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So you were trying to re-capture the good things you remembered about superhero comics when you were young?

I didn't want to do the comics I'd read, because kids now aren't interested in that. Kids now have got an attention span of three seconds, or whatever, so I'll do a comic that's constant plot-plot-plot and ideas - a hundred ideas a page, and it's like a video game. There's no real characterisation, there's just bits that make you think it's characterisation, but it's about the speed, about the constant input of information, and that's what I thought kids would be into. And, you know, it sells, and the only people who complain tend to be the older readers, who want it to be more like the old days.

More like the soap opera thing where you can track everything down...

Yeah, and that's crap. I don't care, I just want to see big images, I want to see big colourful people hittin' other big colourful people and blowin' things up! Have some weird ideas in there, too.

That's what I remember about comics, someone asked me once "why do you still read superhero comics?" and the only reason I could come up with was the colours. "I really like the colour of Superman's costume..."

That's what I'm saying, you know that cover of Justice League with Superman and Captain Marvel? That image never fails! A big red guy hittin' a big blue guy! It always looks great!

From JLA #29. Art by Howard Porter and John Dell.

The way that I see your writing career is that The Invisibles is the serious stuff, and then you've got this really sweet job doing the fun stuff on the side. What's it like being more known for the fun stuff? The difference between being a mainstream property and an alternative, cult property?

Well, I would have thought there'd be a big difference in the audience, and then I come and do conventions, and there's rarely kids in the audience. I think the kids read the stuff, but they don't care about this world that stands round about it. And that's why I don't ever trust any of the letters I get, or what's on the Internet, because those aren't the readers of JLA. The hundred thousand kids who read JLA don't write in.  

The people at conventions tend to be the literate, more adult end of it. I'm only talkin' about JLA because they're relating it to what I do in the other stuff. I don't think the audience for the mainstream stuff comes to those things at all. The audience that comes to those things is as I say, a literate, thinking audience, and they want to talk about it in the context of stuff like the Invisibles.

What did you think of Steve Shaviro's book, Doom Patrol? Did you see that?

No...

He wrote this book about postmodern theory...

Oh, yeah! I did! Somebody showed me that one, that's right!

What did you think?

I just remember readin' it and I cannae understand it! (laughs) I hate postmodern theory because it's just gibberish! The jargon is so dense...

That's interesting, because I was explaining hypertime to someone last night after hearing you explain it, and they were like, "Hmmm... very postmodern..."

(laughs)

The idea reminded me of Flatland.

Well, that's what I was always interested in, I keep finding things that I can relate it back to. My base idea, since I was a kid, is that this is a made-up reality.

This is a projection from a higher space that we've forgotten about and when we wake up to it, something's gonna happen. I intrinsically belive that.

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