Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.
Satire is a form of social control, it's what you do. It's not personal. It's a job.
There's always been some concern that adult subject matter should be quarantined from a page that attracts children. Unlike late at night, when 'South Park' and 'Colbert' are on, impressionable minds are wide awake when the newspaper arrives.
Because I was a diminutive, arty kid, I felt like a misfit in high school - but who doesn't?
Lives have been altered in fundamental ways, and later, after they acquire a more complete understanding of what goals are actually attainable, many are left facing a lot of pain and frustration. And yet, there's no culture of complaint.
When you're young, you don't feel iconoclastic - you're just kind of doing what seems natural, what moves you.
I found that not having a public profile was not hurting the work, and it freed me up to be the satirist I wanted to be.
The systematic dismantling of reproductive rights, much like the takedown of collective bargaining, has been taking place in full view.
That's what fiction writers do: create characters and do terrible things to them for the entertainment of others. If they feel guilty enough, they write happy endings.
Life is like a movie-since there aren't any commercial breaks, you have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of it.
I've been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn't require my presence.
Becoming the new feminine ideal requires just the right combination of insecurity, exercise, bulimia and surgery.
In Palm Springs, they think homelessness is caused by bad divorce lawyers.
I try to take people one at a time, with all the contradictions and compromises that most of us live with.
In any event, it's not exactly a secret to regular readers what my views on the war are.
I don't think so, but it's always in the back of my mind that many of the soldiers being wounded and killed in Iraq are about the same age as my kids. My godson is going over soon, so the war's about to get personal for me.
Well, it's a humor strip, so my first responsibility has always been to entertain the reader... But if, in addition, I can help move readers to thought and judgment about issues that concern me, so much the better.
The strips about the military do seem to provoke moving and thoughtful responses. It's nice when the strip resonates, but more importantly, I need to know when I'm getting something wrong. The last thing I want to do is contribute to the suffering that wounded warriors already endure.
Humor can inform and break down stigma, which is a huge issue in the military.
I just happen to have one of those skill sets that allows me to work in my underwear.
