kenny at Forbidden Planet International looks back to a 24 page insert in Scottish rock magazine Cut, on the happening comics revolution in 1988 and wonders where it all went: It was twenty years ago today. I place the turning point in 1991. I arrived back in London for the Tundra champagne party at the National History Museum. To my horror I had negelcted to bring a suit for the event. I wondered what on earth was going on? Comic book people obliged to wear suits? And when they all started turning up they were arm in arm with beautiful women. I guess it wouldn't be so hard to get a date for such a prestigious outing. But that was it. It all turned by the end of that year, when a scribe in the NME wrote:"If graphic novels are the literature of the future, then how come nobody's reading them?" I tell my own version, and shamelessly plug it here, of the first rise and fall of the 'graphic novel' in How to be an Artist.
And ever since then, I always travel dressed in a suit.

And I always go home disappointed.

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Great interview with Dan Clowes at mcSweeney's

I assume you never had any interest in creating a syndicated strip for newspapers?
No, that's a whole different genre − an entirely different genus of cartoonist. The ones I've met tend to be these odd, suburban, country-club types. And just because the format worked with audiences in the 1920s doesn't mean it's still the greatest idea today.

I'm quoting that bit about the newspaper strip being a different 'medium,' or 'genre' because I agree with it but whenever I say it myself Steve Bissette turns up to say I'm full of cheese.
Oh, this bit is funny:

The script is not your typical Hollywood fare. Even the action descriptions are different than what one would normally find in a script. For instance, this is from the very first page: "A large, hirsute man, wearing only Lycra jogging shorts, watches the Home Shopping Network while eating mashed potatoes with his fingers."
[Laughs]" When Terry and I wrote the Ghost World screenplay, we would take turns handing it back and forth to each other. We were adding detail upon detail to crack each other up. We showed one of our producers the first ten pages, and it was packed with descriptions: "The high school graduation banner should be sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts" and things like that.
Never in a million years could we have afforded the rights to Dunkin' Donuts. The producer said to us, "You know, guys, perhaps you should have looked at another screenplay before you started."

aw man, and this:

After fifteen years in a room alone, you can start to feel as if you've unwittingly sentenced yourself to solitary confinement. It's no wonder that pretty much every cartoonist over fifty is totally insane.

arf! must show that bit to the wife...

"Over 50? You've been going that way for much longer than that, honey."