I started as a news photographer at the University Of Texas' Daily Texan.

That's the conundrum of cartoon stripping, as opposed to political cartoons. When your anger is the driving force of your drawing hand, failure follows. The anger is OK, but it has to serve the interests of the heart, frankly.

I drew the last image ever of Opus at midnight while Puccini was playing and I got rather stupid. Thirty years. A bit like saying goodbye to a child - which is ironic because I was never, never sentimental about him as many of his fans were.

And that's why any of my picture books exist: They all seem to be built backwards from a simple, emotionally optimistic story beat.

Some of us find our lives abridged even before the paperback comes out.