By Edward Kelly As a kid, I always had a thing for sidekicks. I favored Robin over Batman, Impulse over The Flash, The Genie over Aladdin, Thud Butt over Rufio (from “Hook” and, if you got that reference, any chance you want to be BFFs, like, right away?). It made playing backyard games with the neighborhood... more

By Edward Kelly

As a kid, I always had a thing for sidekicks. I favored Robin over Batman, Impulse over The Flash, The Genie over Aladdin, Thud Butt over Rufio (from “Hook” and, if you got that reference, any chance you want to be BFFs, like, right away?).

It made playing backyard games with the neighborhood kids really simple. While everyone argued over who got to be Leonardo or Raphael, I was happily off to the side as Michelangelo, swinging my very-much-DIY, cardboard-toilet-paper-rolls-held-together-with-string nunchucks.



To me, sidekicks are often far more fascinating than main characters. They can be funnier, smarter, flawed, and oftentimes more believable. While the hero had to be the strong go-getter who was constantly in danger, the sidekick got to be the guy who commented on the action and sometimes even saved the day.

The best sidekick of all and an inspiration throughout my childhood was Emmett L. “Doc” Brown of  “Back to the Future“ fame. It was Doc who made the trilogy for me. He was the ultimate nerd: knew everything and, if he didn’t, he could figure it out pretty quickly. He got to drive the flying car and built not one but two time machines (also he got some play from Ted Danson’s wife, thus marking the only time Jules Verne got anyone laid).

In the eyes of 10-year-old me, Doc had no competition.

As I grew up though, I started to realize that while being a sidekick is great, there’s always the sense that you’re on the outside looking in.

And then another doctor came along. This one, however, had no name.



In the long-running BBC series “Doctor Who”, we have, again, a time traveling doctor, but this one isn’t an eccentric Hill Valley citizen. He’s The Doctor, the man of a million (or at least 11 at this point) faces, the last of the Time Lords, and the guy who pops in with his time-and-relative-dimensions-in-space (or TARDIS) Police Box to save the day.

So, two time-traveling doctors. One’s a sidekick and other has sidekicks (or “companions” as the show calls them). The Doctor’s companions are usually nowhere near as interesting as he is, mainly because, y’know, he’s basically a god and all that. Sidekicks generally have to add to the story (offer some techno-speak or a brief moment of levity or sometimes just a summary of the hero’s goals) and The Doctor’s companions are there most of the time to humanize him a bit (tangent: the necessity of The Doctor to stay connected to humanity was a theme played out expertly in the episode of “The Waters of Mars” when The Doctor decided he was no longer a god and actually simply God and therefore the rules of time travel no longer applied to him).

Throughout the “Back to the Future” trilogy, Doc Brown often steps into his role as explainer first and character second, with Christopher Lloyd seemingly relishing every last word of convoluted sci-fi babble. Marty, meanwhile, stares on dumbly.

I say this with no disrespect to the character of Marty McFly—he’s a great protagonist, no doubt. He was headstrong and wholly relatable, the average kid who lucked out when the crazy, wild-eyed scientist invited him to a mall parking lot late one night and showed him his time machine. But, let’s face it, he’s pretty much the last guy you want time traveling. He’s a total klutz. Many of the major plot points throughout all three movies are caused by his complete ineptitude: saving his dad’s life and causing his mom to crush on him; buying the Almanac that allows Biff to create alternate 1985; not being able to back down from a fight and thus almost dying at the hands of Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen.

Contrast this with The Doctor who is so smart that the show doesn’t even bother introducing plot-solving dues ex machinas. Most of the time, when The Doctor and his companion are in a tight spot, the writers solve it by The Doctor telling people to shut up so he can think.

Honestly: thinking. That’s the go-to plot device. Even when it almost gets him vaporized (as it does in the transcendently good season four episode “Midnight”), The Doctor’s cleverness provides him with an answer, because while Doc Brown seems to know everything, The Doctor literally knows everything.

In the States, “Doctor Who” is still pretty firmly lodged as a “cult show.” That’s fair enough—sometimes its cheapness and camp can be a turn-off to viewers. What’s even more interesting, though, is that in the UK, “Doctor Who” is a legitimate hit—spawning legions of devoted fans, magazines, books, comics, and, of course, a pantheon of toys.

It says quite a bit about the cultures of the US and the UK that the face most associated with time traveling in the US is Marty McFly: a know-nothing kid who lucks into this adventure. Meanwhile, the smartest man in the room, The Doctor, is the representative of time travel across the pond.

As Americans, we tend to romanticize the idea of the lone cowboy, the brave frontiersman, the rugged individual, the guy who bucks the system and gets away with it. Marty is that guy. He’s a bucker of the greatest system of all—time itself.

The Doctor meanwhile is basically just a really smart dude. He pays attention, he learns things along the way, and he figures stuff out by, yeah, simply thinking really hard.

In a way, this kind of explains the show’s standing among American viewers—Americans don’t like eggheads, they don’t like knowing that someone out there is smarter than they are and, a lot of the time, they don’t like to entertain the idea that they might be wrong. It also explains why smart people like The Doctor so much. He doesn’t need to slow down and cow-tow to anyone else. To a certain extent he’s inspirational: he’s the sidekick and the hero, the explainer and the bucker, the scientist and the adventurer.

As a kid, Doc Brown was one of my idols, but as an adult, I’d put The Doctor pretty high on the list of people I often emulate. There’s nothing wrong with being the sidekick, no, not at all, but there’s something fulfilling about seeing yourself as The Guy rather than The Guy Behind The Guy.

Although, I must say, making a homemade Sonic Screwdriver is proving pretty difficult.

by Nahp Suicide Many beer brands speak to men in a shared tone, showing them that they really understand their needs. Yet up to now, all intentions were expressed by a message without an action plan. Andes, the leading beer in the Andina Region of Argentina presents: Andes Beer: Teletransporter – A... more

by Nahp Suicide

Many beer brands speak to men in a shared tone, showing them that they really understand their needs. Yet up to now, all intentions were expressed by a message without an action plan. Andes, the leading beer in the Andina Region of Argentina presents: Andes Beer: Teletransporter – A revolutionary invention capable of doing something almost impossible.



Men can now go to a bar and share an Andes beer with friends without having any problems with their girlfriends. Andes Teletransporter Booths have been installed at the main bars of Mendoza, Argentina. Einstein mentioned that teletransportation was impossible since objects could not conduct faster than light. Einstein was wrong! Hehehe please check this!!!



I really love it!!!

Jason Schwartzman loves the Suicide Girls. He called out his favorite by name and even mentioned another one by her signature tattoo. It makes sense that he’d be so cultured, coming from the Coppola family. They have high class tastes in film, music and even fine wine (try the Coppola shiraz. It’s... more

Jason Schwartzman loves the Suicide Girls. He called out his favorite by name and even mentioned another one by her signature tattoo. It makes sense that he’d be so cultured, coming from the Coppola family. They have high class tastes in film, music and even fine wine (try the Coppola shiraz. It’s delightful.)

Alternative beauty is especially relevant to Schwartzman’s latest movie. In Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Scott (Michael Cera) has to fight his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes. Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) expresses a lot of Suicide Girls qualities, the way she dresses and her different hair colors (three hair changes in the film), though no visible tats. We’ll assume the tats are in the director’s cut.

Schwartzman plays Gideon Gordon Graves, the evilest of Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes. He’s the final battle for Scott. How cool is that? A Hollywood movie about two guys battling it out over a Suicide Girl? It’s based on the comic book by Bryan Lee O’Malley and directed by Edgar Shaun of the Dead Wright, full of martial arts battles and video game style.

When Schwartzman debuted as Max Fischer in Rushmore, kung fu action wouldn’t have been anyone’s prediction for his future. Everyone grows up though. Now a 30-year-old man, Schwartzman sports a moustache as he makes the press rounds for Scott Pilgrim. He seemed happiest to talk about Suicide Girls though, exclaiming “No shit!” when he heard we were at the table.

Fred Topel: So Ramona Flowers has some Suicide Girls qualities.

Jason Schwartzman: I love the Suicide Girls. I like the girl Radeo. I like Radeo, that’s her name.

FT: Radeo will be happy to hear that. So you’re really familiar with the Girls?

JS: I was just talking to my publicist, Matt Labov, because he  represents Will Ferrell and I was telling him that one of the Suicide Girls got a tattoo on her thigh that says “Milk was a bad choice” from Anchorman. She [James] has that tattooed on her thigh, because he drinks milk on a really hot day and he goes, "Argh, milk was a bad choice," and that’s what she got tattooed on her thigh.

FT: Do you go for the Suicide Girls type?

JS: I went with my girlfriend in high school to get her first tattoo ever when she turned 18. That was the thing she did right when she turned 18. She went and got a tattoo.

FT: What was it?

JS: A star, right here [on her thigh], real original.

FT: How do you like it rockin the ‘stache? Is that just your own thing or for a film?

JS: I’m doing that for me, for my wife, for us. She said she liked it.

FT: Do you do a lot of gaming yourself?

JS: When I was a kid I played a lot of Super Nintendo and Nintendo NES and stuff, but not recently. I want to now. I’m afraid though. I know on some levels it would be addictive for someone like me because I spend a lot of time alone, and that would be so much fun I can’t think about it.

FT: What were the top five video game you really liked as a kid?

JS: Breakthrough was my favorite one. There was Double Dribble, Metroid, MegaMan and Mario Brothers.

FT: With all the video game influence in the film, do you think it plays to non gamers?

JS: I’ll tell you tomorrow because my mom has never played a video game in her life and she’s coming tonight to see the movie. I’m curious to see it. I’m pretty sure the reaction will be that she will be happy. The best case is that she will be happy, but I think it will be mesmerizing to her. People also love to see stuff that they don’t know anything about, new worlds. I think that people that don’t know a lot about video games will be just like, "What is that?" I think it will be a sense of wonder or something.  I think that’s very interesting.

FT: How about comic books?

JS: One thing I really love is the R. Crumb's Kafka book. He kind of illustrates the life of Kafka. It's great. Also The Beats. He does a little autobiography of the beat poets [with Harvey Pekar.]
I hate to admit it but I wish all my books in high school were comic books. I mean like textbooks. I can learn and retain it so much easier for some reason when words and pictures, showing it to me at the same time. I mean, it sounds so silly to say but a page of words is daunting when we’re reading about the beats. "Oh, Kerouac?" Now it all makes sense if it's so well done. It’s like right in between a movie and a book.

FT: How much fun did you have playing the bad guy?

JS: It was really fun. It was really scary because when I showed up I guess they shot the Katayanagi twins after I shot my big sword-fighting scene. But, for the most part they had shot all the exes, I think, in chronological order so I kind of showed up toward the end. It was really scary for me because Edgar was showing me a bunch of stuff they had edited together and it was like, "Look at this!" and it was all so great. It was just kind of like a thing I was thinking to myself, "This is a really great opportunity for me to ruin his movie." It’s like I’m coming in at the end and what if I f*ck this up, and I didn’t want to be too much. I didn’t want to be cliché, you know? These things were floating around in my head. So I was just asking so many questions like, "What do you want? Where do you want Gideon?" Edgar and Bryan were so helpful to me, and one thing Bryan said was great was, "Just remember this whole movie is through Scott Pilgrim’s eyes, so you don’t play Gideon Graves as if this was in the real world. Don’t think like that. Approach it as you play how Scott sees Gideon. Be his idea of the worst nightmare ex-boyfriend." So that’s really where I was coming from, like who would I hate to meet if my ex-girlfriend was like, "This is my ex!" I would hate someone saying like, "Hey!" and being nice, trying to help me, and being really sweet.

