ALLEN SPIEGEL: What is it that you find most disagreeable about mass market comics, i.e., content, presentation and/or quality?
DAVE McKEAN: I think it's the whole dominant esthetic that I object to. I think if you have a banal and stagnant esthetic you attract an undemanding audience, self-important and portentous 'artists' and 'writers' (I use the terms advisedly), reactionary publishers, lazy distributors, greedy and uninterested retailers and a generally warped marketplace, unable to sail out of the doldrums. Am I overstating this? Certainly there are wonderful moments and a great deal of 'nice' and 'well-meaning' people involved, I just don't see the basic esthetic developing beyond a reductive, inhuman 'xeroxing' of a B-movie view of life that had few redeeming features to start with.
AS: What is it that you find most lacking, or to be desired, in the field in general?
DM: Many things. To simplify I'd say two main areas need to be looked at:
a) A major overhaul of the standards and expectations of comics, at every level. Children deserve more than the tired power fantasies trotted out time after time. Adults, or 'mature readers' as the current buzz would have them, deserve all the qualities you would expect to find in good film, theatre and literature, as well as visual language that shows the same imagination and creativity that most other visual forums present.
b) A new look at what comics are. What is essence and what is just accumulated affectation. I think this is fundamental to making comics an art form. I think what we have at the moment is a deeply floored medium, comprising an awkward collection of elements which often fight each other on the page and just refuse to meld. The way the text, if any, works with the images just has not been explored in any real sense. Working in comics avant garde is the only way to pull apart this mess of elements, and reconstitute a vital and essential fusion of words and pictures.
AS: What do you find positive about comics in general?
DM: The form in its essence.
AS: Why are you working in the field?
DM: I love storytelling and developing themes and character. I love the way words and pictures can buzz off each other, and finally I love the total and uncompromising control it's possible to exert over a project.
AS: What would you hope to accomplish?
DM: A good comic.
AS: Can comic books draw any positive influences from any other media? If so, how and where?
DM: Of course, everything can affect and be absorbed into comics. Instead of this constant navel-gazing I'd like to see the industry look to the 'real world,' business-wise and, more importantly, creatively. However, the last thing I want is for this peculiar set of tropes to be replaced wholesale by another borrowed from, say, film. The comic medium's gaze should be fixed on politics, sociology, philosophy, human relations, anything that is important to the human spirit, and how these themes and feelings can be translated into a narrative artform that communicates these illusive and difficult subjects.
AS: Are there any progressive works going on within the field and if so what are they?
DM: All over the world there are almost cottage industry clusters of artists and writers making personal comics: The Medios Revueltos group in Spain, the Mocha group in Belgium, the Valvoling group in Italy, the Raw group in America, etc.
AS: Are you pleased with your work on Cages and when might it be completed? Also, if you're comfortable, please let the readers know why the work has been so long in coming.
DM: I'm still happy with Cages and still enjoying it. Believe it or not, each issue takes about 3 or 4 weeks to complete. But preparing to write each issue has been difficult. I never quite feel that I have all the information I need, so starting takes forever. Once I do have something on paper, rewriting and making sure each word is right, especially the dialogue, is painstaking. Finally, I'm committed to other on-going work so Cages often gets shunted down my schedule. Sorry for the delays, but it will finish soon.