ULTRAIST STUDIOS

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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Alan Moore quote:

“Any form of art is propaganda. It is propaganda for a state of mind rather than a nation-state but it is propaganda nonetheless, and it’s best if you accept that and understand what you’re doing and be honest about it: you are trying to change the mind of your target audience. You are trying to change their perceptions, you are trying to stop them from seeing things how they see things and start them seeing things the way you see things. The ethics of that we could debate all night but basically, the thing is, I can, so I will. I’m aware of how words can change people’s minds, can change the way people think. So are all of the advertisers, so are all of the politicians, so are all of the people who run our lives. They’re not pulling any punches – I would say that it is beholden unto any writer to equally not pull any punches, on the other side. If you believe something, if you believe something is right or something is wrong then yeah, try and convince other people. Spread the idea around like a designer virus. Make it so that other people will repeat it.” *

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In 1966 my grandfather bought a piece of land up north on Lake Simcoe and built a cottage. It is the place where my father and two uncles would spend the better part of their summers. Over the years, on the wooden shelf across from the original bathroom, a collection of books accumulated. There were fiction novels, readers digest books, and paperbacks reprinting newspaper daily strips. It was those paperbacks, to my knowledge, that were my first exposure to comics. This would have been around the year 1981. I would read, and re-read these books all summer. And I didn’t realize how much these books effected me, until looking back at them for this Archeology Project. It hit me how much of those books I took with me. The earliest influence in, what I perceive as a cartoon, can be directly linked to these books.

PEANUTS: For many people this remains the ultimate comic strip, and is the first one I remember. Cute cartoons locked in neurotic behaviour and deep philosophical debate. There is a naivety coupled with a cynical, pessimistic overtone throughout the strips, which is something I have always found comforting, and as a matter of fact, drawn to. I didn’t give too much thought to any of this at the time. All I knew is over the summer, I’d eat this stuff up. Looking back at them now, I see all the building blocks that, in my mind, are a prerequisite to making a great comic.

ANDY CAPP: I remember my 7 year old brain grappling with the English slang in this comic. Looking at it now, Reginald Smythe probably influence my “cartoony” art style more than I realized. If you put Andy Capp in a trench coat and oversized sneakers, you would pretty much have Spy Guy. Also, for the longest time, I would draw the police officers in the Spy Guy Universe with their caps pulled over their eyes. Ever since Bootleg, I wondered why I have the need to do this. It was a question I could never answer myself. But looking at these books, I think I have figured out why. Something in my psyche continues to tell me this is the way it’s supposed to be done.

In addition to the comic strip collections on the wooden shelf across from the bathroom, there was another stash of comics. They were in a cardboard box, that smelt of must and mildew and newsprint.

That was the place where the comicbooks were.

Chuck Palahniuk quote:

Q. “Do you ever wonder whether you’ve taken a story or book too far?”

Chuck. “That’s when I know I’ve taken it far enough.” *

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Alan Moore quote:

“As to whether I ever thought I’d gone too far: Yes, a couple of times I thought ‘is this going too far’ but then I thought, well, if I didn’t think that at least a couple of times during the narrative, then it probably isn’t going far enough.” *

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I recently asked Warren Ellis these questions, and below is his response.

Q. What is the best bit of advice you’ve received, (comic book and/or prose related) which has stuck in your mind throughout your career? And who gave it to you?

Warren. Huh. Probably something Paul Gravett said to me back when I was a kid: the hardest thing in the world is to tell a story so clearly that everyone can understand it.

Q. What is the single greatest trick to writing dialogue “in character”?

Warren. What does the character love? What does the character hate?

Robert McKee quotes:

“When we peek behind the grinning mask of comic cynicism, we find a frustrated idealist. The comic sensibility wants the world to be perfect, but when it looks around, it finds greed, corruption, lunacy. The result is an angry and depressed artist.”

“Comedy is at heart an angry, antisocial art. To solve the problem of weak comedy, therefore, the writer first asks: What am I angry about? He finds that aspect of society that heats his blood and goes on an assault.” *

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Johnny California posted this over at MillarWorld yesterday.
I’ve copy and pasted it here for posterity.

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In GOODFELLAS, here’s what Henry Hill says at the end:

The hardest thing was to leave the life.
I love the life. We were treated like movie stars with muscle.
We had it all. Our wives, mothers, kids, everybody rode along.
I had bags filled with jewelry stashed in the kitchen.
I had a bowl of coke next to the bed.
Anything I wanted was a phone call away.
Free cars. Keys to a dozen hideouts all over the city.
I’d bet ten grand over a weekend then blow the winnings in a week
or go to sharks to pay the bookies.
Didn’t matter. It didn’t mean anything.
When I was broke I would go rob some more.
We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges.
Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking.
And now it’s all over.

That’s the hardest part. Today everything is different.
There’s no action. I have to wait around like everyone else.
Can’t even get decent food. After I got here I ordered
spaghetti with marinara sauce…
…and I got egg noodles with ketchup.

I’m an average nobody.

I get to live the rest of
my life like a schnook.

In TRAINSPOTTING, here are Renton’s last words before the credits:

“So why did I do it? I could offer a million answers, all false. The truth is that I’m a bad person, but that’s going to change, I’m going to change. This is the last of this sort of thing. I’m cleaning up and I’m moving on, going straight and choosing life. I’m looking forward to it already. I’m going to be just like you: the job, the family, the fucking big television, the washing machine, the car, the compact disc and electrical tin opener, good health, low cholesterol, dental insurance, mortgage, starter home, leisurewear, luggage, three-piece suite, DIY, game shows, junk food, children, walks in the park, nine to five, good at golf, washing the car, choice of sweaters, family Christmas, indexed pension, tax exemption, clearing the gutters, getting by, looking ahead, to the day you die.”

In the middle of FIGHT CLUB, Tyler’s speech:

“I see in fight club the strongest and
smartest men who have ever lived –
an entire generation pumping gas and
waiting tables; or they’re slaves
with white collars.
Advertisements have them chasing cars
and clothes, working jobs they hate
so they can buy shit they don’t need.
We are the middle children of
history, with no purpose or place.
We have no great war, or great
depression. The great war is a
spiritual war. The great depression
is our lives. We were raised by
television to believe that we’d be
millionaires and movie gods and rock
stars — but we won’t. And we’re
learning that fact. And we’re very,
very pissed-off.
We are the quiet young men who listen
until it’s time to decide.”

Chuck Palahniuk quote:

Q. “Give us the scenario where you are stuck. You know, where you know where the story wants to go, but it’s not fleshed out the way you thought or something…“

Chuck. “Okay, let me ask you a question first. Do you ever go into the bathroom, sit on the toilet when you don’t need to take a shit? Do you? Do you ever just sit there when you are like, completely empty, and you sit there and push? No, you don’t. You go eat something. And then you live your life. And then what happens, happens. And it’s the same thing with writing. It’s like, if I don’t have an idea that I’m not absolutely terrified of losing, then I don’t bother to write.” *

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Another Dave Sim quote: