'Cartoonists' dirty secret is that we tend to come up with stories that involve things that are really fun to draw.

Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That's one of the things they're there for.

The comics I read as a kid were all about guys in tights. But here was a guy who wore a fedora. He fought crime like they did in Marvel and DC, but he did it in the real world. I had just turned 12 when I met the Spirit and it was a strange coincidence. At the same time I discovered girls I fell out of love with guys in tights.

In the comic-book world, there tends to be an overblown sense of tradition. Bad habits die hard. There are ways I think the form could work more effectively if we lost the bad habits that were created before we were born.

The rain on my chest is a baptism - I'm born again.

You can't have virtue without sin. What I'm after is having my characters' virtues defined by how they operate in a very sinful environment. That's how you test people.

I prefer to write and draw in the privacy of my home and with total freedom and then take it to the lion's den.