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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
But seriously, do you have a sense of how ambitious that was?
I think about it. Sometimes I think, Why were we one of the first? That shit should have never been ignored, but you can say that with everything. Women couldn't vote years ago; we think about that now and it seems ridiculous.
Were you worried about alienating anyone? Or were you comfortable with the fact that these were the stories of people you knew who lived in alternative communities and didn't abide by the dominant culture?
Pretty much the second part. I've known people like Maggie and Hopey. The only thing that made me nervous was approaching types that I didn't know much about. I deal with lesbians and I'm not a lesbian, so I can't really jump inside and tell the whole story. I have to be very careful about where I go. I cannot make things up. So instead of concentrating on lesbian stereotypes, I decided to just treat them like a person. It's pretty simple. Maybe that's why it seems natural.
Did you catch any heat from lesbians for Maggie and Hopey's relationship?
I heard things like, "Lesbians don't do it that way." But I can't listen to that argument, because it's just as much a stereotype. I'm sure there's someone out there who does it the way I wrote it -- for lack of a better way of putting it. (Laughs.) If you can think of it, someone's already done it. If you think of a way to kill someone, someone's already done it.
"Love & Rockets" dealt at length with Los Angeles' subculture, but people all over the nation responded to it. It gave readers a chance to escape the dominant culture's stereotypes and to see L.A. in a different light.
Well, you and I grew up in Southern California, so we know what it's like. We've seen the ins and outs, the ups and downs. But most of the country and the world hasn't. They only know "Baywatch" or "The O.C." and the dominant culture is still trying to sell that: SoCal, the Gold Coast. And believe me, I saw a lot that had nothing to do with that. Which made it easy to write "Love & Rockets," because there is so much about Los Angeles that people don't want to talk about. I grew up a Mexican-American, but I grew up a rock 'n' roller too, so I saw my culture split in half. I saw the guys who couldn't relate to my music and then I saw people who like my music but who couldn't relate to my culture. So I was lucky that I was able to step outside of all that and look at it all. I got to watch everyone around me doing shit. Instead of my culture looking at their culture, I got to see everyone's culture -- and it's not what TV is telling us.
You've been an "alternative" comics artist for 20 years. Have you outgrown that, now that you've published this huge $50 volume that might end up on Alec Baldwin's coffee table?
It's fine with me. Because I know where it all came from. It came from my drawing board and there was no compromise. If, say, Alec Baldwin likes it, well, I didn't lie. He's getting the same story that the alternative kids are getting.
How do you feel about the way alternative subcultures inevitably get appropriated? You've been watching it happen for a long time.
I have to admit that I get cranky when some "normal" person off the street starts talking about the legendary Sex Pistols. Everyone knows now who the Sex Pistols are. Everyone knows now who the Ramones are -- and they're all experts. But did they put their asses on the line, leave their homes every day with stupid haircuts, willing to die for their music? No. But you could say that about a lot of things. I don't usually like to talk about it -- but, yeah, I get annoyed.
It's a much more nebulous pop-culture landscape than when you were coming up, isn't it? It's hard to find something to rebel against when everything has been packaged for you, whether it's punk, hip-hop or whatever.
Right. It's all packaged, and there are few secrets left. I guess I'm lucky. I'm old now and not as energetic and fiery as I once was. I mean, I still have my anger, but now it's all channeled through my pen or in more subtle ways. But when I was a youngster, I used to go out and, um ... make my mark. (Laughs.)
Are you uncomfortable with being incorporated into the underground comics boom?
I'm uncomfortable with being fucked over. Or with "Love & Rockets" being put through a strainer and coming out "Friends." Of course I'm weird about that. But there are parts of my work that I don't know will ever be accepted, because -- and this is a real big argument -- much of it is my culture. And I don't know if my culture will ever be accepted. After 45 years I've just seen what's going to get through and what's not. The rest of it has to stay in the subculture. Which is fine, as long as you're allowed to have one.
