Ultraist Studios Blog Journal thoughts, musings and other rambling…

While I waited for my 20 minute delayed train in Toronto Union Station, I cracked open the Aardvark Vanaheim bubble envelope to find… a letter… a 27 PAGE letter!…
From none other than Dave Sim.

Which is exciting enough in itself, BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
It turns out this correspondence is going to be the feature in this weeks Blog and Mail.

So we are going to do things a little differently this time around.
As each new installment of the Blog and Mail is released in the Cerebus Yahoo! Group, I will add a link to it below.
Strap yourselves in because we are in for a long and turbulent week.

READ IT HERE:

Blog and Mail – Prologue

Blog and Mail – PART 1

Blog and Mail – PART 2

Blog and Mail – PART 3

Blog and Mail – PART 4

Blog and Mail – PART 5

Blog and Mail – PART 6

Blog and Mail – PART 7

Blog and Mail – PART 8 (The Conclusion)

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Interesting story about this one…

Last Friday I (sort of) quit my day job (one of them) to try and get this next comic (Spud & Harry) done in time for A.P.E. (more on that later). The drama that ensued had me miss my 6:43 train, leaving me with an extra hour to kill before heading home for two weeks (if not more).

Well, (I thought to myself) might as well check the Ultraist Studios HQ. P.O. Box…

And am I glad I did!
The package was from none other than Aardvark-Vanaheim.

It was a beefy one too… what could be in it?
A giant sized comic? A magazine? What?

Well, following the previous format, let’s first take a look at the letter I sent to Dave Sim. It came in at a whopping 11 pages. In it, I talk about everything from Cerebus, to marriage, to politics, to 9-11, to comics, to religion and God. You can read it below.

Sunday, we’ll open that package and take a look at what’s inside.
I would do it Saturday, but I’ve got a comic to finish…
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So let’s take a look at that box…

I had heard stories about the packages Chuck Palahniuk sends in reply to his fan mail. So while I was partially prepared, nothing could have completely prepared me for the experience of opening this package.

In an NPR interview Chuck said:

“Why I do it, that’s a darn good question. Junior highschool, okay, I wrote a letter, the only letter I’ve ever written to somebody I admire, I wrote a letter to Kate Jackson, okay? This is before Charlies Angels. I remember her from Dark Shadows, that far back… and she never wrote me back…

Well, of course she never wrote me back. But if she had, that would have been such an incredible experience event. So, you know, if I can do that, I’ll do that.”

What’s even more impressive is that Chuck sets aside up to six months to read and reply to the thousands of letters he receives during the fan mail period. That’s a lot of letters.

The first thing to notice is that as the box is opened, glittery shit falls out of the box and sticks to everything. Apparently this glittering confetti is legendary.

Followed by these goodies:

A severed finger
Relight birthday candles
Magic cards
A plastic carrot (with carrot seeds inside)
A birthday rubber ducky
Russell Stover assorted chocolates
A made in China harmonica
A plastic spider
4 mini crayons
A folding pocket switch-blade comb (for all the good that’ll do me)
Intense peppermint flavored mints
Forget-me-not seeds
Giant temporary tattoos
A mini pirate coloring book
A moving lion card
Herb garden seeds
A laminated $1,000,000 bill
A name tag sticker signed “Hello, my name is Chuck Palahniuk”
A stuffed moose “power” animal
An autographed photo of the cast from Fight Club with Chuck
Chuck Palahniuk: Tour Stories Volume 1 audio CD
Chuck Palahniuk: Tour Stories Volume 2 audio CD

And last but not least… a letter from Chuck.

What a swell guy.

Tomorrow: More mail!

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Things have been busy around here lately.
Not a lot of time for extra curricular activities, like blogging.

However this week has been a good week for mail.
So let’s take a look at some, shall we?

This package arrived a few days back.
From Chuck Palahniuk.

Back in October of last year, the Chuck Palahniuk fan site TheCult announced that Chuck would be accepting, and responding to fan letters mailed during that month.

So, today: My letter to Chuck Palahniuk.
In it, I tried to use some of the writing devices he talks about in his writing workshop. Submerging the “I”, and using a theme or “horses” (in this case water) to drive the story forward, and un-packing information by using personal events to depict the transition of time.

Tomorrow: We’ll open the box, and take a look at what’s inside.

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