Ethan Clarke is a self-professed menace to society. Equally comfortable building fixed-gears or texture mapping octogenarians, this animator cum bike-mechanic from the countryside of Vermont carves beauteous shorts from a fascination with the grotesque. Like Cronenberg on a smaller, decidedly animated scale, Clarke’s employ of the corporeal gives rise to metaphors both literal and figurative, unleashing works of fanciful imagery always traceable to the tissues that bind us. His latest and greatest short Princess is currently playing the festival circuit to inevitable acclaim.

SM writer Barry Jenkins caught up with Ethan for a mid-day interview amidst coffee at a San Francisco café. Whilst ribbing the animator’s girlfriend on her skills as a barista, the two chatted about Ethan’s process, tiny universes and the dire state of Saturday morning cartoons.

SM: Are you drinking an Americano too?

EC: No, Z.C. (his girlfriend and barista) turned me onto lattes—

SM: Ugh.

EC: I hate saying the word, but…yeah.

SM: When you made your first film, why’d you choose animation?

EC: Well, I’ve always drawn, and I like the idea of working by myself. I’ve never wanted to work with other people—

SM: That’s right, because on your films you do all the sound, the music, the editing?

EC: Yep, everything. But now I’m starting to not do that. I’m starting to try and ask people for things because…it takes a year to get an animation done that’s, what, nine minutes long when you do it by yourself.

SM: Your film After Living—

EC: After Living was work. That was the only paid job I’ve ever had.

SM: Really, whose idea was it? Was it yours?

EC: Nope, that was a company down in LA. They hired me to do that, but it was originally the idea of…that was originally a viral marketing campaign for the Revenge of The Mummy ride. They made a Website to make it look like some kid had made a site all about mummies, and it was a fansite. It was made to look really amateur.

SM: So you’re like a gun for hire on that picture? That’s not your story?

 EC: They wrote it, they gave me the sound, and then I supplied the pictures. We kind of talked about it and tried to figure out what they wanted. As we had this conversation, we brought their idea out and I said, “Okay, I’ll animate that: Martha Stewart preparing a mummy.” That is totally not my work.

SM: But you got paid to do After Living. Did you get paid enough?

EC: Ugh, I should’ve been paid twice as much, but…they knew they were dealing with a guy who’d never worked before.

SM: You don’t make any money at this?

EC: Nope.

SM: So why do you do it?

EC: Because…it’s fun. After work, to have something else to do. To try to get people to see it, it’s like a little project, ya know?

SM: Are you working on something right now?

EC: Ummm, not really. I’m just kind of…sketching things out right now. And people who saw my work, I have people giving me scripts now which is kind of exciting.

SM: And when you say you’re just sketching things out, how does that work?

EC: I draw these pictures, and I try and see if there’s a story behind each character that I draw. And then I take all the pictures and I put them on the wall and I see if any of the characters are similar or can talk to each other in any sort of way. Usually that doesn’t really work, and I have to kind of take an outside story and put them in it.

But in a way it does work ‘cause…at the time I’m drawing all these pictures I’m working on a similar theme and they’re all kind of…they’re all kind of coming out the same way. And so they look like they’re manifesting in the same world. And then…I start drawing that world.

Right now I’m working on this science fiction kind of fantasy story that involves giants and small people. So I’ve been fascinated by the size of things. This is kind of a strange concept but…the way something’s way bigger than another thing is really fascinating to me.

SM: Okay.

Ethan and Barry both laugh.

EC: Like, the concept of…there might be tiny worlds inside atoms and stuff like that. I’m pretty much sure we’re inside the atom of a world that’s much bigger than we could ever comprehend. I grew up in the country, and we lived by this pond and what was crazy to me was the fact that a tadpole never knew that he was gonna become a frog. And so the act of stepping out of the pond and actually hopping around must be like a huge deal for a tadpole. So I’m wondering what that would be like for us.

SM: The way you grew up, did you have any siblings?

EC: Yeah, two sisters. Both older.

SM: Were you just wandering around this place by yourself?

EC: Pretty much. And we lived far away from people, so…I was pretty much on my own for most of the time, walking around the woods. Lot of nature. It was in Vermont.

SM: For this interview I watched all your short films, you know, all four of them, and it was interesting: I couldn’t figure out which one came first. It’s weird; they’re not about the same thing, but there’s definite themes you always work on. Do you know what those are?

EC: Well, I want to hear what you think they are.

SM: Alright, the macabre. There’s always fucked up shit goin’ on—

EC: Shit getting eatin’ by other shit.

SM: “Shit getting’ eatin’ by other shit.” Yeah. It’s funny because I could try and put a lot of words into your work by saying the first film, In Head Manifested, it’s more a metaphysical kind of violence, whereas in Princess, it’s gross but it’s really real. There’s nothing fantastic about the violence in that film. And that’s the film you’ve most recently completed, so there’s a progression. Princess is screening at festivals right now, going to win a few awards—

EC: (laughing) Hopefully it gets into more than one festival.

SM: It’s unlike any of the other films of yours I saw. It’s more of a straightforward narrative.

EC: Princess was based on a news article, a really short blurb that I read about an old woman in her apartment. She has two people in her life, her television and her cat.

SM: But this next film isn’t gonna be anything like that, right?

EC: No, this next film I want to go back to fantasy. I want to do some elf shit.

SM (laughing): Okay. And why is that?

EC: Because that’s what I enjoy, really. I get bored with real life stories. And I don’t like comedy. Although…it’s fun to do.

SM: But Princess is a comedy?

EC: Princess is funny…because people…are disgusting.

Ethan laughs.

SM: I don’t know, that shit’s pretty funny.

EC: Yeah, but you know like how After Living has written jokes in it? I would never make an animation like that. Because making people laugh, and that being the end of it, that whole Spike and Mike thing, it just kind of bores me.

SM: Well—

EC: No…I love that shit. I just don’t like to make it.

Ethan and Barry laugh their asses off.

SM: To wrap things up, tell me: what’s the best-case scenario for Princess?

EC: That one I just want to get into festivals all over the country, get it seen; I mean all over the world really. And then just…a stepping stone to the next animation.

SM: Which again will be a short animation piece that you make by yourself, right?

EC: Nine to twelve minutes, yeah.

SM: So you have no aspirations of starting, like, an animated series or something?

EC: That’d be great, but I’d need other people, so I need to get some people’s attention to do that. And freelance work would be good too. And what would really be awesome is if they gave me control of Saturday morning on FOX and let me revolutionize it.  Have you checked it out lately?

SM: Nah.

EC: It’s the most uninspired stuff.

SM: So, would you say that in the work you’re doing now, there’s some element of the cartoons you watched as a kid?

EC: Oh yeah, because they used to be really good. And the cartoon that kind of inspired me to do this was Dungeons and Dragons the cartoon.

SM: I don’t even remember that.

EC: I know, it was like really early in the morning, maybe even on Sunday, when most kids were outside. It was just a good cast of characters in a fantastical world, a lot like a feature animation or something. Still kind of cheesy--because they’re not paid very much to make those, I guess--but it was great. Now you see stuff like Wink’s Club, and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is like… (Ethan scoffs in disgust) Who did the new Batman?

SM: Chris Nolan.

EC: Someone needs to do what he did to Batman to Saturday morning cartoons. You know, give them back to the kids.

SM: (laughing) I don’t think the kids will be too settled by In Head Manifested.

EC: Nah, nah: I’d clean it up for the kids.

For more information about Ethan Clarke, including viewing his short films, visit www.mega-beast.com.