THE SIMPSON NEWS – Why I Chopped Quentin Tarantino’s head off.

Simpsons Quote:

“This is indeed a disturbing universe.” – Maggie Simpson

I’m not a Quentin Tarantino fan nor am I a fan of his movies.

I’ve never met Mr. Tarantino.  It’s possible that if I did, I might like him and think he’s a great guy. But from interviews, documentaries, and other things like that, where I’ve heard him speak, he’s rubbed me the wrong way.

How it began

A long time ago, back when I was working on Season 8 as a Layout Artist, sometime in 1996, I was put on Show 3, Directed by Chuck Sheetz.

I was given the storyboard for the show and took a look at what we were going to be tackling. It was the Sherry Bobbins show and I thought it was very funny.  Then I saw the Itchy and Scratchy section of the show.  I thought it was awesome and decided I wanted to do it.

Some Directors ask the Layout artists what scenes they want to work on, while others simply assign them a section they think fits their strengths. My preferred method of getting layout scenes was simply to get them assigned to me. This time, I made an exception.

I walked into Chucks office and I asked for the Itchy and Scratchy scenes.  I didn’t know if he had another assignment in mind for me. I just wanted to do those scenes.  I explained to him how I REALLY wanted to draw Itchy chopping Tarantino’s head off because he annoyed me.

He told me it was fine and also assigned me some other scenes, since the Itchy and Scratchy section was so short. This was the first and last time I ever asked a director for a specific section like this.

The fun part

I returned to my desk triumphant.  This was going to be fun.  I was going to go to town on these scenes.

One of the best parts about working on the scene was just making fun of how much Tarantino uses his hand when he talks.  I think I had recently seen him interviewed in some talk show and it was fresh in my mind.

I over acted the heck out of the poses during his lines. So much so, that I didn’t think there would be time to put all my poses in the short amount of dialogue he had.  I just wanted him to look as erratic as possible.

It turned out looking alright in the end.

The Irony

I don’t ACTUALLY want to harm Tarantino, I thought perhaps it would be cathartic to do it in cartoon form, knowing I wasn’t actually doing anyone any harm.

On hindsight, I think the REAL reason I wanted to chop of his cartoon head off was because of that ear chopping scene in RESERVOIR DOGS. When I saw that movie and that scene came up, it made me feel sick to my stomach.  I was like,

“What WRONG with this director?! He’s sick in the head!”

I guess this spoof was my attempt to “get even” for making me feel so sick.

Well, the joke was on me.

After all, the scenes I was working on where spoofs of that very scene. When it was time for me to actually work on the scenes, a horrible realization came over me. It never occurred to me that in order to do the spoof justice, I had to…well…do  research. I had to see how it was done in the actual movie.

In other words, in order for me to do this spoof, I had to look at the ear chopping scene in RESERVOIR DOGS, over and over and over. Analyzing it, freeze framing it, playing it over, ACTING IT OUT. I had to LIVE that scene in order to get the movement right.

“Why did I chose to do this?! Aaah!”

It came back to bite me in the butt.

I also had to do the same with the Pulp Fiction Dancing scenes. But that wasn’t nearly as bad. And it was much more fun to breakdown the dancing in those scenes, so I could pose out my drawings.

It didn’t take away the bad taste in my mouth I ended up with having to see the RESERVOIR DOGS scene so much.

The Catharsis

Well, perhaps it fueled me more when I finally got to the head chopping part.  I made sure to make it as silly and cartoony as I could. I made the head bounce like a rubber ball when it hit the ground and added the tongue sticking out.  I also added a small swagger to the decapitated  body as it took a step back before he fell forward, butt in the air. Too bad this last bit wasn’t quite timed the way I had seen it in my head.

I drew the scenes really fast. Faster than I’d ever drawn any scenes before.  There were just so many poses. By the time I was done, the scenes were huge. Some of the biggest ones I’d ever done.

It turned out the be one of the best looking scenes I’d ever drawn too. So much so, that I photocopied the scenes and I still have those copies at home. It’s one of maybe, three scenes that I ever did that with.

So yeah, it was fun and satisfying for me to do that scene in the end. But I think Tarantino got the last laugh, considering I had to look at that ear chopping scene so many times to do it.

When I was working on this episode, I didn’t really have a convenient way of looking at the reference I need.

This week in my e-mail, I write about the archaic method I used to reference the movie.

It was pretty sad and pathetic.  If you missed out on that info and don’t want to miss out again, sign up to receive the e-mails from me. Sign up in the side bar or in the opt in at the bottom of this post.

WEBSITES – The Drawing Website Update

Here’s a short update of where I’m at, with the launch of The Drawing Website.

I’ve created a Twitter handle for the site.

It’s: @DrawingWebsite.

It doesn’t have an avatar yet. It’s on my list to do.  I just need to get the site up and running before I tackle smaller things like that. You can follow the site if you want. I’ll see about throwing update on there.

I’m also trying to finish up the two site mascots for the main page.  Here are my roughs:

And yes, they’re holding pencils.

Did I mention I’m treating the drawing site like a Kung Fu class? Well, now you know. Learn to draw like you would learn Kung Fu. You’ll have fun. I’m having fun already and I haven’t even launched the darn thing.

Get an e-mail about the site’s launch by signing up in the opt in.

SOME THOUGHTS – My new current obsession

Four years ago I wrote a post about my obsessive personality. Included in that post was the following diagram:

Well guess what? You can officially add some new unexpected obsessions to this list:

36. Business

37. Entrepreneurship

38. Marketing

39. Copy writing.

That’s right, I’ve become obsessed with this stuff lately. I’ve just been reading about it and thinking about it and I’ve even started putting it into practice.  It’s very possible that I’ll be writing far more about it in this blog, since that’s where my heads at right now.

Similar to the way I was writing about board games and role-playing games.

I hope that, when I do, IF I do, I can show you why I’m so obsessed with it and why I find it as creative as drawing and writing stories.

Oh, and by the way, “Drawing” should have been on the list above, but for some reason I left it out. Just imagine that number 10 reads: “Painting/Drawing”.

For more comics and stories written by me: COMICS AND STORIES

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to receive e-mails from me.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.