92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

gether to have your own hot rod. To build a car up or craft a comic to com pletion with your own two hands, that's hard work.

11. Regrets? I've had a few. But, then again, too few to mention. What about you?

Ryan Yount: I have no regrets. Never have, and I plan on never having any.

12. So: pirates? You're gonna get this as much as I get "Why the astro nauts?" and Mike Myers gets "Why Sixties spymasters?" So I'll be the first one to ask: why pirates? Ryan Yount: Well, with Andrew and me, and obviously with Larry and with Mike Myers, there's a love and fascination with the chosen subject themes. I think it's pretty apt to bring up Mike Myers and the "Austin Powers" movies, they parallel what we are doing with pirates. Watching those movies, it seems that Mike just sat around coming up with all these great spy jokes, and then wrote scenarios around the joke. Kind of like coming up with all your punchlines, and then writing the setup.

It's the same with "Scurvy Dogs"; we have pages and pages full of gags, which we then end up trying to write in to the scripts.

Pirates, as a theme, are great material. There's a built-in preoccupation with violence due to the nature of their lives. Also, especially now, the "pirate-life," seems so strange and abstract, it invites a novel interpretation (e.g., PIRATE HIJINKS!). The clothes, the speech, the lifestyle, it gives you a lot to play with. And, you know, "PIRATES ARE THE NEW MONKEYS."

13. How have you and your family suffered for your art?

Ryan Yount: Yes. Shit happens. I certainly wouldn't want to take anything away from someone who met artistic success without getting a scratch, but to me, a little suffering for your art is to be expected. I've been lucky, in that my folks, through everything I've ever done, have not only supported me, but made a point of supporting my artistic ventures. But, yes. Suffering. 14. This isn't journalism; it's entertainment. Tell us a pop-culture refer ence you always use, but no one gets. Ryan Yount: Well, I seem to always be talking about the 80's Hal Needham directed bmx bike movie "Rad," but so far my attempt at scripting a story where our pirate heroes are forced to enter a winner-take-all bmx bike race have been vetoed. Someday. As far as a pirate-culture reference goes, nobody seems to get the term matelou . They're just gonna have to look it

194