My father worked in Chrysler's drafting department and used to bring home tracing paper, No. 2 pencils, and masking tape from the office. With these, I used to trace off drawings from the 'Superman' and 'Batman' comics and put them up on my bedroom walls.
As a kid, I was obsessed with 'Calvin and Hobbes' and 'Bone,' and I'm certain that I've unconsciously ripped off ideas from both, wholesale.
I did stand-up. I loved George Carlin and Steve Martin.
I've not really been angling to be a comedian. I knew comics and I loved them and I loved being funny, but I didn't understand the whole concept of becoming one. My first couple of times on stage, I was like, "This is what I'm doing for sure." I was so excited.
When I became a standup comic, my hero, one of them, was Richard Pryor, and you know, I think that comedians, like, comedians talk about hacks, and what a hack is, is someone who does stuff that's not original.
I never envisioned when I was reading that comic as a 17-year-old that I would have the opportunity to actually play the character.
I never thought I would work in mainstream superhero comics or Valiant or Marvel. I just set out to make the kinds of stories I wanted to make, which at the beginning was small personal stuff like 'Essex County.'
It was said Daredevil grew up in Hell's Kitchen, an amazing name for a neighbourhood. But that opened a Pandora's box of all the crime stuff I wanted to do. I borrowed liberally from Will Eisner's 'The Spirit' and turned 'Daredevil' into a crime comic.
I never do things fearing I could do right or wrong. I just do it because I just follow my guts. This is really how I did it for 'Elektra' because I was just amazed by all the comics. I was good for me to get inspired by them, and I just follow my guts for the rest.
To see where I've stolen all my ideas from, look no further than the comics at your local comic shop!
Growing up, I always liked Catwoman and Superman; they inspired me.
I came in with a very specific idea about what a Doctor Strange movie should be, which was rooted in the comics, and I thought it should be as weird and as visually ambitious compared to modern comic book movies as the comic was when it showed up in the '60s compared to other comic books at the time.
I grew up reading a lot of superhero comics, so it's really fun to take a shot at one myself and see what happens.
People ask 'do you make a conscious effort not to swear?' - if you're doing silly stuff you're not tempted to put swearing in. All the comics from my childhood, who were funny without swearing, were the people that influenced me. What I do is quite traditional anyway.
One of the things I've found about SpongeBob's movement style is that, in addition to being animated and sort of stretching and squeezing, he's really based on the classic silent comedians, physical comedians.
All great comedians make me laugh, but people make me laugh more.
I'm a big fan of Albert Brooks, Nichols and May. I'd like to follow in their footsteps and do comedy films.
Spider-Man initially made me want to come to New York and work for Marvel; I wanted to be a comic book artist.
I think physical comedy is an amazing asset because it tells a story that's more universal than just language and dialogue. I grew up watching Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. They're very powerful figures in my life.
When I was a kid, back in the '40s, I was a voracious comic book reader. And at that time, there was a lot of patriotism in the comics. They were called things like 'All-American Comics' or 'Star-Spangled Comics' or things like that. I decided to do a logo that was a parody of those comics, with 'American' as the first word.
I grew up very inspired by 'Superman One' and by kind of the promise of the genre of what a superhero origin story can do.
It's always been said that comedy comes mostly out of the dark side anyway.
To a crowd that loves improv, Robin Williams is like Chuck Berry.
Clark Kent, I suppose, had a little bit of Harold Lloyd in him.
When you're doing standup you're kind of doing, "Hey. I thought of this. This may be funny.
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