I don't pay that much attention to sales figures or awards. To me, the big question is: 'Did you influence the next generation?' That's my goal.
Maybe the bar is low, but most of the strips that are 50, 60, 70 years old that are on their second or third generation of artists, the humor is pretty bland. There are others by people that were raised on 'Family Guy' or 'South Park' that are edgier. Mine's not as edgy as those, but it's edgier than 'Beetle Bailey.'
A stand-up comedian faces the audiences and gets their immediate feedback. I hide behind the comic strip, and unless people write to me, I don't know what they think.
We need more cartoonists to truly retire when they retire, and not run repeats.
Basically, I learned to read by reading 'Peanuts,' just wanting to know what they were saying.
It seems so absurd to get really mad with a cartoonist over a comic strip. It's sort of like getting in a fight with a circus clown outside your house. It's not going to end well.
I like characters who have blind spots and are full of themselves, but there also needs to be vulnerability.
The writing is done on the computer, and the drawing is done by hand. I write, write, write, then I hit the illustration.
I don't like drawing characters facing right. If I tried to do that at a book signing, I'd have to pencil it first.
I like characters like Ignatius Reilly in 'A Confederacy of Dunces' and Ricky Gervais's character in 'The Office.' They think one thing about themselves, but the truth is as far from that as it can be. So I began to think about how to put that kind of character in a book for kids.
I was a lawyer for 10 years, and when you're in law, things really have to get done, or somebody sues you. It's a great trick.
Repeats are the worst, and 'Peanuts' was the one that started that. They don't rerun the news, do they? They don't repeat any other part of the paper. Why do they do it in the comics?
If somebody is not on the same page with me humor wise, I can't give them that.
Thomas, my 15-year-old, is effectively my editor, I've always trusted his voice, more than anybody, on the strip for years. He has one of those ears that's just tuned to the rhythm of humor, so if he says something's not funny, my stomach just hurts because I know he's right, and it's already been drawn.
Brits have a better sense of humor in most ways. It's darker, more cutting.
The principles of comedy are the principles of comedy. I can hear funny.
You can't just count on becoming a syndicated cartoonist. I actually tried to calculate the odds once, and the best I could come up with is a 1-in-36,000 chance. And the odds of getting hit by lightning are 1 in 7,900 - which kind of shows how long those odds are.
I want a career writing these novels that I can be proud of. And then I want one as a screenwriter.
I do what makes me laugh.
I write for three or four hours and then hopefully I'll have something. Then I draw for the rest of the afternoon... I literally block out Wednesday-Thursday-Friday - I more or less disappear.
