"I live in a giant bucket."

In this month's Believer, there's an interview with animator Don Hertzfeldt. He doesn't say anything particularly earth-shattering, but there is a great moment when the interviewer, Mike Plante, says that Hertzfeldt was once so worried about some drawings that he purchased a fireproof safe for them. Soon after, he bought a bigger safe and put the original safe in it.

That's the funniest moment in the interview, but Hertzfeldt's animated shorts speak for themselves. There's something sublime about watching his happy/stunned stick figures gaze off in the distance right before being disemboweled. In "Billy Balloon," balloons begin attacking children. "Ah, L'Amour" is one of the funniest, most purely cynical takes on love you'll ever see. And his twisted series of drug PSAs are probably most fully appreciated while high. (Correction: A commenter points out that the drug films were made by fans, not by Hertzfeldt.) But his most popular piece is "Rejected," in which a whole lot of strange and bloody things happen. The short pieces in it add up to tell the story of an animator's breakdown. Enjoy: