“I’m very grateful for it. But at the same time, it’s not a subculture-y thing anymore; it’s something that’s in the New York Times and the New Yorker.”

I feel like if people are going to go to the effort to get a stamp and, you know, put it on an envelope that, you know, it’s a big effort these days. So I often write back.

Whereas the graphic novel is now being held up as something to aspire to and as something that’s respectable for adults to read.

Underground and alternative comics existed in a vacuum for years, where money really wasn’t an issue.

I get the impression from some people that unless they get direct access to characters’ thoughts and realizations.

I think there’s this general hunger for greater diversity, where publishers are really excited about finding different voices than what has been done.

No one would get into doing a black-and-white comic because they thought it might be a route to riches.

“What you do for a living?” It used to be easier just to tell people that I was a magazine illustrator than try to explain that I did comics.

I’m also probably one of the few remaining holdouts who hasn’t consented to making the e-book versions of all my work, which is annoying to some of my publishers.

If you’re changing diapers and going to the playground, any ambitions of being a cool guy have to fly out the window.

And now people even of our parents’ generation are familiar with the term “graphic novel,” which is kind of amazing.

The loner – it can have a real impact on the art when they realize, I have friends, I’m married, or I have kids. That’s certainly happened to me.

But my impression is that the main impediment to progress in that regard is the number of people who are choosing to make a go of it.

I started publishing my comic while I was still living with my parents.

Who was trying to be cool by writing about young people and a certain kind of Bay Area culture that I was tangentially a part of.

You start to feel very weighted down sometimes.

There were points at which I was trying to use my art to reflect positively on myself, to almost be flirtatious through the work.