From: "John K. Bates"  <[j--n] at [humnet.ucla.edu]>
Date:     27 May 1994 16:27:39 PST
Subject:  Forwarded: Interview with Deadline

From:          Self <JOHN>
To:            Steve
Subject:       Interview with Deadline
Reply-to:      [J--n] at [HUMnet.ucla.edu]
Date:          31 Mar 1994 11:59:52

Here is a FAX I received this morning from Tommy Astor in response to some 
questions from the Internet. This interview is (c) 1994 John K. Bates, so please 
restrict it's use to yourself and your immediate friends until this stuff comes out. 
Thanks again to all who helped by sending questions. 



___________________________________________________
At home with cult-trash-girls-and-guns gurus Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin - 
creators of the, by now legendary, TANK GIRL. A seminal work of late 20th 
Century drivel, their contribution. to multi-media, post-punk, deconstructionist 
art is poised somewhere between Derrida and a gnat's dropping. As the wheels of 
Hollywood roll on the TANK GIRL movie (resulting in severe bruising and 
multiple contusions), FRANK WYNNE, editor of DEADLINE (The style magazine 
for underachievers in whose hallowed pages TANK GIRL appears) put to them a 
series of questions as the career down the fibre-optic highways of the Internet. The 
two sit, cool, laconic, unshaven, witty, urbane, giggling like five-year-olds 
suffering acid burnout, unable to get anything more coherent than drooling, and 
faced with a pressing deadline, the editor himself replies:

Who the fuck is TANK GIRL?

-I think the more important question is who the fuck are you? TANK GIRL is the 
mutant love child of Barbarella and Hanna Barbera; she is Mad Max designed by 
Malcolm McLaren. She is, first and foremost a second-hand punk whore 
moneyspinner roaming the outback in search of Spunk beer, horny kangaroos, 
and shitheads to shoot at.

Who is set to play her, or is the film animated?
-You don't really play TANK GIRL. It's more like demonic possession, so it 
doesn't really matter. You shave your head, strap the boots on. check yourself in 
the mirror and think: "Fuck, I'm cool. I 'm ready for a crate of beer and quick shag, 
then blow away some innocent people."

Will the story (of the film) be taken from existing material?
-No. When we tried taking out the pointless self-indulgent jokes, gratuitous 
appearances by popstars and throbbing boners, all that was left was two pages of 
pointless violence and sex. They based the new script on that.

How closely will the characterization follow the comics (particularly sexual 
overtones-crewing animals in particular). 
-MGM were a bit worried about what they saw as "the character's overtly 
aggressive posturing and aspects of beastiality" in the original draft script. There 
was a tense moment when we thought of selling out completely. Abandoning the 
drugs, guns, beer and 'roo shagging and heading straight for a mainstream Steven 
Speilberg TANK GIRL. Then we woke up. Every moment of the film will be filled 
with bestiality, boozing, belching and ballistic missiles.

What will the budget be?
-There's no budget. The actors and crew have agreed to be paid in beer cigarettes 
and collectable Star Wars figurines.

I've heard rumours that Deadline is going down the pan. Where will TANK GIRL 
go?
-Deadline has always been down the pan and never intended to crawl out of it. It's 
healthy SUCK MY DICK coverage of cult comics, and cutting kulture will 
continue to stupefy those with an IQ in single figures down through the ages. TG 
on the other hand will branch out into a series of comics, books games, sex aids 
and 'collectable' pieces of cheap plastic.

What does TANK GIRL find so special about kangaroos.
-Check your soology books, techno fiends, and you'll find that kangaroos have a 
forked penis - two dicks? Of course, TG really loves Booga for his mind.

What color was her hair to begin with?
-Black and white, then she dyed it using some letratone.

Does Tank Girl wear socks often?
-NO. NEVER! Seriously, - those photos of TG wearing socks the ran in the 
National Enquirer - they were FAKES. You can't prove anything. We shredded 
the socks and burned the negatives.

What does the number 23 symbolize in the TG iconography - it keeps popping up 
in the comics?
-In the I-CHING (the book of changes) the number 23 is the pattern of 
chaos/breaking apart/entropy. In TANK GIRL the number 23 is a ruse for driving 
paranoid cocaine-addicts to suicide.

(In the film) will TG beat the devil, fight ninja's, take her shirt off a lot, take drugs, 
get drunk, and blow a lot of things to smithereens?
-Did Bill Clinton inhale? She'll be blitzed, blasted, bareassed and brandishing a 
bazooka before the credits roll!

Will we see the other characters from the strip - Camp Koala, Jet Girl, Sub Girl, 
etc.?
-Yep. Jet and Sub are yet to be cast, but after his ground breaking role in 
Philadelphia, we have $10 on Tom Hanks for Camp Koala.

Do Hewlett and Martin drink coffee? What kind? Does it inspire their creative 
output? 
-Yes. As part of his contract Jamie demands pure Kenyan arabica to be fed on an IV 
drip hourly. Alan is still hibernating, so I guess he drinks CAMP coffee with 
chicory, though a random test of their blood failed to determine levels of caffeine 
in the resulting chemical stew.

What kind of cartoons/TV/books influenced Hewlett and Martin as kids. I'm 
asking 'cause lots of cartoon characters turn up in TANK GIRL.
-All of them. H&M's basic motor and linguistic skills were developed watching 
Scooby Doo, The Hair Bear Bunch, Banana Splits, Thunderbirds, Sting Ray, U.F.O. 
and reading Kafka.

Name some female cartoon or comic charcters that would make Hewlett and 
Martin run to the bog for a quick fiddle with Willie.
-You sad pathetic individual. We don't want to hear about you jerking off to 
Wilma on the Flintstones! Mind you, I sometimes feel a stirring in my loins 
watching Woddy Woodpecker's little tail twitch.

[Well, there you have it.](@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)*(@)
John K. Bates    (310) 206-2004 
UCLA Humanities Computing Facility