TALES FROM URANUS 10/2001 1. How are things Jake? Please present your comic Tales from Uranus! Jake: Thanks for the interview! Things are cool around here, been busy with some new art! Well, Tales from Uranus is a totally sick, underground comic that I do all myself. It's a gore-infested onslaught of sick humor and insane stories influenced by bad movies and mental illness! (All the proper ingredients... -Lee) It's in color and totally uncensored! www.talesfromuranus.com is my web addy. All the info on ordering my comix is there. I'm a supporter of gore/death metal bands too. I have a lot of killer links on my site and I distro lots of flyers with my comix orders. All gore/splatter freaks get in touch! 2. For those who have seen your work they know this isn't just another comic made for fun but you have a very marketable talent. When will we be able to go to the comic shop and find your work? As anyone in the graphic novel scene should know there is no need to tone down the content to be released, right? Are you searching for interested publishers? Jake: Thanks! Yeah it'd be nice to be distributed through a publisher, but I really haven't given it much attention. I'm really just starting to approach all of this seriously. I do wonder though if they'd try to censor me a little. The stuff I have coming out is even sicker than what you've seen! I don't know, we'll see what happens. I just know I'm not gonna change my shit for someone else and if I have to print these fuckers from my house forever, then so be it. 3. For years, searching a good horror comic that wasn't just some slightly morbid super hero bummer failed for me with the exception of EC reprints. Where are the good gore/horror comics? Jake: Mine! Hahaha! Just kidding man! But, seriously, I haven't really paid much attention to what's out there. I mainly still look thru my old stack of 70's comix. They're enough for me. The main reason I do Tales from Uranus is because I could never find anything really brutal and funny. So, I decided to just make the fucking things myself. I've always wanted to do comix, just not that lameass shit that's all over the place out there. There's some ultra-talented fuckers out there, but I just wish they'd draw something different! Or at least go back to the old days and draw westerns, horror, sci-fi, even romance, fuck it! Those type of comics required artistic talent with perspective, shading, and mood. Some of these fucks today couldn't draw a background to save their nuts! But, I'm sure there's something cool out there, I just don't get too exposed to any of it. My town has one comic shop and the guy that runs it is religious, so go figure! I haven't even been there in a couple years. 4. You also express appreciation for the real sick bands like HAEMORRHAGE and so forth, what are your favorite elements of today's extreme music scene? Jake: Right now, I feel the Indonesian and Malaysian scene is fucking awesome! Razorback Records here in the states is really slinging out the guts too. I think there's a real kickass gore scene in general and I think we'll all probably look back on it one of these days like we look back on the 80's. I really dig the bands that ahve a real punishing sound, like LIVIDITY, EXHUMED, BRODEQUIN, MORGUE, and BRUTALITY REIGNS SUPREME. (BRS like a mutha fucka! -Lee) There's so much good shit! 5. What was growing up like for you? Was it a struggle doing what you do with simple people criticizing your talent? Jake: Nah, growing up was pretty peaceful really. I grew up in Illinois, so there was a lot of beer and metal going on in my younger years. Country cruising and listening to Maiden and Motorhead man!! I never really struggled with anybody that didn't understand what I was into. I just ignore those fucks and hang out with like-minded freaks. 6. Waht artists have inspired you? Do you like Mark Riddick's work? Jake: Jack Kirby has to be my all=time influence. The man was amazing. Other artists would be S. Clay Wilson, Joe Coleman, Frazetta, Bisley, all the old EC comics artists, a lot of the Conan art and just a lot of old comic book art still inspires me. I've seen a little of Riddick's stuff and it looks killer! (Straight up! -Lee) 7. TFU revolves around all the perfect elements like horror, gore, shock and plenty of humor and satire. What personal annoyances of everyday life do you express in your work? At least posers can die in fiction right? Jake: I really actually try to keep a lot of "everyday life" out of my comix. I like comix for the escapist qualities, to get away from real shit for a little while. I just like it to be silly, action-packed, gore insanity! But yeah, seeing poseurs get their guts ripped out is a little hing as to where I'm coming from on personal views, isn't it? Yeah, I have to say that geeky/stomp metal shit is really getting fuckin old man! (It was old the first time KORN said "Arrre you readdy?!?" -Lee) I mean, can these little spoiled, suburbanite, baggy pants losers whine about anything else?? Damn, you'd think they'd been anally raped since birth by the way they bitch and moan in that mainstream music these days (hmm..maybe there's something to that heheh). I mean, fuck dude, cut your fucking wrists and get it over with! One less idiot in the trough! (Here here! If only they were serious about suicide and not just trying to get attention, snivelling faggots! -Lee) 8. Tell me your honest opinion of movies like "Blair Witch 2" and "Dracula 2000"! Are there any good horror films of the present or is a good horror movie a thing of the past to you? Jake: I don't particularly care for anything new or mainstream in horror. They're all pussies. That's all there is to it. (But they have todays hottest actors, MTV contests and how about those soundtracks! How can you go wrong! That's horror baby! -Lee) They don't have the balls in Hollywood to do anything original or sick. There is a bunch of fucking cattle and wimps running the movie industry. Fuck them all. Some stuff doesn't totally suck,, but hey, there ain't a stack of NEW shit in my studio that I want to watch over and over and over again, you know? Everything has been done in the drive-in first. Really, it has. I prefer to watch old horror films, Giallo stuff, and slasher flicks from the old days. I still am a loooonnng ways rom seeing everything made in the past, so I really have no desire to keep up with any current trends. I'm too busy being entertained by the masters! Shit, man, there's always hope that we'll get another Fulci, another Romero dead flick, or even another Alien for fuck's sake...but I'm not holding my breath man. 9. What is in the future for TFU? Do you have any interest in being in a band? Jake: Well, Tales from Uranus will go until it's done. I have no plans to stop, as long as I keep getting ideas. Being in a band would be killer (I can play guitar) but it's a shitload of work to do it seriously and I don't have the money or time to do it. I respect bands that slay though, because it is a LOT of fucking work and some people don't notice that. (Yeah look at LIVIDITY and imagine now much things they have to juggle to do what they love! -Lee) 10. Thanks for all and keep drawing! Final words please. Jake: Thank you man! I want to give some info real quick for all you gorefreaks...Check out my partner Steph at his website www.raisinlove.com and go to the "Zombie Commandos from Hell!" link. That is a side comix project of total gore mayhem that we are doing and it is fucking NUTS! It's professionally printed too and is slowly getting distributed around the world bit by bit. We have one issue out and are working on some more. The link is on my site as well. Go to my site for all the order info on my comix, Tales from Uranus. I have a few issues out, all in color and more on the way! There's a free gallery there too and lots of bitching underground links. SUPPORT THE GORE YOU FUCKS! www.talesfromuranus.com My email: karnage@lycos.com INTERVIEWS