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 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.
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.