FT: What was Edgar's direction?

JS: Edgar said he saw Gideon as passive-aggressive. Well, to me that’s a tricky thing to play because there are some passive-aggressive people where you can tell they are passive-aggressive instantly, and then there are other passive-aggressive people where you don’t realize it until it's too late. I asked Edgar about that. "How overt do you want his douchey-ness?"  I hate to say it. It was tricky, because it’s not like you're going to meet him and go, "Oh, he’s a great guy. Obviously you know he’s got to fill this role of the seventh evil ex. He’s got to be that, but where do you want it?" He came up with this great thing which was kind of like 10 is evil Satan, one is just a great person, a wonderfully sweet guy with really no evil at all and then we would do different takes of different levels of it just so he had it. Then in the editing room he could kind of put them together. Although I don’t like to watch myself, one thing I can see that Edgar did was take one take where I’m a real cocksucker asshole and another where I’m sincerely nice and it makes Gideon seem unstable, which I like.

FT: What was the average number you ended up at? Were you more of an 8 or a 2?

JS: I would think I was more like a six, six or seven.

FT: Was it difficult being a musician in a movie with music and not actually drawing on that talent at all?

JS: Did I want to run in there and play in the scenes?

FT: Did you ever have that impulse watching everyone else having a good time?

JS: Totally! I’m glad that I wasn’t because it’s very hard, as you’ll find with any musician, to just make them stop playing. Alison Pill was sitting at the drum set for so many hours and I was like, "That is the exact person who should be behind that drum set for 12 hours." If I had a guitar in my hand it would be so distracting. Anytime there was an instrument around, it’s not like you want to show off. It's fun. You want to get your hands on them. It's fun. It’s hard to be around instruments and not play them.

FT: There was a big Scott Pilgrim experience at Comic-Con. What was it like to be amongst your fans, and be there without your publicists and manager and just be in the middle?

JS: I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about that. When I was in my band, you play and then you take your instruments off stage and then go hang out in the bar and drink with everybody. It never seemed like there was much of a difference. I just went and got a bunch of shirts made and people were like, "Can I take your picture?"  I think it’s a different thing for someone like Robert Pattinson because I heard people will try to grab him and really try to hold him and rips his clothes. I’ve never experienced anything like that, except at home.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World opens August 13.

The return of The Kids in the Hall isn't being treated like a national media event. Growing up, you may have caught their show on HBO or in reruns on Comedy Central. They did a movie in 1996, Brain Candy, and still go on tour performing live shows as recently as a few years ago. They haven't... more

The return of The Kids in the Hall isn't being treated like a national media event. Growing up, you may have caught their show on HBO or in reruns on Comedy Central. They did a movie in 1996, Brain Candy, and still go on tour performing live shows as recently as a few years ago. They haven't really gone away, but they're back with a different sort of TV show.

Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town is an eight part miniseries airing on IFC in America. It's already played the Kids's hometown networks in Canada. In the show, Death (Mark McKinney) arrives in Shuckton, Ontario, where the town abortionist gives away free kittens. Each of the Kids portrays more than one of Shuckton's wacky characters, getting bumped off one by one each week. You'll meet three of Scott Thompson's latest creations on the series.

Thompson makes a triumphant return to the screen after spending last year battling cancer. His treatment for stomach cancer coincided with filming Death Comes to Town. The shoot fell right in between chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Not that a few months down time is ideal for performing on television, but he toughed it out. Now promoting the series, Thompson is back to full strength.

At The Beverly Hilton hotel, Thompson bounced around the hallways. He'd interrupt Bruce McCulloch or Kevin MacDonald's interviews with a joke, or pass out potato chips to reporters. It was a happy day anyway, the day after California overturned Prop 8. It's not the end of the fight in California, but Thompson shared a good attitude for overcoming social frustration, and funny stuff too.

SG: How does the group plan which character you'll play in which scene? The longer it goes, do you have to worry about interacting with yourself at some point?

ST: Well, that was part of it. That was part of the thing. There were certain characters that we might wanted to have played but you couldn't because you were playing another character that talked to that person too many times. It all came very naturally. I think there were certain characters that were created that people fought over. There were certain characters that everybody wanted to play. Marilyn, for example, the mayor's wife. Everybody wanted to be Marilyn but I think it became very clear that it was going to be Dave. For me, I play less characters than the other because I got sick before the show so I had not as much energy. So I had three main characters: Heather Weather, Crim Hollingsworth and Dusty Diamond. They are three main characters so I was in charge of those characters, their arcs and working on them. So there were certain smaller characters that I would have loved to have played, but next time. The next series when I don't have cancer I'll be doing that.

SG: Who did you miss out on playing?

ST: The motel owner that Dave plays. He does a great job but I would've loved to have been the motel owner. I would have loved to have been the grief counselor. Marnie the old lady but that was a big one. That was between Kevin and I from the beginning. Then I said, "I played the old lady in Brain Candy. My acting muscle's not that big so if I did her, it would be very similar to the old lady in Brain Candy." That's when I decided I'd play Crim who originally I think Bruce wanted to play. Then no one really wanted to be Ricky. Ricky was a tough one, the 400 lb. guy.

SG: Should people go on message boards and theorize about who the killer might be?

ST: It'll just cause you grief. It really won't help. For this series, as long as you're laughing, that's all we really care about. And if you're trying to follow it logically, just stop right now.

SG: There may not be logic, but it does tell a story.

ST: It does. There is a story. You're not going to cry. I hope not. You're not moved in any way. Characters don't really change. They don't really learn anything but then comiccharacters rarely learn. When comic characters learn, then they become dramatic charactersin a way.

SG: Is that a problem with comedies of the last 10 years? They're all trying to have a message and a lesson.

ST: Yes, absolutely. It's the death. It's the worst thing. It's the enemy of comedy. Comedy is not about teaching people lessons or preaching tolerance or any of those things. It's about mucking around in the id. That's why that phrase "positive role model" makes me fall asleep like it's a hypnotist waving in front of me, because that's not what comedy's about. Comedy is about laughing at how silly and foolish and venal we are.

SG: How did comedy get this way then?

ST: Maybe it's the generation. Maybe it's the generation of kids that have too much self-esteem. Maybe that's it. Maybe it's too many kids that were raised to think that everything that they did was amazing. Therefore characters have to. I don't know, it might be part of an American thing too, America's myths about coming from nothing and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and taking lemons and making lemonade. I think Canadians are maybe a little more cynical about that sort of thing. Definitely the Brits are and our sense of humor comes as much from England as it comes from the states. It's true, in Canadian comedy, people generally don't worry about a redemptive arc for a comic characters.

SG: That's really interesting about the self-esteem. It never occurred to me how egotistical it is that every character has to learn something.

ST: Isn't it? It is. And they don't. You look at the history of comedy and the great comic characters, what makes them hilarious is that they never learn.

SG: Look at Homer Simpson, it's been 20 years.

ST: He's not going to learn. "I shouldn't have that donut." You wouldn't want him to. There's nothing heartwarming in this series and I'm very proud of that. In fact it's heart chilling.

SG: Would giving away free kittens solve the abortion debate?

ST: For cats it would.

SG: Does the series make other political digs on hot button topics?

ST: By politics, if you mean the politics of human nature, yes. I'm sure there are things. Yes, there are. They're never taken on consciously. There are certain things that we know that we're doing and we know that that will piss people off and that's true. We don't set out to do that but we're aware that it will do that.

SG: Is it sort of funny that people feel so strongly about an issue anyway?

ST: I think it's funny. Outrage is funny and I can say that as a person who spent much of my time in a state of outrage. I'm not like that. I don't really feel that any more. Intense outrage is hilarious.

SG: What changed that for you?

ST: Getting older and beating cancer has definitely been something for me. When you're on the other side of it, you tend to look at life as much more silly and a game. It's like I've been playing a video game for a number of years and then I'm in the bonus round now. I'm like oh, man, this is great. Of course I still get outraged over certain things but I try to keep it outside of my comedy.

SG: Is part of it that things have gotten better socially?

ST: Oh yes, much better. Gay things, anything, socially, absolutely. We have a mixed race president. They overturned Prop 8. Yeah. I think for people to say that it hasn't is kind of weird. No, you should wake up, smell the coffee. Remember what coffee used to be like? Even McDonald's has good coffee. Absolutely things are moving forward. You're cynical about that.

SG: It's hard to get too happy because I know that even when they overturn Prop 8, that just mean more loud people will complain about it and it'll still be a fight.

ST: Oh, this isn't remotely over but it's never going to be over, I don't think. Never.

SG: Well, we ended slavery. We gave women and blacks the vote. It seems inevitable.

ST: It is inevitable but you'll never erase prejudice. There will always be a way for people to feel better than other people. That's what I believe. I just know that for me now I'm just like yeah, things are getting better. I just think human nature is the way it is. We'll find something else. It'll be like test tube babies vs. natural babies. Clones vs. non clones. There'll be something. Redheads. In 100 years, redheads are all going to be imprisoned and having sex. They'll just be prostitutes because they'll be so rare, everybody will fetishize red haired people.

SG: So we should see the humor in how upset and angry people get over something that shouldn't bother them at all?

ST: Yeah, yeah. Years ago, I remember being at the March on Washington many years ago, the very first one, and Fred Phelps, remember him? He's that freak from Nebraska who's got that family and they picket AIDS funerals and soldiers' funerals and they say things like, "AIDS kills fags dead." They're just evil, evil people. He got in his face with his family, just spittle flying out of him, and it's kind of funny if you think about it.

SG: Do you think people who are neutral can see that and think, "Well, let's not be like that guy. Whatever he believes, let's do the opposite."?

ST: I don't know. Outrage is always going to be funny.

SG: How many times did the Kids almost get back together?

ST: Oh, 17? It's a weird one. I think the only time we actually ever truly broke up was after the disaster known as Brain Candy, financial disaster that it was. Artistically I don't see it that way and we didn't speak for maybe four or five years. But then after that, we've never been apart.

SG: Was there blame within the group for problems with that movie?

ST: There was a lot of blame going around, but not now. Now it's different. Sometimes we don't even remember why we hated each other. It's not really important. Yeah, there were a lot of ugly things said but like a family, you get through it. The thing between us, the glue is very, very strong. We're like the mafia. You don't leave.

SG: Was doing the series more like doing the movie where you tell a whole story with sketches and characters inside it?

ST: It was like that but a hell of a lot more fun than making that movie. Yeah, I guess it was. There are certain scenes in the show that could survive as sketches. I guess you're right, it was.

SG: But with eight episodes, is it a lot more epic?

ST: Yes, it's like a four hour movie. 3 1/2, three hours 40 minute movie. It is quite epic. It's comedy, obviously, first. I don't think any of the great mystery writers are rolling over in their graves. Especially the ones that are alive, they're not rolling in their graves. It was a thrill. I just love playing characters so it doesn't matter to me what medium they're in. As long as I get to throw on wigs and clothes and moustaches, I'm a happy man.

