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Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good news in the bird?

It's a rhetorical question, sir, but where would we need without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Soverblad, and welcome to Bookworm.

Today I have, as my guest, the wonderful Charles Burns, I have been waiting, not exactly patiently, chewing my

nails actually, to find out how this trilogy of his will fit together. It's three books. The first

was X'd out. The second was the hive. The third is Sugar Skull. He's a graphic

novelist. He's known for the visceral creepiness of his art. You can't look at him without feeling his work, without feeling sick to your stomach,

or exhilarated. The protagonist is named Doug. He is an art school victim. He's doing

experiments. And, you know, when he talks to other art school students,

they tell him the things that art school students say, I think you need to go deeper in your

photography. It's very scary. If your photography isn't working, you do performance art.

If your performance art isn't working, you do body art.

I think you're describing my art school career, but yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

It's very frightening.

And I think that it's the cause for a nervous breakdown every three weeks, you know, because you're not

sure whether you're on the right track yet. And the right track, in fact, takes you out of art school.

I just felt a certain amount of freedom also that I could try, I knew that I wouldn't have that time again in my life I could

try anything and make a mistake I could do really I had some teachers say oh you should you should

...