Negative humor is forgotten immediately. It's the stuff that makes us feel better about our lives that lives long. Much more satisfying. Enter children's books.

Such is the nature of comic strips. Once established, their half-life is usually more than nuclear waste. Typically, the end result is lazy, rich cartoonists.

That's the conundrum of cartoon stripping, as opposed to political cartoons. When your anger is the driving force of your drawing hand, failure follows. The anger is OK, but it has to serve the interests of the heart, frankly.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

Despite what they tell you, there are simply no moral absolutes in a complex world.

I can say that even in the midst of my most cynical comic stripping: Opus shone through with a bit of heart, anchoring the ugly proceedings with a comforting pull of emotion.

And that's why any of my picture books exist: They all seem to be built backwards from a simple, emotionally optimistic story beat.

Bloom County was set in a tidy, rural environment probably because of Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'

Cartooning is about deconstruction: you gotta tear something down to make a joke.

Doonesbury had the requisite and overwhelming influence in 1980, as it did on any college cartoonist who was paying attention, of course.

'Harry Potter' shouldn't be children's first experience with suspense and plot turns.

I grew up in Los Angeles and always wished I'd spent a childhood in a far different place.

I ignore Hallmark Holidays. And this comes from a guy who has sold a million Opus greeting cards.

I started as a news photographer at the University Of Texas' Daily Texan.

If I could have drawn a cat yelling for lasagna every day for 15 years and have them pay me $30 million to do so, I would have.

If nothing is serious anymore, then there's nothing to satirize.

It was a huge challenge to learn digital painting well enough so that computers don't pop into mind when one sees one.

Keep in mind that in 1985, I had a potential readership of over 50 million Americans. At that time, a good portion of those were under 30.

My post-child period resulted in one instant change: I write shorter books for kids.

Some of us find our lives abridged even before the paperback comes out.