SG: Whether it's a standalone sketch or it has a role in the story, either way?

ST: Yeah, doesn't matter to me. I just like playing different people.

SG: As the group gets older, does your point of view get funnier or less so?

ST: I think funnier actually. You look at life in a more realistic way. I think as I've gotten older, life has become more of a comedy than it was when I was younger. When I was younger I saw it more as a tragedy which is ironic that I would go into comedy, but now I do see it as much more of a comedy. Just generally I find people hilarious.

SG: Does that inform the characters you play or your reactions to the other characters?

ST: I think both. For example, one of the characters I play in the series, Heather Weather, I never really would've played a woman like that before because she's really not as nuanced as some of the women I've played before. She's kind of an out and out bitch. It's interesting, I never really worried about her motivation. I just went this is the way she is and this is the way she's written. I'm just going to play her like an out and out sociopath in a way. It's a lot of fun.

SG: Do you think anyone from Death Comes to Town will become one of your new trademark characters?

ST: Yeah, I do. I'm thinking of writing something for Dusty. I had this idea for Crim, the Windian, the white guy who's 1/16 Indian, eh. I thought it would be really fun, and sort of a page from Sacha Baron Cohen but I don't mind taking pages from him. He took pages from me. I thought it'd be really fun to host a show as him on Indian affairs. In Canada we have a station called APTN which is the Aboriginal network. I thought it'd be really funny pitching a show with Crim talking about native affairs, eh? And a white guy doing it, so that's sort of a germ in my head. That would be so post-racial. That's where I do think we are now. I don't think that the world has quite woken up to it yet but I do believe we're there. Certainly, there'll always be work to do but I really think that collectively, especially here in the west we can breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe I'm a little Pollyanna about it right now but maybe that's the euphoria of beating cancer.

SG: Doing a TV show in character, Cohen wasn't the first either. That's been around in comedy.

ST: Yes, that has been. I do love him. I think he's a genius.

SG: Do you have a relationship with him?

ST: Never.

SG: What do you feel he got from you?

ST: Maybe I'm wrong here, but I'd like to think he knows us. I can't imagine he's not a fan of The Kids in the Hall. It would be disappointing for me because I remember meeting one of the Monty Pythons and they didn't know who we were. I thought, "Don't ever meet another Python" because I don't want to hear that. I won't say who it is but I'm sure Bruno, I'm sure he'd seen Buddy Cole. Maybe not. You know what I like about when he does Bruno - I think Bruno is a better film than Borat. I thought it was genius - was that he's so far away from who he really is that he just feels completely free. I feel the same way when I played someone like Danny Husk, my businessman character. I can do whatever the hell I want. I have a book coming out with Danny called The Hollow Planet which is my graphic novel and I just went to Comic Con in character. When I put that moustache on, I do crazy things. He loves women so I end up making out with women all the time. Maybe that's what I'm doing. I use that moustache to explore my latent bisexuality.

SG: How many issues is the graphic novel?

ST: It's a book. There's going to be three books. This is a full length graphic novel. The whole series is called Husk and the first book is called The Hollow Planet. It's a big comic epic fantasy starring Danny Husk.

SG: And it's funny?

ST: Yeah, it's funny. Again, it's a comedy epic fantasy but comedy's first. It's beautiful. It's from Frozen Beach and IDW is publishing it November 1st so I'm very, very excited. It's funny, you don't do anything for years and years, or anything that gets into the public's radar. Then all of a sudden you have two things which is pretty amazing for me. Especially where I was a year ago.

SG: How are you doing now?

ST: Excellent. I just had a new report and everything was great. I'm feeling better than I have been and all the side effects are pretty much gone. I feel for the first time, in quite a while, myself.

SG: Ready to put on wigs and makeup?

ST: Yeah, absolutely.

SG: Are there any character you're glad you never have to play again?

ST: Nope.

SG: Any you miss?

ST: Oh yeah. Francesca Fiore, I miss doing her. Weston Esterhazy, he was a character that never totally took off and I don't quite understand why. Buddy. I definitely put Buddy away for a while. After I saw Bruno, I was with Paul Bellini and he said, "Buddy's gotta retire for a little while." I went, "Maybe so." Even though they're not remotely the same, they're just both really effeminate, but the public's not sophisticated enough to see those differences I don't think. But I'm thinking of putting a tour as Buddy Cole in the new year, like a Dame Edna kind of a thing.

SG: A solo tour?

ST: Yes, and I'm definitely planning a standup tour soon. I've really fallen in love with standup again. I love characters more than anything but I do think a Buddy tour would be a lot of fun. So we'll see.

The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town begins August 20 on IFC.

by carlovely I scour the web so you don’t have to! This week I’m going to do something special. Today, I bring you, the best of celebrity tweets. Rob Hubel is one of my favorite comedians, and twitter users. (image) Canadian teen heart throb Justin Bieber tells us what it’s like to be a 16 year... more

by carlovely

I scour the web so you don’t have to!

This week I’m going to do something special. Today, I bring you, the best of celebrity tweets.



Rob Hubel is one of my favorite comedians, and twitter users.



Canadian teen heart throb Justin Bieber tells us what it’s like to be a 16 year old boy who looks like a lesbian.



Weird Al is always full of funny.



Former child star, Amanda Bynes, certainly holds nothing back when it comes to her twitter.



Last, but absolutely not least, my new favorite celeb on twitter, 50 cent. His twitter is golden.



Do you have a favorite celebrity on twitter? Leave you input in the comments below!

You can follow me on twitter here.

Each week I will be bringing you the best of the internet, from new memes to classic videos.

Have a hot tip? Send it over to carlovely@gmail.com!

by Alana Joy If you’re an art lover in the greater Portland area, be sure to not miss this amazing art show! Idealistically Hypocritical: A mash Up of Art work by Ryuichi Ogino and Over 20 artists (image) If you’re a fan of SuicideGirls, you’ve already seen Ryuichi’s work: he designed one of... more

by Alana Joy

If you’re an art lover in the greater Portland area, be sure to not miss this amazing art show!

Idealistically Hypocritical:

A mash Up of Art work by Ryuichi Ogino and Over 20 artists





If you’re a fan of SuicideGirls, you’ve already seen Ryuichi’s work: he designed one of our logos! The one we use the most, in fact.


Look familiar?

“Idealistically Hypocritical” will be featuring the art of more than 20 artists, some of which are listed here, curated by Matt Wagner.

The show is running from September 2nd through October 2nd, but you definitely want to show up for the opening reception on September 2nd at 7pm. There is an after party following the reception at Yes and No which begins after 11pm.

We Americans are kind of soft. When we say Machete it kind of sounds like "ma-shed-ee." When Machete himself says it, it sounds as sharp as the blade itself: "Ma-chay-tay." Danny Trejo really emphasizes the correct Mexican pronunciation of his latest character. If there were Suicide... more

We Americans are kind of soft. When we say Machete it kind of sounds like "ma-shed-ee." When Machete himself says it, it sounds as sharp as the blade itself: "Ma-chay-tay." Danny Trejo really emphasizes the correct Mexican pronunciation of his latest character.

If there were Suicide Men, Danny Trejo might be their leader. Although, he wouldn't have to worry about committing social suicide, because nobody's going to mess with him. His rugged face, chest of tattoos, handlebar moustache and long man hair have gotten him cast as bad guys in movies for the past 25 years.

Machete is a hero though. A betrayed former federale, he now works as a day laborer. Instead of Home Depot jobs, Machete finds himself hired to kill an anti-immigration senator. It's a setup though to make the senator a champion of border patrol. Well, Machete doesn't go down like that so he takes out the bad guys with his trademark blade, in over-the-top gory Robert Rodriguez style.

In the movie, Trejo wears badass leather. In person, he wore a tan suit that hid his inked up chest. Trejo was discovered by Hollywood when he was in prison, when director Andrey Konchalovskiy cast him in Runaway Train. With the success he found, Trejo has always given back, counseling inmates and drug addicts on finding the right path. Still, based on his movies, most fans might be surprised to find Trejo smiling and giggling. Guess all that badass stuff isÖ acting!

SG: Is this how you dress when you're not making movies about badass motorcycle guys?

DT: When I'm not killing people. [Laughs] Yeah, this is actually my Eddie Bunker suit. Eddie Bunker was one of my dearest, dearest friends. He always said, "Have a tan linen suit for summer days." He was a bank robber but he always dressed really well.

Suicide Girls: Who makes your suit today?

Danny Trejo: You know what? I bought it in Thailand. I saw it and he'd just passed away so I bought it in his honor and I always just wear it to nice hot summer days, special occasions because you can dress nice and even though it's hot, you're not uncomfortable. It breathes well. That's what he said, "It breathes."

SG: Another interesting thing about your appearance though is tattoos. Are you familiar with the Suicide Girls?

DT: Yes, absolutely.

SG: For us it's alternative beauty. Was it ever trouble for you having tattoos like that?

DT: No. I came from an era when tattoos meant bad. In the early ë60s, the tattoos were either if you weren't in the army, you were a troublemaker. If you weren't in the navy, you were a troublemaker. Most of my tattoos are prison tattoos, so you kind of knew I was in trouble.

SG: Do you like girls with tattoos?

DT: You know, it doesn't matter. To me, tattoos are accessories. Beauty comes from within anyway. Even though we love beautiful packaging, if they're not beautiful inside they ain't worth a shit.

SG: I know from meeting you over the years that you've been happy playing villains and badasses. How did you feel about your transition to leading hero?

DT: Well, you always bring your best no matter what you're doing. It just means you've got to bring your best every day. Usually when you have a part in a movie, you show up for three, four days, bang, bang, bang, you're gone. Well, when you're the lead, you're there every day. There's no "you're not on the call sheet." You're there because basically it's your movie. Any time I work I always work like it's my movie, so the transition wasn't bad. Everybody asks me, "Are you going to change?" I'm not changing. My situation's changing a little bit because now I can't walk down the street, but other than that, nothing's changed.

SG: Is this the first time you've been on the movie's poster?

DT: Well, I've been on other posters but never just me. People in England, boy, when I was in England doing autograph signings, people in England were getting that tattooed on their back. The picture is a gorgeous picture and Machete is the first Latino superhero. So it's kind of a unique picture and I guess they didn't want to put the Virgin Mary up there.

SG: We Americans say it kind of soft, like "ma-shed-ee." Should we say it "ma-chay-tay" like you?

DT: You know, say it however you want. Just go see the movie.

SG: Even the announcer who says Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again at the end says it soft.

DT: That's Robert Rodriguez. That's him. I didn't even know it. We were arguing who it was, who it was. Finally Robert said, "Machete, he kills the bad guys and gets the women." I thought, "Wow, it is you, Robert."

SG: After you'd done the trailer for Grindhouse, were you surprised to find out what the rest of the story was when Rodriguez finished the script?

DT: Robert and I had been talking about this movie since we did Desperado. He came up to me and said, "You know what? You're perfect for this character that I want to do. It's Machete and he's a badass. He's going to be the first Latino superhero. He doesn't take any step backwards. He stands up for the downtrodden poor." I said cool, and after we did the trailer, it kind of took on a life of its own because everybody loved the trailer. So Robert just said, "We've got to do this movie."

SG: Did you imagine back then it would have to do with immigration and a senator and border patrol?

