Two Total Assholes Commiserate

TED RALL: I think it's very mysterious that you have this reputation as a béte noir in the comics industry.

GARY GROTH: How so?

RALL: Oh, you know; "Oh, that Gary Groth, he's such an asshole!"

GROTH: There is that.

RALL: I don't get that. I really don't.

GROTH: Well Ted, you're talking as someone who everyone thinks is an asshole, too.

RALL: I know! At least I know my own faults [Groth laughs] but I don't know yours. I don't think it takes many strong opinions to piss people off in this business.

GROTH: Oh, absolutely not. We have the advantage that there are so many tepid opinions that dominate any social context, that if you do have strong contrarian opinions, are reasonably articulate in expressing them and have achieved a degree of success, you're apart from the pack. And hated for it.

RALL: But it's weird that they'd come back and say that you're an asshole, because, to me, if there's someone whose strong opinion I don't like -- like Anne Coulter, who I think is a moron -- I wouldn't say, "Oh, what a bitch!" People say that! I don't think she's a bitch. I just think she's dumb.

GROTH: Well, Art Spiegelman's not talking to me any more because of a negative review we ran of one of his books [TCJ #244].

RALL: Naw, really?

GROTH: Yeah!

RALL: Like it's a permanent, "I will not return your phone calls."?

GROTH: It may not be permanent; he said he might talk to me in three years. [Laughter.]

RALL: After all those years? You know who's like that, is Dave Eggers. He's incredibly thin skinned. He's basically written off all of his friends because of minor perceived slights, after years of working together and being really close.

GROTH: I don't understand that. I can deal with a lot of criticism myself without --

RALL: I can too. I also think that if you have a reservoir of good will, years and years of doing shit together and then someone does something to piss you off, you don't necessarily forgive him or her automatically, but you do work it out and talk about it.

GROTH: Yeah. It's important to look at these things impersonally unless you perceive a personal agenda. Some maniac wrote a 30,000-word hatchet job on me for Gauntlet.

RALL: It's nice to know someone's publishing long pieces, but it's not like a 30,000-word piece on Bush. You're just not that important -- no matter how bad you are.

GROTH: I agree.

RALL: That's pretty outrageous.

GROTH: I'll hate those fuckers 'til the day I die. But most of the time I can take criticism without injecting any personal animosity into it. I think most people can't.

RALL: No, they can't.

GROTH: I've gotten a lot of "How dare you do this?" grief for reviews.

RALL: You're allowed to not like my books, you know? It is allowed. Although, obviously, I have the same issues.

[To read the full version of this interview, please see The Comics Journal #247. To read an excerpt from the published interview, click here.]

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