I had been hearing a lot about incentive editions of comic books: basically if a retailer orders x number of copies of a new comic book, they get one limited edition copy of the same comic book with a different cover—essentially a rare collectible. Now, automatically most people are going to shut down having read that. That isn’t a luxury I have, given that I have to figure out how to break what I see as a monolithic, largely unassailable and completely understandable indifference to independent comics in today’s market. Just putting my secret project out there and hoping for the best falls under the heading of Wishful Thinking. To me, it makes more sense to deal with Reality. And, right now, a Comic Store Reality is incentive editions of “hot” comics.” *

“But it doesn’t work for independents or, at least, the track record for independents isn’t nearly as good because there isn’t built-in cachet—or the perception of built-in cachet—in order to get store owners to risk investment capital in ordering what they see as “too many copies”. The key is that the incentive book has to go up in value immediately in order to offset even the possibility of losing money “over-ordering” books.” *

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Denis Leary quote:

“Life sucks, get a fucking helmet.” *

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Dick Dale quotes:

“Get smart. Forget about trying to be the big man, and be ‘famous’ as one calls it on the cover of Rolling Stone. Become a business person, and market your product the proper way and you will make a hundred times more money and you’ll be powerful and strong within yourself, PLUS you will own EVERYTHING.”

“Go in there and play for nothing at first, and if you start drawing people, then work out a deal to get paid. And then, you know, don’t be so egotistical that you don’t want to do free gigs. Do the free gigs so that you’ll build up a following and I mean, you know, you can make, once you get going, you can do a thousand dollars a night, just in t-shirts or your records.” *

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The video comes via Cartoon Brew, via Boing-Boing, via Tommy Liberto.

Parts of this will be turned into Mantra.

Alan Moore quote:

“This stuff that you are dealing with – words, language, writing – this is dangerous, it is magical, treat it as if it was radioactive. Don’t doubt that for a moment. As far as I know, the last figures I heard quoted, nine out of every ten writers will have mental problems at some point during their life. Sixty percent of that ninety percent – which I think works out at roughly fifty percent of all writers – will have their lives altered and affected – seriously affected – by those mental problems. I think what that translates to is - nine out of ten crack up, five out of ten go mad. It’s like, miners get black lung, writers go bonkers. This is a real occupational hazard.” *

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