DT: You've got to remember, the idea for the movie became a reality before any of that happened. That was just God giving us some PR I guess.

SG: Do you weigh in on the immigration issue?

DT: No. I know that smarter minds are going to prevail. Something has to be done, I don't know what. I think in the next five or six years, this whole planet is going to be changing so it's like I'm just doing whatever I can do for whoever needs help. That's what I still do.

SG: Do you still work with drug centers and prisons?

DT: Absolutely. I still work for Western Pacific Med/Corp in Glendale. I work for them and I do a lot of their PR. I work for community and schools which deals with gang intervention. I speak at high schools, junior highs, juvenile halls, youth authorities and state penitentiaries.

SG: In the last few years, have there been new ways of battling addiction or avoiding a life of crime?

DT: Right now there's a huge budget cut to cut certain modalities of drug treatment, methadone being one of them. That's going to be chaotic if that happens because right now if they cut the budget for Medi-cal drug treatment, they'll literally turn about 59,000 drug addicts loose on L.A. So the drug cartels love the fact, "Yeah, stop that" so they'll have all new customers.

SG: So not so much new methods, but there are always new problems to solve.

DT: Right, exactly. There's always new problems.

SG: Are you making progress on that issue?

DT: Well, we're dealing with Governor Schwarzenegger and we're dealing with Sheriff Lee Baca who wrote us a letter to say, "Hey, we can't do that." He understands because he's down here in the trenches. Schwarzenegger who's up in Sacramento, he's getting bad advice as to what to do.

SG: When people meet you for the first time, are they surprised that you're all smiles and laughs?

DT: Yeah, a lot of them. A lot of them don't know how to approach me so I have to disarm them immediately, just say hello. I say hello to everybody. I say, "Hi, how are you," walk up because you see people standing there with a camera and they don't know how to approach you.

SG: When did you find your peace?

DT: Oh, a long time ago. I think that when I dedicated my life to helping other people, this peace comes the minute you start helping somebody. I ran into a kid one time at about 12 o'clock at night at Jons Market in Winnetka, which is out in the San Fernando Valley. I love Jons because it used to be Vons but the Mexicans bought it. You can still see the V under the J, but I was walking across the parking lot and this kid stopped me and he was collecting the baskets. He said, "Hey, Mr. Trejo." I said, "Yeah, what's up?" He says, "I want to thank you. I was in juvenile hall two years ago and you came up and talked. You really made an impact on my life." Wow, what a blessing to be able to make an impact on somebody's life. That is worth everything in the world, just being able to make an impact on someone's life.

SG: Boy, you hear so often that helping others is the key to happiness. Who do so many people still not get it?

DT: You look in the backgrounds of all the people, especially in Hollywood, who are having problems in your lives. I'm not talking divorce and normal kind of problems. I'm talking about drugs, going to prison, going to jail. You look at them and they're not giving anything back. That's one of the reasons why. It's all selfish, self serving. It's all what do I get, what do I get, what do I get. Until you get the eye off of you and start talking about what can I do for you, that's when you find the peace. That's when life gets better.

Machete opens September 3.

by Tara Diane I really love this project, contact paper décor, because it’s great if you’re renting or living somewhere short term and want to jazz up the walls.  If you’re renting you probably don’t want to paint, since you’ll just have to paint over it when you leave, and probably don’t... more

by Tara Diane

I really love this project, contact paper décor, because it’s great if you’re renting or living somewhere short term and want to jazz up the walls.  If you’re renting you probably don’t want to paint, since you’ll just have to paint over it when you leave, and probably don’t want to spend a bunch of money on vinyl wall decals that cost a fuck-ton and aren’t reusable.  These aren’t reusable either, but they only cost $6 worth of contact paper and an hour of your time.  So… on with the tutorial!



What You’ll Need:

• A roll of contact paper.  I used a black faux leather one because I’m classy as shit.  And, more importantly, because they were out of solid black at Home Depot.


• An exacto-knife or other razor cutter, with a new blade


• Scissors


• Various circled things to trace (I used a crappy album, a CD, and a coaster)


• A surface to cut on that you don’t mind messing up

Roll out the contact paper and start tracing circles, then cut them out with your razor cutter.  I made seven album-sized circles, then a bunch of small and medium circles (too lazy to count, see last image if you need to).



Now, we’re going to go back to second grade for a minute.  Remember making snowflakes out of coffee filters?  If not, your childhood was terrible.  But, just in case, here is a video to refresh you.



Ta-dah.  I only cut the “snowflake” shapes into the large circles, the small and medium circles were left alone.  I don’t really think they look like snowflakes, more like decorative circles.  Maybe?  Hopefully?



Once you’re done cutting them all out, peel the adhesive backing and start sticking those puppies to the wall!



And, you’re done!  Enjoy your mildly cool looking and incredibly cheap new wall design.

:]

by Desiree Marsau I’m sure we can all agree that the best part of going back to school is shopping for your Back To School Clothing. Just one little completed outfit can offer the promise of new beginnings, new memories, new friends, new loves…. My years of “going back to school” are behind me,... more

by Desiree Marsau

I’m sure we can all agree that the best part of going back to school is shopping for your Back To School Clothing. Just one little completed outfit can offer the promise of new beginnings, new memories, new friends, new loves….

My years of “going back to school” are behind me, but I still like to live vicariously through window shopping the internet a little bit every day. Keeping in mind the requirements of school clothing (ie: comfort, style, personality, individuality, and a dash of modesty), I scoured my favorite website for vintage clothing, Etsy.com, and put together a few Back to School outfits in a few different looks.





1. The Theater Club Romantic

• 1a. 1940’s Rust tilt hat, $12, available at Enamor.


• 1b. 1930’s Art Deco Rayon Dress, $120, available at Ms Tips.


• 1c. 1970’s Frye Campus Boots, $118, available at Good Style Shop.

2. The Uptown Girl

• 2a. 1980’s Black and Gold Bowler Hat, $45, available at Apocolypse Vintage.


• 2b. 1980’s Striped Crop Top, $12, available at The LittleSuit Case.


• 2c. 1990’s Floral Mini Skirt, $30, available at Gypsy Django.


• 2d. 1980’s Victorian Style Lattice Boots, $85, available at Prance And Swagger.

3. The Teacher’s Pet

• 3a. 1970’s Charles David Spectator Brogues, $44, available at Castaway Vintage.


• 3b. 1940’s Miss Madeline Hat, $42, available at Prance and Swagger.


• 3c. 1970’s Butterscotch Coolots, $24, available at Broken Hip Vintage.


• 3d. 1950’s White Lace Blouse, $38, available at The Greedy Seagull.

Good luck in school, girls!!!!!! And remember: confidence in the way you look manifests confidence in all other areas of your life. Do your back to shopping with that intent!

by Pandie Suicide So you’ve been lucky enough to score yourself an interview! Whether you’re a veteran or a first-timer this can be a nerve-wracking experience, but it also could be THE interview that changes the course of your musical career forever! Inspired by a book on Rolling Stone Interviews... more

by Pandie Suicide

So you’ve been lucky enough to score yourself an interview! Whether you’re a veteran or a first-timer this can be a nerve-wracking experience, but it also could be THE interview that changes the course of your musical career forever! Inspired by a book on Rolling Stone Interviews on my reading list right now I began thinking, what makes a good interview? In part it is the interviewer and the questions they ask, but that’s only half of the equation. The rest lies solely on you, the interviewee. As someone who has conducted hundreds of interviews and read, watched, and listened to thousands more, I’ve come up with some advice on how to make sure your interview comes out in the best possible way with these helpful tips on how to approach an interview – just for musicians.



Interviews can take several forms, depending on the type of media outlet, such as a video interview, an email interview, a phone interview (aka a “phoner”) or in-person audio interview. It is helpful if you know what type of interview you’re getting yourself in for ahead of time, so that you can be looking sexy if you are to be filmed, or have your phone handy and are in a quiet zone when they call you if it’s a phoner. However sometimes you will have no idea so don’t be afraid to ask the journalist to tell you as much about the publication as possible when it comes time for the interview so you can have a better idea of what you’re doing.

Choose a spokesperson or persons as first choice/s to speak for the band in an interview but make sure everyone in the band is at least somewhat prepared for an interview just in case they get put on the spot. Usually an interview situation works best with just one or two of the members of the band, too many people involved can make the thing confusing and if it is a press junket situation you may have other members of the band doing interviews at the same time simultaneously with other journalists!

Your interview may simply be casual conversation or it may be a full on Q & A session. Try to give more than just yes or no answers – expand as often as possible, yet try not to babble. It’s a fine line, but you’ll get it down. Don’t be like Sigur Ros, who allegedly gave “possibly the worst interview in the history of electronic media” by giving their interviewer nothing but yes or no answers “I don’t knows” and a few words in between. (check it out)

On the same token, be eloquent. Try to answer things intelligently.

Be interested – interested people are interesting! See above Sigur Ros interview for an idea of what a bored, disinterested interviewee looks like – something that is NOT going to hold your audience’s attention or get them interested in your music, which is the ultimate goal here! A little energy helps (Sorry Sigur Ros!).



On the same note, give the interviewer a little something. Try to make each interview just a little bit different, a little bit special. Sure you make get asked the same ten questions over and over again (what are you doing at the moment, tell me about the new album, how was the show tonight, how did you guys get together, who are your influences yadda yadda yadda) but surely you can think of a few different ways to answer the same questions, you’re musicians right? Creative types, so let that creativity translate into your interviews. It makes you that much more memorable for fans and potential fans. Relax and have fun

Remember if it’s a telephone/audio interview (the “phoner”) the reader/listener can’t actually see you, so if you’re nodding or shaking your head in answer to a question or gesturing/ illustrating something with a facial expression/hands etc that is going to be lost on the reader/listener completely. And with on-camera interviews for TV/internet, remember that it is exactly the opposite! The viewer CAN see you so make sure you look good, your clothes/hair etc aren’t a complete mess (unless that’s the look you’re going for!), there’s nothing in your teeth, and you at least look like you are present in the situation.

Act up for the camera a bit, but don’t be a complete weirdo – feel free to move around a little, gesture at the camera/ interviewer etc, act out parts of your story, whatever, just remember to be conscious of yourself and don’t fidget too much – or you WILL be caught on camera doing something embarrassing/ creepy, and your fans WILL notice it. I swear that’s what hundreds of thousands of people are employed to do each day – go online and point these things out on YouTube, MySpace etc. So be aware!!!

Do you have an ‘image’? Are you a scary death metal band, that sound brutal as fuck? Maybe you want to play on that image in your interviews? Either by appearing brutal as fuck, or potentially the opposite? I mean don’t be a complete fake, but there’s no need to be boring either.

Or are you a sweet and sensitive singer/songwriter type with deep and meaningful , metaphor-laced lyrics? If so then maybe you want to remember this when answering questions, if you appear to come across as somewhat deep and intelligent in your music, but you come across as someone who can’t even string a coherent sentence together…well, let’s just say your fans may stop believing in you. Media is a great way to help cultivate your image, in a positive way, if the way you answer questions and approach the interview is consistent with who you are and what you’re trying to project, just be sure you have some idea of what that actually is beforehand!

