"I recently lost my job in IT. When I started working over thirty years ago, computer technology changed slowly. It was like going from a skateboard, to a bicycle, to a motorcycle, to a car. Now it’s changing so fast I can’t keep up. Every five years it goes from a skateboard to an aircraft carrier. So I’m sitting here sketching the library to keep from going nuts."
"When I was 22, I fell off a fishing boat in the middle of the night. We were about 200 miles from shore, fishing for swordfish. I was trying to bend a pipe into place when it gave way and dumped me in the ocean. They didn’t notice I was gone for about 20 minutes. The waves were about twelve feet high, and between the waves I could see the boat going further and further and further until it completely disappeared. You know how they say that when you’re dying, you’re supposed to go toward the light? Well, when I thought I was dying, the light was moving further and further away."
"I left Belize when I was 12 or 13, just as all my friends were getting swept up into gangs. The gangs would get kids to do the dirty work, because they knew the kids wouldn’t go to jail. I actually have an old photograph of the group of friends I used to hang out with— there were seven us. After I came to America, they were all killed in the exact order that they were standing in that photograph."
"Do you remember the happiest moment of your life?"
"One time back in 73’, I went to see a show at the Village Vanguard by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He was amazing. He could play three saxophones at one time. I went to his last set of the night, and I got there early and found him sitting at the bar. I went up to him and asked if I could join him on stage for a song, but he told me that he wouldn’t have the time. ‘If you change your mind,’ I told him, ‘I’ll be sitting in the front row corner.’ I told him exactly where I’d be because he was blind. Then right at the end of the show, he started waving toward my table. I got up there and started playing, and at one point he motioned for the whole band to stop, and I got to play a solo up on the stage. Everyone was clapping for me. I rode home on the subway that night feeling like a king. Feeling like I could play with anyone in the world."
"What’s your favorite thing about your mother?"
"She loves life more than anyone I’ve ever known. I hope she doesn’t mind me telling you this, but recently she’s had some health problems. And her health got so bad at one point, she called me and said: ‘I was starting to wonder if there was any reason to go on. But then I had the most delicious pear!’"
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
"A princess."
"What kind of princess will you be?"
"The one from Frozen."
4cp:
Comparing a scan from the original “Fantastic Four” #49 (1966) to the present-day reprint style (in this case a Marvel Omnibus edition). Which do you like better?
