(scenes from Mister Wonderful by Dan Clowes for the New York Times)

“Sacks: When did you start writing for Esquire?

Clowes: In the late 90s. Dave Eggers, who was an editor for Esquire then − but who had not yet written his first book or published the first issue of his literary journal McSweeney’s − wanted me to create a comic for Esquire’s fiction issue in ’98. The story was called “Green Eyeliner,” about a slightly unhinged young woman who was arrested for pulling out a gun in a crowded movie theater.

The fact that Esquire would even publish a comic for adults in their fiction issue was really a big deal. No one remembers the actual specifics of that comic, only that it was published.

Sacks: I wonder why it was such a big deal − your comics had been out for years by that point.

Clowes: It was one of the many “comics aren’t just for kids and fat collector creeps anymore” moments in what has become never-ending fodder for journalists.

Sacks: Did you ever imagine that you’d one day have a serial comic strip in the New York Times Magazine?

Clowes: Back in the early Eightball days? Never in a million years. “