PB: What would you most like to try to change or make better in comics through your influence?
YM: I'd want to inspire some cockiness and some attitude. I hate the "geek" stigma that people embrace about comics. Really great comics are not born out of people's insecurities; they come from peoples greatest revelations and dreams. I would rather drink a keg full of Drain-O before I accept that beaten- dog- outcast- loser- mentality. I am really proud to be a cartoonist: I think it's the BEST!
PB: Why do you think there's such hostility directed at anything original or entertaining in mainstream comics?
YM: Because they are afraid to lose their meal ticket. I don't respect their unadventerous attitude... I think the attitude is actually a mouthful of fear to do the "wrong thing." The worst thing you can do in mainstream comics is be original. Brand Identity baybee!
PB: When industry hacks attack you and your work in print, how do you react?
YM: I act like the asshole I want to be. I'm never going to produce a book I don't care about so I will defend it anyway I want. What are they going to do; throw me out? I'm already OUT! And I'm quite happy not to be allowed into their little reindeer games.
PB: Besides being an internationally-famous cartoonist, you are also a prominent New Yorker. Alot has been written lately about Mayor Giuliani "improving" New York City: do you have any feelings about that?
YM: I think Ghouliani is EVIL. I think that he is a control freak and a racist. He despises the poor and struggling. Giuliani wants to beat the artists and the vendors into submission so that when the rich people come we will be used to performing our tricks and selling our wares in their government-controlled environment like good little monkeys. I don't know about everyone else but I am sick of seeing cops everywhere! I don't need a reminder that my mayor thinks I ought to be corralled while he's at Gracie Masion putting his married cock in Christine Lateganos' twenty-something ass!
PB: Speaking of legal issues, isn't it time they legalized pot? I smoke it when I draw all the time.
YM: Me too! I really feel that it helps me feel creative in spite of any depression or tension I am experiencing. I think it is a wonderful and beautiful thing. It has saved me. I wish it were legal, the thought of some pot dealer sitting in jail makes me want to cry. It's not fair, pot's so harmless.
PB: Right now, you're making regular appearances on the Rools Like Ozzy! public access TV program in Manhattan and Brooklyn. How does it feel to be thought of as a role model and spokesperson for women in comics and a role model for girls and young women?
YM: Am I really thought of as a role model? I want to use my new-found power right now... Hey out there all you little girls reading this: Go out and smoke some pot and play some music and I don't mean on your stereo, I mean get off your ass and play a guitar, the drums, make drawings, take photos, do art, be free...learn how to make a tequila sunrise and invite someone over to drink it with you. Have fun and don't become a lady... you WILL regret it.
PB: Do you have any advice for girls or boys reading this who may want to become cartoonists, yet are not getting any encouragement from their family or peers?
YM: Yeah, read my answer to the last question and tack this on the end: