If you give a little credit to the concept of the artist, I think you ought to indulge excesses a bit, because that reflects the personality of the writer. Now if a joke is in bad taste or it's not funny, okay, that's awhole different thing, but how you craft a joke is really what the writer's job is, and I don't think that technique should be subject to any editorial constraints.
Bill WattersonHey Dad, will you buy me a flame thrower? Of course not. Don't be silly. Even if I didn't use it in the house?
Bill WattersonI think the experience forced me to consider how interested I was in political cartooning. After I was fired, I applied to other papers but political cartooning, like all cartooning, is a very tough field to break into. Newspapers are very reluctant to hire their own cartoonists when they can get Oliphant or MacNelly through syndication for a twentieth of the price.
Bill WattersonCleveland is a really hard place, it's a very creative place, it feeds you creatively, but it's a very hard place to make a living creatively.
Bill Watterson