Interview: Mike meets RICK AND STEVE creator Q. Allan Brocka

Now that Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World has been released on DVD, it seems creator Allan Brocka is available for chats with is journalist folks. Convenient timing eh? So I thought I'd take this opportunity to chat to this exciting new figure in the world of animation, and find out how the mind of a man who can create a gay community that'll welcome all in open arms, "whether or not you're hot or if you've got HIV". So join me in scrutinising his wise and witty words, and then check out the DVD - it's fucking funny, my review HERE The original concept was first developed in the last millennium, were they just too far ahead of their time to get noticed or is there another reason for returning to Rick and Steve to make a series?

We had to wait for the world to catch up. It was very a long and frustrating wait.

Rick shares your surname and ethnic background €“ is it fair to say there€™s a 'big part of you in Rick'? If so, does that make Steve the expression of your ideal man?

AB: Ha! Well, yes and no. Rick€™s original last name did not clear through legal so I had to come up with a new name at thr last second. I just used mine out of laziness. There€™s a big part of me in all 6 lead characters, they are different aspects of me magnified and blown all out of proportion.

So if there's a lot of personal involvement in the series, would it be fair to say you used it as your chance to say everything you want to say to people in everyday life?

Some are things I actually luck out and say, but most are things I wish I was clever enough to think of more quickly.

Do you think you could you get away with putting that kind of material into more conventional animation, or even live action films/series?

It would likely work in any sort of animation, but not so well in live action. We€™re culturally inclined to accept satire more easily in comics and animation.

I can't really imagine any actors saying some of that stuff I guess!... Your material is heavily focussed on homosexual lifestyles, but the observational wit extends a lot further €“ have you ever thought about forays into broader subject matter?

No, I have never thought of anything other than the €œhomosexual lifestyle,€ as homosexuals are incapable of that.

If you could collaborate with any filmmaker/comedy writer out there who would it be and why?

Amy Sedaris makes me laugh a lot. I€™d live to write with her, for her, and inside of her.

What about if you could use voodoo to give anyone in showbiz a nasty disease. Who would it be, and what would you give them?

If I could use voodoo, I wouldn€™t waste it on someone I hate, I€™d do something nice for someone I like. But if I HAD to, I€™d have to research a disease that actually makes people be nice and give it to the whole industry.

It€™s nearly US election time, how do you think McCain and Obama would cope campaigning in West Lahunga beach?

Obama would win in a landslide. Even the idiot log cabins are (slowly) coming around on this one.

What€™s your favourite surgical procedure?

Any unnecessary one.

Finally, what€™s next for Rick and Steve? Another series? A movie? A musical? I need more!

Season Two begins airing on November 11 in the US. Hopefully it will be coming to the UK very soon!!!

Season one is available now....