Try to enunciate if it’s an audio interview you know the journalist has to type up later, you don’t want to be misquoted! And if it’s an email interview – remember the journalist may just copy and paste your answers into his or her article without changing a thing – so spellcheck and go over your grammar, because if you spell your own band name incorrectly, well…

If there is anything the band is not supposed to make public (such as the name of their new album before it is officially announced etc) make sure that everyone is clear on this! It sounds obvious but really if you don’t tell somebody if they fuck up it’s your problem too. Sometimes it’s also good to keep a little mystery about your band, to keep people guessing, but don’t go overboard and tell them absolutely nothing.

Try to keep your appointment – be it phone or live or whatever. We know you’re a rockstar but unless you’re in Led Zeppelin, a journalist is probably only give you one or two chances before they decide to move on to the next, on time unknowns who get the magazine cover because you didn’t make it on time.

I’m not saying some of the best interviews don’t come from musicians who are drunk off their faces, but just be aware that if you are wasted and doing an interview there’s at least a 50/50 chance that this is NOT a good idea…and a 50/50 chance that it’s a FANTASTIC idea..I’m just saying…

I’ve met some very strange people who’ve called themselves “journalists” in my time, sometimes they’re journalists, sometimes they’re just strange people. Look at Hunter S Thompson. It takes all types! Try to be courteous with the journalist, but if you feel like they’re being a bit of a jerk or asking questions you feel uncomfortable with, such as extremely personal questions, try to be diplomatic about it, but firmly steer the conversation back to your music or another topic you wish to talk about – “I’m sorry I thought we were talking about my new album “ – usually a journalist will take your cue, if they do not, you can skip questions or say no comment etc or end the interview if it is really necessary. This is pretty rare though, most journalists want a good interview as opposed to a shady interview.

Take a lesson from this great quote from Jim Morrison in response to a Rolling Stone Magazine journalist’s question in 1969 , “You’ve twice said that you think you successfully manipulated the press. How much of this interview was manipulated?” – to which he answers: “You can’t ever get around the fact that what you say could possibly turn up in print sometime, so you have that in the back of your mind. I’ve tried to forget it.”

Or take your cue from Andrew W K and flip the script completely like he does in this recent interview I conducted with him at Warped Tour San Diego 2010:



During an interview – “you’re performing I’m even performing, as much as we’re 
just having a conversation.” – Andrew W K as told to a Fox 23 news anchor

Comic book artists don’t get more prolific than John Romita, Jr., whose acclaimed work with Marvel Comics spans over three decades and includes definitive illustrations on almost all the company’s A-list brands, such as Spider-Man, X-Men, The Hulk, Iron Man, and The Punisher. His latest assignment... more

Comic book artists don’t get more prolific than John Romita, Jr., whose acclaimed work with Marvel Comics spans over three decades and includes definitive illustrations on almost all the company’s A-list brands, such as Spider-Man, X-Men, The Hulk, Iron Man, and The Punisher. His latest assignment in the Marvel universe is working alongside leading comic writer Brian Bendis on a big-picture reboot of The Avengers, the famed superhero comic that regularly teams up a handful of Marvel mainstays for collective adventures against ultra-powerful foes. Romita’s assignment this time around: to create illustrations that reflect the company’s desire to return the franchise to its traditional, upbeat roots after nearly a decade of downer storylines that saw Iron Man battling Spider-Man and similar episodes created to satisfy a cultural desire for darker superhero tales.

But those who think Romita is saying adios to edgy material should remember his most popular indie project to date: Kick-Ass. Created with writer Mark Millar (Wanted, Superman: Red Son) and first published by Marvel in 2008, Kick-Ass is an R-rated, decidedly meta story of real-world NYC teens who put on costumes and fight criminals, sometimes shattering bones and earning hospital stays in the process, while gradually becoming true heroes. The comic touched a nerve with its cutting humor and its depiction of foul-mouthed, pre-teen assassin Hit Girl, a modern day Baby Herman whose existence is seen by some as a middle finger to middle-class values. The Matthew Vaughn-directed film adaptation, released in April, made newcomer Chloe Moretz a star and cemented Kick-Ass in the zeitgeist, making further adventures for the characters inevitable. Romita recently called up SuicideGirls to talk superheroes and the future of Kick-Ass.




Ryan Stewart: Is the movie sequel to Kick-Ass essentially on hold until Matthew Vaughn finishes the X-Men movie?

John Romita, Jr.: That’s a good question. From what I’ve been told – and I’m not positive -- but I’ve been told that Matthew Vaughn will decide between producing and directing the sequel to Kick-Ass at a point when he is further along in the X-Men process. As far as I know, he wants to do it very badly. But with his schedule, who knows? I have to finish the series as quickly as possible so that he has the material in his hands, and I think then it will be entirely up to him.

RS: You were writing the first series almost while the first movie was being filmed, right?

JRJ: Well, we were a little bit ahead of the game in that I had done one or two issues before the screenplay was finished, but the filming began well after I’d gotten the series done. And ironically, because of working on the film I couldn’t finish the series quickly enough. They had me working on the film, the animated sequence, and I wasn’t going to tell Matthew Vaughn “Sorry, I can’t do your movie because I still have a couple of comic books to draw.” [laughs] That would have been an interesting conversation. So, I had to put something behind schedule and it ended up being the comic book series. Ultimately, it bothered me because I would have had more comic book sequences in the film had it all been done further in advance. It was a strange confluence of events, but that’s exactly how things worked and it kind of set a precedent. I don’t know if we’ll do it again that way, but hopefully I’ll be done with the new six issues well before filming begins, and then anything they would need from me wouldn’t interfere with it and it would also allow me to help them out more. It worked out well the first time, but you don’t want to try it again to see if it has to be done that way. You’d prefer to work from a position of strength and I think that having the series completely done before they begin would help that.

RS: There’s the one animated sequence in the Kick-Ass film that you created -- do you expect to do more such sequences in the sequel?

JRJ: I honestly don’t know. I’m available if they need me, but it’s entirely up to the director and the producers. If I can get the series done quickly enough, then I’ll be able to do anything that they need at any time, but I don’t know if Matthew is a director that would want to do something completely different from one film to the next or if he would want to be consistent. So, you’d have to ask him. He’ll need me for something! I’ll sweep the floors if he wants.

RS: Are you doing any visual touch-ups to the look of the world or the main characters in the next installment of the comic, Kick-Ass: Balls to the Wall?

JRJ: The only thing is that I’ve taken it upon myself to try and show a little bit of time passing. I want them to look a little bit older, perhaps a year older, but nothing drastic. There is a need for consistency, but we are in the real world in this series and I wanted to show a little bit of a difference. So, nothing immense, just Hit Girl looking slightly older, maybe a year or so. Chloe Moretz really aged in front of our eyes. This beautiful little girl became a beautiful woman, so I thought of the same thing for the character. She’s not really supposed to be any older, but I wanted to hedge my bets a little bit. The trick is to be consistent while also show a little bit of time passing.

RS: When you do conventions, do little girls dressed as Hit Girl ever come up and curse at you? Is she a role model?

JRJ: No little girls! There have been adults dressed as Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, but no little girls. And if the [role model] thing were to happen, it could be done without the foul language and the violence. I remember the words from Jane Goldman in the run-up to the film during the press junkets, when she said: “I don’t see a problem in the empowering of a little girl, as opposed to the victimization of a little girl.” And she had a point. So, if a little girl comes by dressed up as Hit Girl and she’s taken jujitsu lessons and can take care of herself, I see nothing wrong with that. Now, if she starts using foul language and swinging machetes, then I’m in trouble!

RS: The cover of the first book famously promised “Sickening Violence: Just The Way You Like It.” Is that hard to top?

JRJ: Absolutely, and that’s a great point, because it isn’t so much topping myself in that I just have to top the content that I’ve done -- I have to come up with creative ways to do it. This is the strangest thing, but I held back a beheading in the first series because I said “That is too easy to do and I want to do something different and I may need that as a trump card.” But then, at the end when Hit Girl dispatches the bad guy Mark said to split him right down the middle with an axe and I couldn’t do it because that’s too easy, that’s what everyone would think of, visually. So, I had her do it from the side so that you could see his face. Those are the kind of sick thoughts that go through my mind, and I’m a good Catholic boy from New York! [laughs] Just look at this, I’m coming up with new and inventive ways to slaughter people! I do have to top myself by coming up with not just these brutally violent variations, but ones that make sense in the context and in the moment. For example, if they are outside as opposed to being in a kitchen then you can’t have any kitchen utensils. If they’re outside they have to use whatever would be lying around, that kind of thing. And if Mark says “We’re going to do this in the middle of Times Square” then they’re less likely to have knives, except for Hit Girl, who would bring her machetes. So, I wait until the scene dictates how the violence will progress, or at least I try. The problem is that Mark will come up with a scene where he says “She should kill him with a bat to the back of the head” and now it’s in the back of my mind that that’s what he wants, and how do I go do that? I have to vary from what he has suggested and what I’ve done before. However, the good thing is that at least I have something to go by and something to differ from. So, I’ve actually helped myself in a certain way.

RS: Where do limits figure in, with an ultra-violent series like this? I’m sure Marvel has limits in terms of what they want their name on. What about you?

JRJ: We pretty much own the project, with Marvel just distributing it. And so, no, there is no limit. Quote-unquote, there is no limit. There might be a tastefulness limit, I mean we’re not going to do pornography. We’ve done some slight sexual content, but I don’t think I would ever allow it to be taken too far. I would never do that. However, there will be some naked ladies. There will be some naked butts and there will be some naked men, but there won’t be anything that I would be ashamed of. I do have my limits.

RS: I hear rumors about a new character called Mother Fucker. Does that mean anything to you?

JRJ: [laughs] It does mean something, that’s a character! Look, Mark knows what he wants and the names have to be outrageous and different, and that’s what we’re intending to do. I think the big difference between this and the first one is that there are more Kick-Asses than there were before. There are more costumed people, and some of these people are taking themselves seriously – that’s the difference between the two stories. Whereas it was a novelty in the beginning, it’s become less so now. And yes, there’s a character called Mother Fucker. Mark wants the outrage factor and the shock value involved, and that’s cool. Now I have to follow up with equally powerful costumes and visuals.

RS: You’re sort of straddling two worlds at the moment. Have you fallen in love with the movie business yet?

JRJ: I haven’t fallen in love with the business per se, but I was always in love with cinema. Getting involved in the business is something I’m guarded about. I had this project and now there is interest in other projects. Should I be able to do it a couple of times and then people start coming to me, then wonderful, but I’ve gotten one great quality from my father and that is being grounded. My feet are on the ground. I’m a cartoonist who happens to be very lucky to be in this position. If it progresses and it allows me to do something that I’ve always fantasized about, which is to direct a film, then so be it. But I’m not going to get too far ahead of myself, if you know what I mean. Now, having said all of that, yes, I would give anything to be further involved in films from here on in because I’ve always been fascinated by the process.

RS: Where do you think we are in terms of superhero movies and the public? Are people getting bored with it? Is Marvel thinking about that?

JRJ: Knowing the people who are involved in that whole spiel, I know that they’ve anticipated that people can get tired of a genre. The trick is to be ahead of that curve. Marvel has always been able to come up with good stories, regardless of the premise. If you have a costumed character, you anticipate that there are going to be some people who are wary of that, rolling their eyes. The trick is to just come up with a good story, and Marvel does that. Look, Iron Man was one that no one expected to blow up into what it became. But Tony Stark’s story is a quality story, and in no small part thanks to Robert Downey, Jr. Iron Man was never considered to be a Spider-Man-level, A-list character, but if you have good stories you have a good quality product, and that’s all there is to it.

