We probably put about four or five comic books out a year and probably about two or three art books and various trade paperbacks - maybe four or five of those a year - and that's what we do now.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When I was coming up, I kept a ton of comic books, almost 300 comic books. Back in the day, they didn't used to cost that much, so I used to keep 'em, collect 'em, trade 'em.
All of the stuff I can't afford to do on a TV budget, I just put into the comic book because you're really only limited in a comic by your artist's imagination.
At any comic book convention in America, you'll find aspiring cartoonists with dozens of complex plot ideas and armloads of character sketches. Only a small percentage ever move from those ideas and sketches to a finished book.
I think the thinking is, in the comic books, I should pack as much onto a page as possible, because, you know, it's kind of the cheaper format, and you want to give readers as much as you can for their dollar.
And, uh, I've got about six thousand cartoons up there, also books and papers.
It was pure guesswork on my part back in 1979 as to whether I would have the stamina to write, pencil, ink, letter, tone, and fill the back of a monthly comic book for 26 years.
Lots of comics try stuff out all year round, which is very sensible - I don't.
This is a profession for me, but I started off as a self-publisher working on my own schedule and my own stuff before moving on to graphic novels with First Second Books, where there was definitely a schedule, but it was very different from monthly comics.
I have 15,000 comics in a warehouse, all bagged individually.
We can't really make a living doing comic books, despite the fact that would be an awfully fun way to make a living.