Filed to story: The Ink Black Heart Read Online Free (PDF/ePuB) >>
‘Tis a strange mystery, the power of words!
Life is in them, and death. A word can send
The crimson colour hurrying to the cheek,
Hurrying with many meanings, or can turn
The current cold and deadly to the heart.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
The Power of Words
14 September 2011 From
The Buzz, a news and entertainment website
The Buzz talks to Josh Blay and Edie Ledwell, boyfriend/girlfriend creators of YouTube’s smash-hit cartoon, The Ink Black Heart!
TB:
So, a cartoon about decomposing body parts, a couple of skeletons, a demon and a ghost… how do you explain its success?
Edie:
Wait, is Drek a demon?
TB:
You tell me!
Edie:
I genuinely don’t know.
[Josh laughs]
TB:
I’m just saying, when you describe The Ink Black Heart to people who haven’t watched it, they’re kind of surprised it’s a hit. [Edie and Josh laugh] Did you expect the reaction to your – let’s be honest – very weird animation?
Edie:
No, we definitely didn’t.
Josh:
We were having a laugh. It’s basically a bunch of in-jokes.
Edie:
But it turned out far more people got the joke than we expected.
TB:
When you say ‘the joke’ – people read a lot of meaning into the story!
Josh:
Yeah and we… sometimes you think ‘Oh yeah, I suppose that is what we were getting at’, but other times—
Edie:
Sometimes they see things that – well, not that aren’t there, but that we never saw or intended.
TB:
Can you give an example?
Josh:
The talking worm. We just thought that was funny, because a worm in a graveyard, you know, it’s eating decomposing bodies. So we liked the idea of it being pissed off about its job and talking about it like it’s boring hard graft. Like working in a factory. It’s just a jaded worm.
Edie:
But then we had people saying it’s phallic or whatever. And a group of parents complaining—
Josh:
—complaining that we’re making penis jokes for kids.
Edie:
And we’re definitely not. The Worm is not a penis.
[All laugh]
TB:
So why d’you think The Ink Black Heart has taken off the way it has?
Edie:
We don’t understand it any better than you do. We’re inside it. We can’t see it from the outside.
Josh:
We can only assume there are far more disturbed people out there than any of us realised.
[All laugh]
TB:
What do you think it is about Harty, the disembodied heart/hero that people love so much? You voice Harty, right, Josh?
Josh:
Yeah. Er… [thinks for a long time] I suppose he knows he’s bad but he’s trying to be good.
Edie:
He isn’t really bad, though. Or he wouldn’t be trying to be good.
Josh:
I think people kind of identify with him.
Edie:
He’s been through a lot of stuff.
Josh:
Specifically, a rib cage, a coffin lid and six feet of soil.
[All laugh]
TB:
So what are your plans for the cartoon? Stay on YouTube, or—?
Edie:
We don’t plan, do we?
Josh:
Plans are for smugliks.
TB:
But this thing is getting really big! You’re making money now, right?
Josh:
Yeah. Who knew? It’s crazy.
TB:
Do you have anyone helping you with this? An agent, or—?
Josh:
We’ve got a friend who knows this stuff who’s helping us, yeah.
TB:
A couple of your fans have created an online game based on the game Drek plays in the cartoon. Have you seen it?
Josh:
Yeah, we saw that the other day. It’s an impressive bit of coding.
Edie:
It’s weird, though, because Drek’s game – the one in the cartoon—
Josh:
—yeah—
Edie:
—isn’t really a game. Or, I mean, it wasn’t supposed to be, was it?
[Josh shakes head]
Edie:
It was supposed to be more… the whole point of the game is that it isn’t really a game.
TB:
So when Drek forces everyone to ‘play the game’—
Edie:
Does he force them? I don’t know whether he forces them. I think they kind of humour him because he’s bored—
Josh:
—borkled—
Edie:
—sorry, yeah, borkled, and so they agree to play, but it always goes badly wrong for someone.