RS: It’s funny that the most popular superheroes tend to be 40 to 70 year-old properties. Why do you think that is?

JRJ: Because it’s like coming up with a new melody for a song. To me, that seems nearly impossible. To come up with something that’s new and different has got to be so difficult, and I’m amazed whenever one does appear. And perhaps it’s because there are already so many different characters and so many different ideas that are already out there. It’s really almost impossible to come up with something new. That’s why Mark Millar is a genius and Brian Bendis is a genius – these writers are geniuses. To be able to come up with a new idea on your own is amazing.

RS: A lot of people are excited about your new run on The Avengers, alongside Brian. Are you able to say anything about forthcoming stuff?

JRJ: Just to expect the unexpected. I can’t get into details, except to say that this has it all. You have no idea how much can be put into a 23-page story until you’ve seen what Brian is asking for and what we’re delivering. I can say that the artwork is amazing because of Klaus Jansen and Dean White. And again I can say without hyperbole that Brian is really a genius, cause that’s just the way it is.

RS: Would you like to be involved in The Avengers movie on some level?

JRJ: Sure! I’d love to. If they call me, I’m ready. If they need me for something, whatever they need me to do, I’ll do it.

RS: Even though they are creator-owned, could the Kick-Ass characters ever be incorporated into the larger Marvel universe and interact with Marvel characters?

JRJ: I doubt it. I don’t know that Marvel would allow it because of the legalities of it, since Mark and I own it. The people that own Marvel prefer to only use their own stock of characters, so, on the mundane, legal scale, no. And I also doubt that it could ever fit.

RS: Do you see any drawbacks in general to doing creator-owned stuff, as opposed to working inside the big tent?

JRJ: I don’t see drawbacks in it; it really frees up the mind to come up with your own stories. However, one problem is falling in love with what you do, as opposed to seeing it in an unbiased way. You tend to think that whatever you have is quality, and you have to be able to stand back from it. If you have a creator-owned project, the writers and artists might consider it a quality story, but you have to be both subjective and objective about it. So, yeah, there are difficulties in creator-owned, it’s not easy. But I do embrace it because it frees up the genius of the creators, even though there is a danger that young creators can sometimes fall in love with what they think is a quality project.

RS: Kick-Ass is, of course, a take-off on the notion of real people putting on costumes and fighting crime. What do you think about the real-real world people who do that?

JRJ: Well, remember that before the costume craze there were, for years, patrols by people like the Guardian Angels in New York. There have always been neighborhood patrols, and now people are just putting on costumes. And I think the muggers and the burglars should be nervous. These people are not your everyday, average accountant. I’ve met a whole slew of martial artists who are now putting on costumes. I think if you have a flashlight and a mask on and you’re trying to break in through somebody’s back door, I’d watch your ass. There really are a lot of them out there now, and they will bust you up!

RS: If you had billions to spare, do you think you might become a superhero yourself?

JRJ: [laughs] Interestingly enough, I’ve considered that. If I was that rich? Yes. I would find a way to do it, I really would.

RS: What would your name be?

JRJ: I don’t know if I’d even come up with a name, I’d just want to be very quiet about it. I guess I’d be the man with no name. I’d be like Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter, just fading in and out, and nobody would ever know me. I’d just be very quiet. Wait, how about that: The Quiet Man.

RS: I like it.





Kick-Ass is available this week on DVD and Blu-ray.

by Christine Dinh I’m on the brink of a quarter life crisis. (This does exist; the self-help section at my local Borders tells me so.) As my 25th birthday nears, I’m reassessing my goals and plans. I won’t deny I’m not where I thought I’d be when I walked across Alumni Park to accept my college... more

by Christine Dinh

I’m on the brink of a quarter life crisis. (This does exist; the self-help section at my local Borders tells me so.) As my 25th birthday nears, I’m reassessing my goals and plans. I won’t deny I’m not where I thought I’d be when I walked across Alumni Park to accept my college diploma several years ago. I’m currently experiencing a second adolescence. And it’s not because I’m constantly being told I look like I’m 16.

And according to the New York Times, if you’re a 20-something, you’re experiencing it too. The article notes some key milestones that mark the “transition to adulthood”: graduating college, leaving the parental nest and buying a place of your own, financial independence, marrying and popping out some babies. However, those in my age range are taking longer to hit those milestones, if we’re working towards them at all.



[Fany in After Hours]

If you don’t want to read through all 20-something character profiles to get to the meaty facts, the good people over at Lemondrop have simplified all the data into a snazzy list. How can you tell you’re a 20-something according to the New York Times?

• Permanent residence is most likely your parent’s address because you’re more likely to move every year.


• You’re living through a second adolescence because we’re less likely to hit all five milestones by the time we’re 30 compared to previous generations. Not our fault of course. Let’s play the blame game with social and economic changes.


• Getting that MRS degree is no longer that important because you’re already cohabitating with them or planning on it.


• You’ve job-hopped, and will on average job-hop at least seven times because…


• You consider all your life options still open. We’re young and have the rest of our lives to get where we want to/need to be one day so why settle? The optimism and confidence is positively nauseating.


• You’re once again living under your parents’ roof. You’ve kicked the rules and the curfew to the curb, but hopefully…


• You’re back on the parental payroll, baby.


• You can’t help yourself; you’re reacting before you think.


• You want to take a year off to travel or chase those philanthropic pursuits. I’m sure Facebook likes to rub it in your face, as it does mine, that some of your friends are out and about doing just that post-college.


• You’re not the only one experiencing a quarter-life crisis. Your friends are too.

We were spoon-fed all through college that we were going to rock at life once we graduated. However, the world seems a little daunting now that the gold stars, high fives and words of encouragements are harder to come by.

You’re supposed to be who you’re supposed to be, meet who you’re supposed to meet, and try everything you want to try all during your 20s. But who can juggle climbing that corporate ladder, taking on another non-profit cause and squeezing in some playtime?

Is it possible that we’ve become too focused on personal enlightenment and personal happiness that we’ve delayed adulthood offsetting the chances we’ll even complete at least half of that list of milestones? Most likely, but hey, you know what, I’m pretty certain it’ll all work out in the end because we won’t be a bleary-eyed statistic.

(image) “SuicideGirls: Beauty Redefined” is our 396 page hardcover tribute to the stunning SuicideGirls from around the world. The images are collected by region and represent the most beautiful nude images of the SuicideGirls from the past 8 years. This massive tome comes with a discreet black... more

“SuicideGirls: Beauty Redefined” is our 396 page hardcover tribute to the stunning SuicideGirls from around the world. The images are collected by region and represent the most beautiful nude images of the SuicideGirls from the past 8 years.

This massive tome comes with a discreet black cover that would look good on any coffee table. All copies sold through SG will come signed by Missy Suicide.

Get it HERE!

Brian Ewing is an illustrator and designer who’s appeared in “Hustler” and “The New Yorker.” He’s designed skateboard decks and t-shirts, sunglasses for Anarchy Eyewear and shoes from Draven. It’s the music posters that are how most people know Ewing’s work, though. Even if his name isn’t... more

Brian Ewing is an illustrator and designer who’s appeared in “Hustler” and “The New Yorker.” He’s designed skateboard decks and t-shirts, sunglasses for Anarchy Eyewear and shoes from Draven. It’s the music posters that are how most people know Ewing’s work, though. Even if his name isn’t familiar, you’ve likely seen his work. He’s the resident poster artist of the Warped Tour and has crafted over one hundred posters for bands ranging from Rob Zombie to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Coheed & Cambria.

Dark Horse has just released a new book of Ewing’s art, “Don’t Hold Your Breath” which has the subtitle “Nothing New From Brian Ewing.” It’s highly unlikely that you’ve seen all the posters, but even if you have there’s still plenty of material that make the book worthwhile including sketches and designs, Ewing detailing his process and the stories behind the work, and tributes from artists and musicians and a forward by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. I talked with Ewing after he returned from the San Diego Comic-con, where the book debuted, and after he covered from the nerd flu that affects too many of us afterwards.


ALEX DUEBEN: So how did you get started doing poster art and what is it about posters that really appeal to you?

BRIAN EWING: I got started after seeing posters by Coop, Kozik, Hess and TAZ in the pages of Juxtapoz magazine and at Rushmor Records (my local record shop) in Milwaukee, WI. I was there one day when the owner pulled out a Superchunk poster by Coop and a Big Chief poster by Kozik. It was kinda like the scene from Sixteen Candles when Anthony Micheal Hall presents Molly Ringwald’s chonies to his nerd buddies. That day stuck with me for the rest of my life. So did the movie.

Once my friends started bands I was their go-to-guy for fliers. I just did them for fun and so I could get into bars before I was 21.

The appeal to me was particularly with what Kozik and Coop were doing. They’re styles and subject matter rung every bell in my brain. It was dangerous, sexy and oh so wrong. And it seemed to me that their favorite bands were mine also. If not, I gave the bands a listen and was won over because they did a poster for them. I’m still inspired by looking at their work. And very happen to have befriended them as well.

As a kid I dreamt of drawing comic books or being an illustrator. With Rock Posters I was able to do both but with more freedom and control. I get to own the rights to the artwork and explore subject matter and technique the way I want to.

AD: Has music always been really big for you? Did you ever play?

BE: Hell yeah! As a kid I LOVED music! Everything was new to me and I really took to Heavy Metal and Punk Rock right out the gate. It wasn’t my older brother or sister’s music. It was mine and I was hooked by all the album art and t shirt graphics and cute girls that would go to the shows.
 
I’m still friends with the guys I grew up with – and we spent most of our teenage time (and money) on buying albums and comic books since we were way too nerdy for the ladies. I still talk to the guy that sold me my first Ramones album way back when I was twelve.

I, like every other kid, thought someone in the band did all the album art.

Music is very important to me, and most people really. It gave me an identity and something to relate to as a teenager.

I was in a couple bands for five minutes but never really had the personality to be up there singing. I just wanted to be in the bands so I could do all the artwork. I lucked out, because doing posters made it possible to hang out with bands, watch shows from the side of the stage and go on tours. But I get to do it all on my terms as an artist and not a musician.

AD: Most poster art is very utilitarian - band, venue, date - but there's this really great tradition of poster art, not just in rock, but going back further. What's the challenge in trying to create a real work of art?

BE: Rock posters changed and became more creative in the Sixties with Girffin, Moscoso, Tuten and so on. Go Hippies! Poster art had been going strong since the Art Nouveau and Secession movements.

My job is to make the poster legible and spell the band names correctly. After that most bands let you do what you want. So then I think more about the band’s fans than the band. Because they know more about the music than the band does. I’m a huge fan of Coheed & Cambria. So if I saw a poster with a dragonfly on it, I wouldn’t be that impressed. But if someone listened to the music and interpreted one of their songs or album successfully then that would make me happy. I’d buy the poster and go to the show.

The challenge now is to maintain a style/identity while trying to go further with both. To be excited and to push myself with drawing and printing. I feel that after all this time I’m going through another “art puberty”. I have ideas and techniques that I’m trying to get across. Sometimes I get it right away and other times it’s a little awkward and takes a few tries to get what’s in my noggin onto paper.

