With that in mind, I asked him about the recent resurgence in comic books as a medium. "I think comics' recent success is due to illiterate executives who don't like to read so many words without pretty pictures. I could read H.P. Lovecraft, but that's too much work, so I'll read Hellboy instead, thank you. (And by the way, I think Hellboy is better literature!) Comics aren't as deep, but we don't have as much time to get our media fix, so we go for the cheaper crack, since it's not as hard to get as heroin. I think execs (and our general audience, myself included) find comics easier to read, so more of them get picked up and passed on to hyper ADD audiences used to MTV editing styles."
Regarding his own GEAR, he says, "I'm sure a lot of people have thought at one time or another that their cats (or their lives) would make stunningly entertaining comics/television, yet in most cases, this is a bit of an exaggeration." The difference between his "cat stories" and others, he says, is because, "all of my stories are intensely personal, but I put a skin on them to help communicate my humanity to a broad audience. I could turn my butt into a hero's journey that would make you cry, if I had enough pages to set up my butt's plight. I write what I know, and I like to tell stories about my cats in GEAR because we all anthropomorphize our animals and make them into bigger heroes than the poop-machines [they] actually are."
In a previous interview, TenNapel said, "I love my fans, but never ever design a game for your fans." Curious in this age of all-out pandering. I asked him about it. "My Earthworm Jim and Neverhood fans are voracious," he said. "They go completely nuts when they even think about the game and the characters, and this is fine; I love those people. But at some point, they just love the feeling they got when they were with the characters, and it's not my job to recreate the environment for their inner 9-year-old to get his jollies. In many ways, videogames are just another kind of drug. ... Players can receive a high that is not unlike a drug or an orgasm, and they may associate this with my character. So, now I didn't just create a beloved character, now I'm their dealer supplying them with junk. I'm not a pimp, I'm a storyteller. And I can't help it if I make kick ass games that you get addicted to. Yeah, they're that good. So I try to keep my fans' desires and impulses out of the forefront of my mind when I make something new.
"After all, before I made Earthworm Jim I was drawing Drew the Iguana, a comic character I made in college that had a fan base of 30 people. If I only served those fans and just made Drew the Iguana, I never would have gotten around to EWJ. When I made EWJ, if I stayed there I never would have made Neverhood or Creature Tech or GEAR or Tommysaurus Rex or Catscratch. I don't get anywhere imitating myself, and I encourage my fans to also move on and enjoy variety, in addition to EWJ saturation. It is in the spirit of creativity that I keep making new stuff that entertains millions of youth around the world. My audience deserves the very best from me every time I set pencil to paper; this is my duty and my pleasure. When I have fun making characters, they always come out better than characters I make at gunpoint. I hope my fans see that by not creating exactly for them that I'm actually making better stuff for them!"
