There is a Swedish black metal band called Mayhem. Instead of elaborating immediately on their bloody history where a lead singer blew his brains out and a bassist stabbed a guitarist to death, I wanted to point out how uncanny it was that the band's twenty year history reads a lot like the progression and regression and (more than likely, inevitable) return to the scene (or, non-scene) of UltraViolent Comics. Did you catch that? That was a thesis statement.
It all started out for Mayhem like the way many killer metal bands start out, refugees from several other bands than form under a new banner (see Cannibal Corpse which started out as three different bands and, effectively, became two similar-but-different bands when Chris Barnes left and started Six Feet Under and George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher filled his boots as the singer). Guitarist Euronymus hooked up with bassist Necrobutcher, drummer Manheim and, later, singer Messiah. After Messiah absconded from the band to get a real job and distance himself from the scene, he was replaced by Maniac. The only other metal musicians with better stage names are Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy Kilmeister.
UltraViolent Comics started out called "Shit n' spin", which was supposed to be a knock on a friend-of-mine's project called "Sit n' Spin"_a decidedly PG-13 rated and apparently entirely autobiographical internet comic. I wanted it to be everything her comic wasn't, because, at the time, I was trying to be a turd in her punchbowl. I never put the first bits of it on the internet (mostly because it sucked), I didn't color anything, it was autobiographical only in as much as it had people I knew in real life in it, but nothing short of fiction of documented. Fictional documentary…that's an oxymoron.
Constantly releasing EPs, tapes and limited edition material, includeing the ultra rare and sought after Deathcrush EP, Mayhem was truly trying to the creek against the stream. According to all accounts I've read, it was a bohemian-in-black...
There is a Swedish black metal band called Mayhem. Instead of elaborating immediately on their bloody history where a lead singer blew his brains out and a bassist stabbed a guitarist to death, I wanted to point out how uncanny it was that the band's twenty year history reads a lot like the progression and regression and (more than likely, inevitable) return to the scene (or, non-scene) of UltraViolent Comics. Did you catch that? That was a thesis statement.
It all started out for Mayhem like the way many killer metal bands start out, refugees from several other bands than form under a new banner (see Cannibal Corpse which started out as three different bands and, effectively, became two similar-but-different bands when Chris Barnes left and started Six Feet Under and George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher filled his boots as the singer). Guitarist Euronymus hooked up with bassist Necrobutcher, drummer Manheim and, later, singer Messiah. After Messiah absconded from the band to get a real job and distance himself from the scene, he was replaced by Maniac. The only other metal musicians with better stage names are Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy Kilmeister.
UltraViolent Comics started out called "Shit n' spin", which was supposed to be a knock on a friend-of-mine's project called "Sit n' Spin"_a decidedly PG-13 rated and apparently entirely autobiographical internet comic. I wanted it to be everything her comic wasn't, because, at the time, I was trying to be a turd in her punchbowl. I never put the first bits of it on the internet (mostly because it sucked), I didn't color anything, it was autobiographical only in as much as it had people I knew in real life in it, but nothing short of fiction of documented. Fictional documentary…that's an oxymoron.
Constantly releasing EPs, tapes and limited edition material, includeing the ultra rare and sought after Deathcrush EP, Mayhem was truly trying to the creek against the stream. According to all accounts I've read, it was a bohemian-in-black lifestyle to live. Living it must have been stressful enough to drive anyone to suicide. Of course it did just that, however, the third singer, called Dead, in the band didn't kill himself in response to the life, rather he blew his brains out in response to his life. By all accounts, he apparently didn't seem exactly depressed as much as he did seem just odd. Burying clothes for weeks so to have stage gear that look zombie-like, keeping a dead raven in a plastic bag to inhale the stench and chasing cats naked with knives_these are acts, in my mind, of a person who isn't exactly on the same plane as the rest of us.
"Shit n' Spin" quickly became a lame title for me to keep writing down and mentioning to people and after watching "Clockwork Orange" for the thirtieth time, I knew I had a new title to go in with: UltraViolent Comics. I wanted it to have some of that golden age name sake to it (like Detective comics or Action comics). I wanted to draw myself and my friends in to pin ups that look like the movie poster, so I ran with it. I also started asking people around me for ideas for celebrities they want to see get mangled. Encouraging the wrath of men and women who have more than enough money to hire some scum bad lawyer by drawing them getting covered in hot glue and being impaled_this is not something that people who want to live nice lives do_it was also something I made a habit out of doing at least once a day for more than a year.
The shards of Dead's head on the walls of the band's shared apartment: Polaroids where taken, a stew consisting of ham, vegetables and brains was made and necklaces of shattered skull were made to share. Shortly after, and I'm still not sure exactly why, Count Grishnackh, also known as Varg Vikernes, hopped a seven hour train from Bergen to Oslo to go stab Eruonymus to death. It might have been over metal cred, contract stuff or money, but with a lead singer dead, charter members of the band gone and a dead gituarist with a bassist on his way to the pen for the murder, things were officially out of hand for the band. All that remained was Hellhammer, so they went tits up. The band never put out a full length LP by this time.
Drawing in a book, never published, and shown only to the people in the comic, the only people I trusted with material that, realistically, could get me tossed in jail, UltraViolent was forced to enjoy a small existence. While limited, it caught on with the target audience and in my mind, that's all that counted. UltraViolent Comics, like Mayhem, isn't for everyone. Not everyone gets it and I'm not patent enough to explain it to people who don't see the humor in setting fire to Fred Durst.
The band eventually reformed with Maniac as the singer, Hellhammer on the skins, Necrobutcher as the bassist and newcomer Blasphemer playing guitar. Finally, in 1994, thirteen years after the band got started, their first full length album, "DeMysteriis Dom Sathanas" (Lord Satan's Secret Rites) came out. It is unlikely the band will ever enjoy mainstream success, but then again, who wants it?
Once I went to college, I decided to back away from doing comics until I had I feet firmly on the ground. It took me about a year and a half. On the other end of my forced break, I stopped drawing the one page two panel strips and started in on drawing several page long gore-fests where Rush Limbaugh had nails pounded in his eyes, Ted Nugent was decapitated and President Reagan as a zombie was pissed on after being torn to bits with a grenade and a pick axe. I had matured in as much as I was drawing longer, more refined mini horror stories. I even took the leap to putting them on the internet in a reserved way. Nothing too shocking would go up. The guy who played Jesus in the Mel Gibson movie committing suicide and cussing up a storm after he's teased for not being as good as Willem Dafoe… that's just funny. It's unlikely, and totally undesired, that UltraViolent Comics meet with any kind of mainstream success.
In 2004, Mayhem released their third studio LP called "Chimera". Interviewed for a film called "Metal: a headbanger's journey", Necrobutcher and Hellhammer are drunk, unable to conduct a decent interview and looking old. However, later reached again for a follow up interview, Hellhammer seemed sharp and totally aware of the Black Metal's significance to the scene, lack of significance to the mainstream and Mayhem's horrifying past.
In 2006, UltraViolent comics is not currently being drawn as the only audience for it has all but lost interest. I would restart it if I knew I'd like what I was doing and if I knew the people I'd be doing it for would like it. Chances are, in 2009 UltraViolent Comics might resurface, if it hasn't already by then. The idea in my head is for one last bloody bash against a certain figure that is untouchable as of 2006. With any luck, by then, the comic will have crawled out of the recesses of head and replaced the interesting fact pieces I'm currently preoccupied with making now. Until then, there's no saying for sure. Unfortunately for UltraViolent comics, like with Mayhem, there never really ever was anything for certain.
IPOD
RADIO
It all started out for Mayhem like the way many killer metal bands start out, refugees from several other bands than form under a new banner (see Cannibal Corpse which started out as three different bands and, effectively, became two similar-but-different bands when Chris Barnes left and started Six Feet Under and George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher filled his boots as the singer). Guitarist Euronymus hooked up with bassist Necrobutcher, drummer Manheim and, later, singer Messiah. After Messiah absconded from the band to get a real job and distance himself from the scene, he was replaced by Maniac. The only other metal musicians with better stage names are Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy Kilmeister.
UltraViolent Comics started out called "Shit n' spin", which was supposed to be a knock on a friend-of-mine's project called "Sit n' Spin"_a decidedly PG-13 rated and apparently entirely autobiographical internet comic. I wanted it to be everything her comic wasn't, because, at the time, I was trying to be a turd in her punchbowl. I never put the first bits of it on the internet (mostly because it sucked), I didn't color anything, it was autobiographical only in as much as it had people I knew in real life in it, but nothing short of fiction of documented. Fictional documentary…that's an oxymoron.
Constantly releasing EPs, tapes and limited edition material, includeing the ultra rare and sought after Deathcrush EP, Mayhem was truly trying to the creek against the stream. According to all accounts I've read, it was a bohemian-in-black...