AD: How did the book Don't Hold Your Breath happen?

BE: Rich Black asked me to write the foreword to his book Futura that Dark Horse published a few years ago. It’s pretty rad – it comes with 3D glasses! After that Chris Warner, the editor, asked me if I wanted to do a book. I was at the San Diego Comic Con in 2008 when he asked.  I should’ve bought a lottery ticket that day. A few minutes later he handed me a ticket to a Dark Horse/Lucasfilm party. I snuck my buddy Andrew Bawidamann into the party and we proceeded to uh...get loaded and surprisingly we didn’t get kicked out after a table of champagne glasses mysteriously got knocked over. So keep that between us.

Around the same time Tara McPherson and Frank Kozik had introduced me to folks at Dark Horse which helped tremendously.

The book almost didn’t get published. Because of the economy – many publishers had to cut back on some projects. Mine was one of them. During that time I was reaching out to clients and friends in the music industry and asked for their help to promote the book when it came out. Everybody was very helpful. I also asked my friend Crankbunny to create a trailer for the book and that really helped convince the publisher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqcaGLPgdD8

AD: What did you want the book to be? The layout and the sketches you include, you really seemed to be going for something different than we see in a lot of poster or art books. Plus you designed the book as well.

BE: I thought the best thing to do... was to do the opposite. I love the other books Dark Horse published on Rock Posters. Kozik, McPherson, R. Black and Stainboy are my friends and colleagues. I’m very proud to share shelf space with them. But I didn’t want to have a book that couldn’t be discerned from the other books.

So yeah I included a lot of sketches and anecdotes to give people an idea of how I worked on some of the posters. Sometimes I explained the process of how I drew a poster and sometimes I talked about my interactions with the bands that the posters was created for. For instance, I mention the time when the Melvins took me to Disneyland. That was a lot of fun!

To top it off I asked friends like The Bouncing Souls, Coheed & Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, Coop, Kozik, Missy Suicide, Meow Suicide, Steve Niles, Tim Bradstreet, Tara McPherson, MunkOne and a bunch more folks to write a few lines about the posters in the book. That meant a lot for my heroes them to take the time to write something.
Having Kevin Lyman write the foreword really meant the world to me. He’s been running one of the most successful music tours for over 15 years now. I have a lot of respect for him. He can work in the music business and still have a soul. Not an easy feat.

I’m really happy to hear that people enjoy the sketches. To me that’s just PORN. I love seeing the process of other artists. You can learn a lot about the artist’s methods by just looking at their sketches. So that’s why I designed the book that way. I treated it as a book I’d want to own. It’s also a love letter to my friends and family. They were very important to my growth as an artist. I wouldn’t be who I am without them.

Some people are surprised that I designed the book myself. It was something that I needed to cross off my “Nerd List”. It was a goal of mine to learn how to do that. I’ve designed my own signature shoes, sunglasses, shirts, belts, hoodies and packaging. So why not learn how to design a book.

AD: You did a piece for Revolver about how you made the Revolver Golden Gods poster which was just an amazing step by step how to that everyone who’s interested should check out. Were you essentially trying to teach a younger you how to do this, just laying out the process like that?

BE: Wow...thanks! Either I was trying to teach a younger me how it’s done or remind an older me in case I forget. I really tried my best because it was for a buddy of mine, Josh Bernstein. He art directed the poster. And Luther Davis of Axelle Fine Arts printed the job.

I’m a nerd. I like reading tutorials and learning something new. I’ve read a lot of bad tutorials and how-to books and didn’t want to add to the dreck.  I spent most of my life teaching myself how to use the materials and software I’m abusing now. They weren’t teaching it in school and when I started out most of my art heroes didn’t know how to use email. So I had to figure everything out myself and make sense of the process. I didn’t give away all my secrets. But I did want to show people how they can make a piece of art for $5 by just using a pencil, paper, pen and ink. Young artists seem to have more excuses for NOT drawing or creating art. I was hoping that I could simplify some of that and motivate a few of them to start working.

I always get asked what programs I use to draw a poster. I think a lot of people are blown away when they see something done by hand. “That’s not vector?” I feel that a lot of vector art is cold and lacks personality. Hitting command > shift > V - will probably make a piece look flawless but not always good. There are always exceptions to the rule. Ragnar, Ray Frenden and Bawidamann are vector artists that always amaze me.

AD: Besides posters you do a lot of other stuff like the Anarchy Artist series of sunglasses, drawing for the New Yorker. Do you see a time when you'll leave posters by the wayside?

BE: I don’t think I could. The rock posters are big-assed business cards! It was the posters that got me out there and working on different projects. I got lucky. I jumped in when nobody was looking at rock posters as a career anymore and I just went with it. I’m happy that I get to pick and choose my projects but I always feel that the rock posters offer a lot of freedom I may not get with the new projects.

With that said..I’m happy to be getting hired to do different projects. Clients see what I can do with the rock posters and want me to bring it to their project. It’s crazy that some big budget client is asking me for suggestions on how to make their project more appealing. “Really? You’re going to let me draw skulls all over this? How many zeros on my check? Alrighty.”

I always feel like I snuck in through a window or something. I never finished school and I went after jobs that required a degree. I keep waiting for security to tap me on the shoulder, tell me to put the beer down and get the fuck out.

AD: Any bands still out there you'd love to work but haven't?

BE: Metallica, Slayer, Danzig, Kid Cuddi, Nachtmystium, Anything Josh Homme is doing, same thing for Dave Grohl, Same thing for Pharrel Williams, Kanye West, Sleigh Bells, WhoMadeWho, The Klaxons, Henry Rollins, NICK CAVE!!!, Tom Waits, Mariachi El Bronx, anything Matt Skiba does, Dropkick Murphys, Trent Reznor, anything with Mike Patton, Gaslight Anthem, Atmosphere, Tiger Army, Leonard Cohen, Dragonforce, Millencolin, Rancid, Detroit Cobras, Beirut, the Dwarves, Voi Vod, P.O.S., Arcade Fire, The Damned, Alexisonfire, Iron Maiden...pretty obvious list. I could go on for days.

AD: How are you adjusting to life in New York after living in California for years?

BE: I fucking LOVE it. I moved to LA  at the end of 1999 from Minneapolis, and that was total culture shock for the first few months.

By the time I got to New York in 2008, I knew what to expect. Living here has been a challenge. It’s expensive, everything moves at a faster pace and there are Seasons. It’s not 70 degrees all year-round. I feel like I hafta earn my place here and I’m thankful for it. I work harder and have bigger expectations of myself as an artist and as an adult. If I stayed in California, I would have just kept going with the flow, not felt challenged and eventually getting really bored with everything. My friends ask me why I moved here and the easiest response is “because I could”. I wanted the challenge. I get to reinvent myself and burn a lot of baggage I carried around with me. A lot of people are afraid to do that. Fuck it.

AD: I have to ask. Why are there so many posters with skulls?

BE: I blame my strict Catholic upbringing. There are a lot of skulls in Religious art. I also blame Pushead. His album covers and artwork in Thrasher Magazine blew my mind as a kid and left an impression on me I will never wash off. Skulls are universal and appeal to so many people.

I’ve been focusing more on drawing pin-up now. But I still like to draw skulls here and there.

AD: So people are going to read this interview, check out the artwork and go, screw the book, I want that poster on my wall. Where do they go, what can they do or are they condemned to scream at ebay sellers with sky high prices?

BE: Well garsh...if you’re gonna make me get all shameless...then folks can check out my website http://www.BRIANEWING.com
Not sure if the redesign will be up by the time this is live but the new site will have all of the tutorials I’ve written and be easier to navigate.

Otherwise I’m planning a book tour soon to get the word out about the book and I’ll have some new and old prints with me available so I can buy PB&J sandwiches and cheap beer to sustain myself.

"I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy," says Filter founder and frontman Richard Patrick during our interview. It's not that he's going to do either, it's just that he understands what anger combined with a sense of hopeless can... more

"I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy," says Filter founder and frontman Richard Patrick during our interview. It's not that he's going to do either, it's just that he understands what anger combined with a sense of hopeless can do to a person's psyche.

In 2008 he released Anthems For The Damned, which served both as a protest against the Iraq war and a tribute to a friend it had claimed. (Anti-war, but very much pro-troops, Patrick has traveled to the Middle East twice to play concerts for those who risk their lives to serve our country.) Two years on, though our president may have changed, the status quo (or lack thereof) remains the same in the Middle East. After too many years listening to grim reports from the frontlines of a war that was misguided from the start, both the troops on the ground and the masses here at home are suffering from a severe case of fuck up fatigue. With dissent now largely falling on deaf ears, and, even worse, serving to remind the proletariat of their powerlessness, Patrick gets why it's therapeutic to embrace indifference, shrug your shoulders and say "fuck it" to the world.

Thus, at least on the surface, the latest Filter release, The Trouble With Angels, channels the middle finger up attitude of Patrick's drug and alcohol dependant youth - and of his band's 1995 breakthrough debut, Short Bus. Featuring songs with titles such as "Down With Me," "Drug Boy" and "The Inevitable Relapse," the new Filter full-length – which is undoubtedly one of the band’s best – explores topics such as addiction, murder and suicide. Inspired by the music, but puzzled by the message, SG checked in with Patrick to find out where his head was at.

NP: I have to say I fucking love this album. I really, honesty do. I was blown away by it.

RP: That's awesome. I'm really happy about that. Thank you.

NP: Last time we spoke was a few months after the release of Anthems for the Damned. Even back then, you spoke about how this album was going to go in a very different direction. What was the overall inspiration for this album?

RP: The overall inspiration for this album was the meaning behind the title, The Trouble With Angels. It just seems that religion has kind of left its mark on the land. [For example], a guy like Galileo - you know the guy who invented the telescope and discovered [the four largest satellites of] Jupiter and Saturn - 400 years ago they imprisoned him because he was going against the teachings of the church...Superstition imprisoned a man because he made an incredible scientific discovery. [Galileo challenged the belief rigidly held by the church that all heavenly bodies circled the earth.] He was answering questions about the universe, and doing us a favor, and he was imprisoned for it.

I don't think it's as overt as "end the Iraq war, my friend's dead." It's not as on-the-nose, but yet, if I'm going to put out music, I'm going to always try to have a statement. That's my one little scream in the night that I'm allowed to do. I just kind of drew attention to the imprisonment of Galileo, and I pay tribute to him a little bit.

I'm just leaving hidden messages all over the record - and maybe some not so hidden. I got to say the packaging on our record is absolutely amazing. It's so cool. You open it up and there's this pop up angel that's either swimming or drowning, just kind of symbolically surrounded by science. There's enough [left] to the imagination that most people wouldn't get it, which is cool, because I don't want to smack them in the face, I just want them to be inspired to think about things.

NP: Right. On a surface level the tracks are totally satisfying. They're raging, with monster choruses.

RP: Yeah, I'm kind of famous for my choruses. I really want them soaring.

NP: Which is interesting because there are others in that circle where you came from roots-wise, Nine Inch Nails and that industrial camp, that are almost anti-melody.

