I'd say things are in a crises state right now. Publishing is obviously collapsing. But for people
who do what I do, comics and illustration, that's been happening for a while. I think since 2000,
things have been fairly lousy. And I just think the situation we're all facing right now is that it's
easier than ever in human history for people to produce material of any kind, films, writing, art.
And they can disseminate it very easily on the internet. The big question right now is how will
people get paid? I think business kind of doesn't want to pay for, you know, things anymore, for
you know, certain kinds of artistic production. So I think we're all kind of facing a crises point
right now. Making a living from illustration is, I'd say just about impossible these days. And
making a living from comics, it's not going to be a very good living, let's put it that way.
Yeah, I'm fairly conscious of that, of trying to be funny in a way that communicates so that it's
not just a strangeness, but if it's, if there's strangeness, it's pointing to something. You know,
there's a lot, I was very influenced by Raw Magazine, which is very design heavy and, you
know, used a lot of amazing artists. Chris Ware came out of that, you know, who used beautiful
design, and, you know, or who had very artistic styles. And I made a decision years ago to go
more for the funny and let the style come afterwards.
Well, I think there are some shows on American TV that are incredibly smart, like 30 Rock, I
think is very smart. We enjoy The Office, my wife and I. South Park, I think is still very smart.
Although we don't actually have TV and every time we're around it, it's just horrifying what it's
become. I said on Twitter the other day, it's like an old friend who was always a little flaky, but
now they're just a gibbering, crack-addicted, masturbating maniac, you know. Having said that,
we also love Lost, and we have a weakness for reality shows, which, and we sometimes indulge.
We just watched what is it, Scream Queens, on VH1. They really know what they're doing with
their crappy reality TV, it's just compelling. But then also in England, thanks to the internet now,
it's very easy to watch a lot of English stuff, so I've been watching Peep Show which is great, the
IT Crowd, Stuart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, The Thick of It. There's a lot of really amazing stuff
coming out of England.
I think they have the lead in verbal wit, in, you know, sarcasm, irony, and so on, I think the
British are the world leaders, yes.
I think Americans are better at the brash and the noisy, and that's not always a bad thing. I think
South Park, for example, can be noisy and brash, but when it decides to make a point, they really
make their point, you know? They can, you know, really go overboard sometimes, but I think it's
what they do best.