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The only audience I can really rely on is me. If I’m not digging what I’m doing, how could expect anyone else to? There have been occasions when I haven’t liked what I was doing… and it was excruciating, believe me. I’ve also done work that readers have loathed, but I was perfectly happy with, so what can I say? No regrets there…

What's your ideal for the comic book industry? Answer however you want: creatively, for the business, the retail and distribution side... whatever.

Larry… I could get into a big dissertation here on "how things should be". But the fact is, I just want things to be bigger and better. We’re so ready to take over popular culture. There are more exciting comics coming out this summer than there are movies. Who gives a rat’s ass about the fall TV schedule? Rock n’ roll is dead (and I should know… I’m still in there, humping the corpse). Video games are zombie food. At the very least, these are mediums that base themselves (or rip off, depending on your point of view) on comicbooks, not vice versa (yes, even rock n’ roll, too). Obviously, comicbooks are where the action is! The superheroes are more popular than ever, and from their success, a whole slew of genre-busting work will have a wider berth than they’ve had in years. When the publishers, the retail methods, and the general machinations of the industry catch up with the creative side of medium, which is practically bursting at the seams, we’re going to see comicbooks break out in ways that, so far, we’ve only dreamed about. Our ultimate window of opportunity is rapidly approaching to make that dream a reality. It’s not about mass acceptance… it’s about worldwide domination. I depend on the artists I work with to raise the level of the work far beyond my personal philosophies on what mainstream comic books "should be". Thanks to Mike Wieringo, I think ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN is one of the most accessible superhero comic books on the stands, a great primer for first-time readers on how the language of comics work (without talking down to them). I offered up my storytelling theories for that particular gig and Ringo takes it to the mountain every month, way beyond my expecta tions. Thanks to Sean Phillips, WILDCATS is the moody, character-driven, post-superhero book I’ve always wanted to write. And, we both know that Charlie Adlard is a god on Earth, breathing life into CODEFLESH like no one else I could imagine. I do my damnedest to play to an artist’s strengths. So far, so good. I’ve had ass-kickin’ collaborations with great artists like Ladronn, Javier Pulido, Ed McGuinness, Leonardo Manco and Steve Rude. I’ve had very few mismatches, mainly because I kick and scream until I get the artists I want to work with. And the artists I’ll be working with in the future are the guys I feel want to be challenged and, Can you let us in on the working relationship you have with your artists?

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