Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists
"Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles" is New Yorker Neil Swaab's dark contribution to American pop culture, a strip that wallows ostentatiously in the id of hilarity. Life seen through the glass eyes of a pedophile teddy bear and his Swaab-like owner appeared in the late Gear magazine and is currently based in the New York Press. Swaab is also a successful illustrator.
TED RALL: What's the central conceit of "Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles"?
NEIL SWAAB: That life is not pretty or beautiful or cute or precious. "Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles" is a comic about laughing at the darker aspects of life, finding humor in the sickest regions of the human psyche. There are so many comics out there that only want to show the lighter side of things and steer away from the negative and "Mr. Wiggles" is the complete opposite of those. I'm also somewhat fascinated with the concept of cute things being ultimately evil. I like odd juxtapositions.
TR: Like Chucky. Except he isn't cute.
NS: Well, that depends who you're asking. I bet he was cute to Bride Of Chucky. I mean, she did marry him, right?
TR: Can't dispute that. Mr. Wiggles is a convicted pedophile, bestialist and all-around rapist and molester. Am I missing anything? And is he modeled on an actual teddy bear that...brrrrrr... lives at your house?
NS: Yes, you're forgetting he's also an anarchist, substance abuser, and not a very good cook. Mr. Wiggles wasn't really based on anything. I wanted to do a comic that was extremely negative and disturbing, but I decided I needed to put a cute face on it to deliver the message otherwise people would totally reject it. And so I came up with Mr. Wiggles. My girlfriend made me a Mr. Wiggles doll when we first started going out. He has a spot carved out where his asshole should be so you can stick your finger in there and everything. I thought that was very cool.
TR: Ewwwwwww.
NS: It's not filled with shit or anything.
TR: Still.
NS: Ted, you're not a romantic, are you?
TR: This isn't about me. Like all cartoonists, you draw yourself, here as the "straight man" to Mr. Wiggles' pure id. Do you view yourself as a normal guy who's willing to express thoughts everybody has but fear to express?
NS: Way to deflect the question, Ted. I think the Neil character in the comic is the heart of the strip. He's definitely not normal, and is in no way intended to represent the "everyday" man. He's me and I certainly don't see myself relating to Joe Average all that well. I use him in the strip because I think that just having Wiggles doing fucked-up shit every strip gets old and boring after a while. There's no emotion to hold on to other than the bad ones. I like to use Neil because he expresses a lot of the more universal emotions of wanting to find love, and his place in life, and destiny, and insecurities. It allows me to make the comic much more personal.
TR: Some of your funniest strips make fun of Jesus Christ. Do you believe in God?
NS: Well, not the kind of God that you want me to say, I think. I believe that there is something higher than human consciousness, but not that typical Judeo-Christian all-seeing, all-knowing, all-good God. I think that's bullshit made up to comfort people and something other people use to give up responsibility for their own actions. My feelings about God are more of a generalized sense in the fact that everyone and everything is connected by some sort of universal truth. I believe in fate and karma and that there are tons of things going on in the world that we can't see. Our eyes only process like a tenth or so of what we actually see. We don't see infrared light, for instance, and yet it exists. I think if we saw all the things there were to see in the world, our brains would short-circuit because it would be too much information to process. I think that maybe this "God" is something that is able to see and process all of this information. It's not something that cares about what we do and judges us and redeems us. It just exists with us and in us. In everything. Because it is everything. People's view of the world is that they are this isolated thing adrift in an ocean of other isolated things. But the world's not like that. Every action has a reaction whether or not you're aware of it. Everything is connected. Everyone is God. We all participate in the act of creating and altering the world. But heaven? Hell? Angels? Bullshit.
TR: One of your strip's pleasures is its ability to careen wildly between absurd NAMBLAesque fantasies and articulate critiques of anarchy, socialism and other ideologies. Do you get a lot of "I don't get it" e-mails from your readers?
NS: No. Most of my e-mail comes from prison inmates who are very good at expressing their thoughts. I'm just kidding. Kind of. Pretty much all of the e-mail I get is positive response. A lot of people saying, "Dude, you fucking rock!" which is always nice. There are always those people who write to me though, who aren't really reading the comic with the wink of the eye I'm making it. They take it a little too seriously thinking I'm advocating a lot of things I'm really just joking about. I can't wait until they bust down some super-criminal's door only to find copies of my comic taped to his fridge!
TR: You often draw one panel of the strip, Xerox it and add dialogue for the remainder. Is there an effect you're going for or are you just lazy?
NS: A little from column A. A little from column B. The reality is mainly that I like to have the images static because my comic is supposed to be very minimal. If they don't need to move, they don't have to. I do a lot where I'm completely drawing every frame too. It all depends on the joke and how I can best tell it. Some work better one way, some the other. It's all a journey, Ted. A magical, wondrous journey.
...and it looks like this journey has come to an end. To read the rest of the interview, please pick up a copy of Attitude 2: The New Subversive Social Commentary Cartoonists, edited by Ted Rall and published by NBM.