Dan Clowes: He-Man Comic Artist
Cheap and Common
m: Is there a lot more money in that end of the business?
d: Oh yeah, I mean. . .
m: Does that ever piss you off?
d: Yeah, all the time. Yeah, I would give anything just to make a
decent living just drawing comics, but I have to do all this
horrible freelance stuff just to make extra money. Whereas, you
know, even some hack who draws Thor or something makes, you
know, fifty grand a year or something. . . .I mean, lately, I've
[had to do] stuff for
OK Cola
for godsakes [laughs].
m: [laughs] Really?
d: Yeah.
m: For magazines I take it or. . .
d: No it's like they have a product that they're debuting next year
that's this sodapop designed for generation-x, like the lowered
expectations of the new generation. So they wanted my
depressing images on the can. But it's like, you know, I can do
that stuff in like two days and make more money than I make
on an issue of Eightball, which takes me about four months of
working about seventy hours a week. So, you know, it's hard to
pass up. I wish I didn't have to do it [laughs].
m: Geez.
d: It's drudgery even for just two days.
m: It really takes that much time, or were you exaggerating, for an
issue of Eighball?
d: No, no, that's absolutely what it takes.
