For me, the whole process involves envisioning this Ghost World comic book in my head as I'm working.

I was thinking the other day that there will never be another form of music that everybody has to respond to - like disco.

I'm a fan of parchment and wood pulp.

Avatar is a total nerd thing, and yet our popular culture has somehow made all that stuff acceptable.

I never feel there's anything I can't do with comics. There are certain things in comics that you can't do in any other medium: for instance, in Mister Wonderful, Marshall's narration overlaps the events as they're going on. That would be difficult in film; you could blot speech out with a voiceover, but it wouldn't have the same effect. That's always of interest, to see what new things you can do in comics form.

But I enjoy the opportunity to use swear symbols.

I think that gulf is what makes the work interesting, but as a creator it's endlessly frustrating because I'm starting out with this goal, this thing I'm trying to create, and then the thing I actually do create is very, very different. It's always painful, in some ways, especially when it's just finished.