Favorite childhood toy?
A plastic FrankenBerry figure I got from a box of cereal.
Favorite childhood game?
Tarzan (we’d climb pine trees on my grandfather’s xmas tree farm and swing from tree to tree like Tarzan).
Favorite childhood candy/cereal/treat?
Boston Baked Beans, Lik M Aid and licorice shoestrings (red).
What of your interests, preferences, obsessions (movies, TV, toys, food, clothing, etc.) might be considered childlike or childish? Why do you love this stuff?
I read comics, play with toys, colour in colouring books, watch cartoons (Woody Woodpecker and Deputy Dawg are my favorites). I love this stuff because it was the medium through which I connected with my brother and most of my friends when I was a kid; it represents connections with others that have no strings attached.
Did you have these interests as a kid? Were they developed as an adult, were they denied to you as a kid?
I’ve had these interests all my life. My parents encouraged me to read comics (as well as any book I was interested in ) because it was seen as a positive thing, a way to fall in love with reading. I’ve tried to spread that love of reading, sharing my current comics with kids in the neighborhood as often as I can.
Are you a grown-up? If so, when did you become one? If not, when will you become one?
I don’t feel like a grownup. I sometimes catch myself forgetting that I’m almost 40 years old, because it feels like I’ve barely made it through my 20s. I imagine when my eyesight starts failing me and I can’t read my comics or see my cartoons I’ll start to feel like a grownup.
