Ask Burt

[Sgt. Crackpot]

Get the real answers here.

[BurtReynolds]

[Sgt. Crackpot]

Burt, how does one reach orgasmic enlightenment?

[BurtReynolds]

Burt, how does one reach orgasmic enlightenment?

Make 10 million dollars

[Dev]

I might never reach orgasmic enlightenment

[Jorge]

Hi Burt, I finally read Scurry. I enjoyed it a lot, the artwork is truly incredible. I have the Image paperback and I noticed that in this edition, as well as some of the marketing materials I saw, it seems to be advertised as a book for young kids? It has a reading guide that seems to be for young students as well as "activities" and discussion prompts for teachers. Is that something you always intended? Was this angle present in the original editions or was it something the Image people decided on?

[wease]

Did Kirkman force that on you?

[tragabigzanda]

There is a wolf in me . . . fangs pointed for tearing gashes . . . a red tongue for raw meat . . . and the hot lapping of blood—I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fox in me . . . a silver-gray fox . . . I sniff and guess . . . I pick things out of the wind and air . . . I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers . . . I circle and loop and double-cross.

There is a hog in me . . . a snout and a belly . . . a machinery for eating and grunting . . . a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun—I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fish in me . . . I know I came from salt-blue water-gates . . . I scurried with shoals of herring . . . I blew waterspouts with porpoises . . . before land was . . . before the water went down . . . before Noah . . . before the first chapter of Genesis.

There is a baboon in me . . . clambering-clawed . . . dog-faced . . . yawping a galoot's hunger . . . hairy under the armpits . . . here are the hawk-eyed hankering men . . . here are the blonde and blue-eyed women . . . here they hide curled asleep waiting . . . ready to snarl and kill . . . ready to sing and give milk . . . waiting—I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so.

There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird . . . and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want . . . and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes—And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness.

O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart—and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where—For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.

[BurtReynolds]

It wasn't written with a particular age group in mind, though I was going for the feel of a lot of (somewhat dark) 80s kids movies. I wasn't sure what publishers and agents would think, but after talking to a few, they all seemed to agree that it was somewhere around "middle grade" to YA. Oddly enough, no parents have ever complained. The Image version is the same as the original, just polished up a bit. Fixed some typos and formatting mostly. I've never met Kirkman. I assume he lives on a mountain of money some place far away. I should probably reach out to him, but I'm pretty inept at those sorts of things.

[BurtReynolds]

Image/Skybound was cool, though. They didn't ask for any changes and were easy to work with. Some of the other publishers wanted changes and rights to my entire life, and promised very little in return. Traditional book publishing is kind of a cesspool to be honest. At least in the US.

[wease]

Did you meet/talk to any of the main Image dudes?

Valentino. I bet you talked to Valentino.

[BurtReynolds]

Only Silvestri. He was an early fan!

[wease]

Silvestri?!? No shit?? He was always the most solid. His figure work always had a weight and heft that reminded me of John Buscema.

[BurtReynolds]

Yeah I think one of his X-Men might have been the first comic I ever bought.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

I’m about to purchase Scurry. I apologize for not doing so earlier.

[Whitey McTeeth]

Burt, what will happen to Hollywood?

[BurtReynolds]

Burt, what will happen to Hollywood?

Content. Glorious content. A tsunami of content. Forever content. All will be drowned in content.

[Jorge]

Burt I just remembered that some time ago I dreamt I played a videogame based on Scurry. It was a VR game. Later in the dream my hands melted, but that's not relevant. Considering you've worked in the industry, have you ever considered developing Scurry as a videogame?

[BurtReynolds]

There was a mouse VR game out a while ago. "Moss" I think. Maybe that is what melted your hands.

I haven't thought about it too seriously, but if a game designer wanted to do something, that would be cool. Indie games are a tough racket though, and gamers are the most unforgiving customers. I occasionally think of how it would work as a game.

A couple of board game makers approached me about doing a board game a long time ago, and I didn't really follow up on it. Kinda wish I had. One popular game company approached me, but I didn't have time for what they wanted, so they just made their own anyway. Thieves!

[wease]

Burt turning down that Parker Brothers money.