Josh:
Drek’s game is – you know [in Drek’s voice] ‘play the game, bwah!’… abide by rules. Do the expected thing.
TB:
So it’s a metaphor?
Edie:
Yeah, but it’s paradoxical, because Drek himself never plays by the rules. He just likes watching everyone else try and follow them.
TB:
You say you don’t plan, but will there be—?
Josh:
Drek T-shirts? We were literally asked by someone the other day where they could buy a Drek T-shirt.
Edie:
We were just… are you for real?
TB:
No merch, then?
[laughing] We aren’t planning merch.
Josh:
We like it being what it is. We like just messing around. We’re not business people.
Edie:
We’re more the kind of people who lie in a cemetery and imagine disembodied hearts bobbling around. [All laugh]
15 September 2011
Part of an in-game chat between the co-creators of the online Drek’s Game
<15 September 2011 20.38>
Anomie: ‘Not what we meant’. We took all the rules out of her fucking cartoon, pretentious fucking bitch.
Morehouse: calm down
Anomie: this is going to play really fkn badly for Ledwell. She’s shitting all over the fans, saying they’re thick for liking our game
Morehouse: she wasn’t saying that
Anomie: of course she fucking was, she said we’re a pair of shitheads who don’t understand her metaphors
Anomie: it’s on her if the fandom turns on her after this
Morehouse: yeah, speaking of which, maybe tone it down a bit on Twitterr
Anomie: you know what this is really about? Our game’s getting too popular. She doesn’t like that the fandom’s looking to us to entertain them between episodes. She’s scared we’re getting too much power. She’ll try and shut us down next.
Morehouse: Paranoid much? We’re not a threat, we’re not making money, it’s a tribute.
Anomie: Don’t forget, I fucking know her. She’s a fucking money-grubbing hypocrite.
5 February 2013
From The Buzz, a news and entertainment website
Runaway YouTube success The Ink Black Heart snapped up by Netflix
Cult cartoon The Ink Black Heart will be leaving YouTube for Netflix, with a second series already in development. Boyfriend–girlfriend animators Josh Blay and Edie Ledwell, who dreamed up the cartoon in Highgate Cemetery, are rumoured to have secured a high six-figure sum from the streaming service.
Fans of the animation are divided on its move to the mainstream. While some are excited, others are worried that the close connection between creators and fans will now be broken.
Anonymous superfan Anomie, creator of the popular multi-player Drek’s Game, said on Twitter:
So Ledwell’s long-expected sell out’s underway. Looks like everything fans loved will be sacrificed for cash. Prepare for the worst, Inkhearts.
28 May 2014 From The Buzz, a news and entertainment websiteEdie Ledwell’s Agent Confirms Hospitalisation
Following days of rumours, Allan Yeoman, agent of writer/animator Edie Ledwell, has confirmed that the Ink Black Heartco-creator was hospitalised on the night of 24 May, but has now returned home.
In a statement, Yeoman, who runs creative agency AYCA, said:
‘At Edie Ledwell’s request, we confirm that she was admitted to hospital on May 24 and has since been discharged. Edie thanks fans for their concern and support and requests privacy to focus on her health.’
Fan speculation has been rife since press reports that police and ambulance were called to the animator’s flat shortly after midnight on the 24th, with eye witnesses claiming Ledwell was unconscious as she was stretchered to the ambulance.
The Ink Black Heartfandom, which has been dubbed ‘toxic’ due to their online behaviour, was divided in response to news of Ledwell’s hospitalisation. While most fans expressed concern, some trolls drew criticism for suggesting that Ledwell had faked a suicide attempt to garner sympathy…
7 January 2015 From The Buzz, a news and entertainment website
Attention, Ink Black Heartfans!
According to insiders, Maverick Film Studios are serious about turning your fave into a full-length feature film! Talks between Maverick, Josh Blay and Edie Ledwell are said to be ‘at an advanced stage’, with a deal expected any day now. How do you feel about the leap from small screen to big? Let us know in the comments!
