But if I really want to produce my own work and tell stories, then I will.

I still love a lot of the guys who just paint.

I wanted to be complete, because I figured that, visually, there was an avenue to explore with painted stuff.

People who can pull you in and take you on a journey, as opposed to simply adding flash. Again, that feels very clinical, and I don't respond to that the way I used to.

Comics are really my life blood in a lot of respects.

Nothing is really media driven or committee driven, so you can actually just produce something.

If somebody can inspire me, it feels really special.

And I've never viewed comics as assignments for the client.

So cartooning, for me, is an honorable thing. It's pushing the envelope. It's the truth of something through exaggeration.

For a while I felt very alone; sort of out there in the world of comics, especially here in the States.

There is a whole generation of people who are going to see movies or watch TV who don't want to work.

So much of Jaws was amazing because the mind filled in what was missing.

You're telling the story, creating the sets, doing the lighting, the designing, and establishing the pace.

To me, that's one of the things that I love about doing this stuff. One day I can work on this piece in watercolor, and then work on something else on the computer, or work on something else that's a completely different approach.

But if I really want to produce my own work and tell stories, then I will.

So, when the special effects are at the service of the story and draw you into it, that is really the magic.

I want to say 90% of stuff out there is just crap that got made. The main point is that it got produced.

I wanted to learn how to paint rather than just doing black-and-white work.

It's interesting, because in the corporate stuff there's a dichotomy there, depending on the creator. Even what, in essence, may be a very safe corporate approach, there is some stuff that is allowed to be pushed.

So there's kind of a simultaneous aspect to pushing the boundaries, and being very safe.

And that, to me, is the main attraction to comics. It's an avenue to say what you want to say.

I was lucky enough to be given books that weren't top sellers; books that were kind of under the radar.

One of the problems I have with a lot of movies these days is that everything is too well lit. In the world of digital creations there is a tendency to show too much.

I didn't want to feel constrained, so I took on the Mutants.

To me, the technique was almost irrelevant; it was what was coming across.

But I'm aware of the fact that I'm working in a commercial venue where I'm producing something that I wouldn't normally be approaching the way I'm doing it.

So I look at a lot of stuff now that I did and some of it looks tame to me, but my interest in terms of what I want to say with it is a little different.

Kyle Baker's work is really funny, but it's also got a very clear vision.

But there's still an avenue for smaller comics and personal expression.

But with comics you're reading and assimilating an image simultaneously, instead of just reading or watching the tube.

After that I jumped, especially being in art school, to the illustrators.

Especially with Elektra, because I'm doing a lot of the covers for the new version of Elektra.

Like Godfather, you look at a movie like that, or something that James Gray has directed, a film with minimal or pin lighting as opposed to everything being lit bright and flat, where everything is evident.

Cartooning is an honorable thing.

Do the story in the way it really demands to be done, which may mean using several different styles or only one style; but it's still about respecting the story.

If you're going to establish a certain level of unreality than you have to deal with it.

That was a real learning element for me, because I realized that the more true you are to yourself, the more you will lose people.

So much of 'Jaws' was amazing because the mind filled in what was missing.

I want to feel good, I want to feel proud, I want to feel that I give someone enough and that I get enough.

You should never feel comfortable. There is something wrong if you are. You should always feel under threat, on the edge of your seat and pushing yourself. Win one and you want to win more. It's never-ending.

I want to have babies one day but not right now. When I do it I want to do it really well. I want it to be my best project in life.

When producers want to know what the public wants, they graph it as curves. When they want to tell the public what to get, they say it in curves.

I want the municipality to be a helping hand to the man with a desire of sympathy, to help the fallen when it is not in their power to help themselves.

Get me inside any boardroom and I'll get any decision I want.

The avantgarde are people who don't exactly know where they want to go, but are the first to get there.

If I had to come up with something that just came to me, I think growing up in a small town, I want knowledge. I still think today, knowledge is one of the keys.

I want to thank all the fans for their support over the years. Keep supporting the Knicks, we're moving in the right direction here and we will be exciting to watch and competing against the best in the NBA. Come back to the Garden for those exciting games.

If you want something that's going to provide you with a lot of challenges and a variety of different things to do, then you really can't beat a place like the Air Force. I don't mean this to sound like a recruiting pitch. But it's been a lot of fun.

I want to spend more time with those kids. I want to dedicate my time to train those kids and teach them what it takes, what they need to do to get to this level.