Thoughtcrimez Interview
1. Do your parents think you are mentally unstable or do they support your endeavors?
I don't know. I've never met my real parents. I was abandoned in the woods as a baby and raised by wolves. I called my father, "Grrrrr" and my mother, "Rrrrowww". My brother was named, "Hooowwwl". It wasn't bad, though. Actually quite pleasant. They were well-to-do wolves. We spent summers in the Hamptons and dined off the finest giraffe and antelope carcasses available. For my bar-mitzvah, they let me eat a whole cougar all by myself! I'll never forget the day I became a man. I'd like to think they'd be proud of me if they were still alive. Damn poachers.
2. SO is this bear, Mr. Wiggles, a figment of your imagination...or did you have him when you were a child (stuffed animal format or otherwise)?
Mr. Wiggles has always been and always will. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is with me when I sleep and there when I wake up. He follows me everywhere. Even into the bathroom. Because of him, I've learned to pee in front of strangers.
3. How much hate mail do you receive on, sayyyy, a weekly basis? How much fan mail?
Hate mail? Why would I get hate mail? Who could hate me? As for fan mail, I get six or seven a week.
4. Is it your idea to 'hit a nerve' with your work? Do you ever think you've gone too far or do you try to push it further each time?
I like to do work that provokes people. There's too much art out there that just wants to please. Artists just want to be liked. I don't care about that. I want to do work that makes people feel something- be it rage, humor, anger, sadness, whatever. I want to do art that says something and shares my unique perspective on the world around me. And I like to piss off people every now and then and challenge their beliefs. Most people never examine their belief systems or the things they think and I think they should. So I do make an effort to cross lines and push boundaries to cause people to do that.
5. Do you ever think you'll push it so far one day that somebody will come after you? Do you care?
Not if it's a girl and she's hot. Me like-ee the ladies.
6. How long does it take you, on average to complete a comic strip? Is it carried in any dailies/weeklies?
The comics are done weekly. The writing process takes a long time. Some comics are written in an hour. Some are written and rewritten over a period of months until I think the wording's just right and then I draw it that week. Drawing can take between three hours to a couple days depending on how complex the comic is and how many words are in it. And more if I have to color it.
Right now the comic is published weekly in The NY Press and Real Detroit Weekly, every two weeks in The Prague Pill, and monthly in Gear Magazine. I'm hoping to pick up more papers in the immediate future. We'll see how that goes.
7. Do you have problems with people stereotyping or pigeon holing you as just a comic artist?
I have more problems with people stereotyping me as a moron than a comic artist because I'm incredibly good looking and unbelievably sexy. They think I don't have any brains because my body's so hot and my genitals are so large and well-endowed. It depresses me sometimes (but then I just look at my chiseled abs in the mirror, have sex with an underwear model and feel better). I hardly notice the comic artist stereotype.
8. How long have you been drawing mr.wiggles? Does the storyline loosely follow your life? I sort of assumed you were that dude in the comic whos balding and talks to mr.wiggles.
I've been doing Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles since August of 1999. It documents my life completely. Everything in the comic is 100% true- including the talking bear, Jesus hallucinations, and time-traveling dementia. My life is so much more interesting than everyone else's.
9. Did you go to school for anything? Art perhaps, or accounting?
I majored in Illustration but my first love has always been Dance! Dance! Dance! I got the fever!
10. Have you been accepted well 'over seas'? How would you describe your fan base?
Germans love Mr. Wiggles. Well, a couple do anyway. The folks over at Bizarrverlag dig my work and included me in their Basta 2003 arts calendar and are including me in the 2004 one. I dig them. Also, I think the Czechs dig the work being published in The Prague Pill. The Canadians and English folk seem to really like the comic. What can I say? Deviancy is universal. I think my fan base is really broad. I've got high-powered editors and business professionals who really like what I'm doing and 15 year old skate-punks who dig it too. It's a good spectrum.
11. How did you get on this crazy train to success? Did you just update your website once and a while and get discovered, or did you whore yourself like Pamela Anderson until one day it all paid off?
Let's just say, in this business, it helps to have strong knees.
12. Hows the dating situation? Any groupies?
I gots me a swanky lady at the moment. Although female fans are always encouraged to send me nude photos of themselves for future reference.
13. If you had kids, at what age would you let them read your comics?
Any age. I'm not embarrassed of my work. I think you should expose your kids to everything and teach them about things rather than hiding them from things that might disturb them. All you end up doing is keeping your kid ignorant and stupid. I'd sit there and show him my comics and say, "You see, it's funny 'cause he's raping him!". It's a picturesque scene when you imagine it. God, I'd make a great father.
14. Being an American and all, what are your views on President Bush? That dude is so unreal to me - he looks and acts like a potato or a puppet. I don't even think he can read! SERIOUSLY! It scares the shit outta me.
I think he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. But I can't really comment since I didn't vote.