I guess I try to find the humor by juxtaposing deeper themes in literature with what people perceive as being lighter, disposable children's fare in comics.

I do try to compress a lot of information into what I do. It's funny.

I guess I try to find the humor by juxtaposing deeper themes in literature with what people perceive as being lighter, disposable children's fare in comics.

But lots of people do parody now. The whole mash-up thing that's so prevalent now was starting in the 80's when I was starting to think about this stuff. I certainly wasn't the first person to do it but now... comics mash-ups, all kinds of mash-ups are everywhere.

The characters have desperation and it doesn't work out for everyone. Maybe it's not fair because I'm responding to the adaptations that smooth out the edges.

I used to be concerned about style, worried about my work looking like a bad copy of someone who's better than me. So my embracing of the research and finding a way to replicate something consciously rather than replicate something unconsciously seemed like a way to go to distinguish what I do.

I'm such a product of my media diet... it's interesting that you say what I do is observational. It's observational as far as it goes - to the extent that I observe media closely. Kriota might have a better sense of this. I don't always have the best sense of how human nature works, but I certainly know how to dismantle representations of characters.