RP: I cut my teeth in industrial. I was more inspired by the Ministry end of things, beyond the Skinny Puppy end of things, and that's exactly what Trent did. Trent went for the sound design kind of craziness of Skinny Puppy and I went for the more guitar-driven stuff of Ministry. But after the first record, Short Bus, I was fully, OK, I'm going more rock. That's where this record picks up because it's definitely more of just a rock record. This is actually the record I probably should have made ten years ago, but, you know, it comes out now. It comes out when it comes out.

NP: I understand on "Fades Like A Photograph" you worked with your old Short Bus collaborator Brian Liesegang.

RP: He did a little sound design. He colors things. He puts some textures on things. I kind of [enlisted] some of these guys because I really didn't want it to be the Richard Patrick band, because I felt like I really wanted to distance myself from my former boss. But the reality is, I've been the only main original member the whole time. So as much as I love Brian, he didn't write anything. He never wrote anything. He just added some keyboard type stuff on the top of the songs that I'd written. I don't mean to diminish what he is, because he's really great - he's got a great band called Ashtar Command. Truth be told it was actually [screenwriter and producer] Harald Kloser [and] his friend [film composer] Tom [Wander] who was working on the movie 2012, they called me and wanted to work on this song. I grabbed their music and rearranged it, and then I wrote vocals and put it on top. I pretty much did the melody and wrote most of the lyrics with a couple of little changes from Harold. This is the song I wrote for 2012 and I just reworked it [for the album].

NP: Another track that really stands out is "No Love." That has some interesting lyrics: "Twenty years ago you tried to take my eyes..."

RP: Yeah, "Twenty years ago you tried to take my eyes. Thought you loved the world, and I believed your lies." Very specific. [laughs]

NP: It's very specific, twenty years...

RP: Twenty years, I wonder what I'm talking about? I mean, I had a lot of amazing things [happen to me back then]. We were so young, and there's so many great things when you're younger. It's tough looking back sometimes because hindsight is obviously 20/20. It's kind of sad, you know, we should have had more fun. As twenty-year olds, we should have had more fun.

NP: I was talking with Steven Adler from Guns N' Roses recently, and he was talking about that same thing. How you don't realize what you have until you don't have it anymore. Especially because when you're that age, and it comes so easily, you don't stop and smell the roses because you don't even realize there's anything special to stop and smell.

RP: Yeah. It's bizarre. Like all my twenties were drenched with alcohol and drugs, and it made things just so hard. You just go through life and you're like, well, I made pretty much every mistake I could make, and you just start writing lyrics: You crossed a million miles, and you lost a million times, and the disrespect you've earned is the disrespect you've learned. I really love that song. Mitch Marlowe really brought his A-game. Mitch is the Asian kid that was in my live band a couple of years ago. He brought such an amazing originality and he just really brought his A-game on that song. It was the first song that [producer] Bob Marlette and I and Mitch really wrote together, and I got to say, if I'm allowed to make another record, I would love to have Mitch come out for a month or two and just write with me and Bob, because I think it would be insane. I think it'd be really great. I hope I get that next chance.

NP: Were there any other tracks on the album that Mitch and you collaborated on?

RP: Yeah, he wrote the music to "Clouds" with Bob.

NP: That's another track I have written down to talk about. I loved that one too.

RP: Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm really diggin' it. This record, to be honest, it wrote itself. Bob Marlette just accentuated everything that was good and just really helped to finish it properly, and re-wrote stuff. I call him "The Finisher." Mitch wrote the chorus to "Drug Boy," Mitch wrote the beginnings of "Down With Me" - I love the lyrics on that. It's like it literally just paints a scene, a crime scene, and you find out it was a murder suicide. The last thing you hear, he goes, I found a note and it said "If I can't have her, then no one will." It just sounds like a short story come to life or something.

NP: And we should talk about the first single, "The Inevitable Relapse."

RP: I really struck a nerve with "Drug Boy," and I've struck a nerve with "The Inevitable Relapse." I think a lot of people are confused. I think they think I'm saying I'm going down, and I'm going down in a ball of flames. People don't understand it's a song. It can be fiction. There's no method behind it other than the phenomenon. It's like, "Hey Man, Nice Shot." A guy held a press conference, blew his head off, I wrote a song, and there's no judgment. It is what it is. It's a song describing a suicide scene.

So "The Inevitable Relapse," before I got sober this last seven years, this last time I got sober, I relapsed every other day. Like I quit drinking, and then a day later I was out getting wasted. When you're in the disease of alcoholism or drug dependency, it's a fight. The song is about losing that battle. And the video, I'm so proud of that video. It summed it up perfectly. Have you seen the video?

NP: Yes.

RP: You see this guy getting his ass kicked by someone beautiful and hot. He escapes and then he comes back for more abuse. That's it. That's drug addiction. In that case it's like a love addiction. Again, I was really not trying to make this huge message. I mean, I used to chant, "Drink it, drink it, snort it, smoke it. Drink it, drink it..." At my studio back in Chicago, I'd call a drug dealer and I'd get in touch with him, and he would be like, "I'm on my way." And I'm like, "Yes!" That was the best I was going to feel all month, knowing that the drug dealer was on his way...I'd binge for an entire three or four days. It was terrible. It was horrible. But in that song, I'm not saying I'm relapsing, come and join me. I'm just talking about the phenomenon of losing - losing the battle, fucking up, that kind of thing.

NP: I know you have "September 28th, 2002" tattooed on your arm, which is the day you finally got sober. What changed for you?

RP: When I went into rehab I knew in my heart and soul that I am just incapable of drinking. I just can't do it. I was so obvious. I cancelled a tour, I lost hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars - there was just no getting around it. I couldn't go on stage and sing anymore, it was horrible. So when I walked into rehab, I was done. I was like, take a good look around, because this is the first and last time you're ever going to go to a place like this and check yourself in.

On the confines of my record, in the imaginary world of lyrics on my record, some of the people relapse and some of the people are still on drugs. "Drug Boy," it's all based on the early years of my life. I used to drop acid and run around the streets of Cleveland with this pack, I don't want to say gang, but a pack of twenty-year olds [who were] totally disenfranchised, loser, falling through the cracks [types]. Some of them died, some of them got arrested, but no one ended up doing anything really great except for what happened with my career.

We would break into an abandoned jail, and go into the basement and read the files of criminals that had lived entire criminal lives in the 1920s. And there was this whole thing where we went into a cemetery and inevitably someone would break into a mausoleum and grab a skull and just walk out with it - just bizarre behavior.

Bob Marlette, our producer, was just like, "You really should talk about that stuff." Because you know, on Army of Anyone I talk about growing up, and I became kind of mature. He was like, "You know what dude? That's cool. I'm glad you're growing up and you're maturing, but at the same time, we all miss that knucklehead, that crazy man from your youth - you as a youngster." And he goes, "Remember that, let's talk about that, and then let's put that into these songs, these first couple of songs on the record so that it really embodies our original work, Short Bus." So we did that, and people are freaking out because they're like, "Wow! Is Richard back on drugs?"

I just don't want to be the guy that's mellowing with age. Because I don't feel mellow. I mean Anthems was this big tribute record to a friend of ours that had been killed in the Iraq War Part Deux, and I just was like, I really want to make sure that I tap into my craziness as well because that was a fun thing to listen to...I kind of wanted to sound reckless again. I wanted to not try and do anything with my record. I didn't want my record to have an agenda. I wanted my record to reflect the darkness in life. It sounds cheesy, but at the end day we walk around and it's so confusing. The world is so confusing and it's so insane. It's fucking insane.

Sarah Palin and the conservative right wing is just [Richard puts on his best crazy Palin voice], "This country should be way more Christian. We can't have a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero. And we got to build a wall up between us and all them Mexicans." It's so far away from what Jesus Christ was teaching, and it's just so astounding that someone would impose their beliefs. And at the same time they're like, "I ain't got no charity for no Mexicans." It's unbelievable.

NP: Right, the level of hate they spew in the name of Jesus is spectacularly inappropriate to what he would have wanted, and they have no concept of the irony.

RP: You just walk around and you're like, am I the only one who gets this? So as opposed to trying to do anything, it's almost like I am recognizing the chaos, and, without any judgment, I'm just going, I understand that chaos. I understand wanting entertainment.

When I went to Iraq I was shocked. The soldiers were like, "Hey, we really appreciate you saying what you want to say about the war. We really appreciate you coming out here and we really appreciate that your friend has been killed out here. Same with us. Let's fucking rock. Let's have a fucking great time and sing that song about that guy fucking killing himself."

And it's kind of like, I guess you're right. 'Cause honestly, if you take a broom and you try and sweep back the ocean, it's impossible. So as well as the confusion and the chaos, there's a certain amount of apathy on this record. At some points in this record I'm literally like, "Oh well, whatever, nevermind" - straight out of Kurt Cobain's mouth. It's literally at that point with me in so many ways, so I am throwing up my hands in the air and going, "You're right! Fuck it! There's nothing that can be done. I'm going to write songs about fucking blowing my head off and giving in to apathy, and who gives a shit. Let's turn up the amps and fucking play loud rock music." There has to be that too.

NP: I completely get that. If I think about things too much I get so angry at the world, and trying to change it is like pissing in the wind, so sometimes you've just got to say "fuck it."

RP: Yeah. I mean, I think what people loved about Filter in the early days, and that's literally what I'm figuring out, is they were like, "Please take yourself seriously but at the same time just try and break it. Just try and destroy it. Have fun destroying it." And I get that. I understand that...Sometimes it's better to just destroy a guitar and fucking trash a stage and fucking break shit and not care so much about something because that's exactly how the audience feels.

When we played in Corpus Christi [see video from Filter's July 25th, 2010 show], we were literally over it and we kind of tore down the stage and threw shit around, and broke cymbals and laughed. It was funny because the audience had never seen anything like that. Nowadays musicians don't have gobs of money. They're like, "That guitar cost five hundred dollars." Most bands, they see it in terms of you have to sell 500 CDs to pay for that guitar - and selling 500 CDs is a fucking hard task these days. Back in the day they'd give us $500,000 checks every couple of months. But we destroyed the stage and we were throwing shit around and the audience was like, I understand that. I'm in my cubicle and in my construction worker job, and we hate the world too.

So I've kind of come full circle. I'm like, "Yeah I've relapsed, and yeah, I fucking don't care, and yeah, I fucking want to blow my head off, and yeah, I fucking hate god. I'm with you. Fuck this world. Fuck this shit." It's come back to that. I'm with you. Fuck reality.

And it's fun to have that again. On "Absentee Father" I play a 32 bar solo and there's not even one approach at trying to play a guitar with any musical rules or whatever. I literally took a screwdriver and fucking started breaking strings. It was the most amazing thing I had done in ten years. It was the most fun I ever had, and it's way up at the beginning of the record. The third song on the record is my avant-garde guitar solo that fucking flips off every guitar hero on the planet because I'm totally just taking a shit on the guitar and handing it to the public like, "What do you think of that?"

I just had so much fun on this record destroying and being crazy and being a nut. And, within the lyrics, relapsing and killing people. That's what rock & roll was all about, and that's what I realized I needed to get back to.

NP: Well that's a basic function of music. It helps people escape from their daily lives.

RP: That's the thing, there's my hidden meaning in the record. If you get it - great. If you don't - I don't care either. Fuck it. Who cares? Let's smash a fucking guitar, and, at the end of the day, let's have that cathartic release that we need.


The Trouble With Angels is available now via Rocket Science Ventures. For more information go to OfficialFilter.com.