Life stories: Newsarama talks to writer Dennis Eichhorn about his career, the Real Life trade paperback, and why it isn't being published by Fantagraphics:

Newsarama: "Speaking of your relationships in the early days of Real Stuff, why isn’t the new trade paperback being published by Fantagraphics?"

Eichhorn: "After I did 20 issues of Real Stuff over two years we got tired of working with each other.

Newsarama: "What does that mean?"

Eichhorn: "Well, at one point we got into an argument over censorship. One of my stories had a reference in it to McDonald’s hamburgers and they wanted it taken out. It pissed me off and we got into a stupid argument which kind of soured our relationship. I came to find out years later that Fantagraphics had been sued twice by other people and it was really expensive for them. So one thing they didn’t want is another lawsuit.

"I did find out later on that National Lampoon had ridiculed McDonald’s and used their logo even and nothing had ever come of it. So I don’t think they would have done anything with regards to my comic. I had to go along with Fantagraphics but it was the only time they censored me and I got pissed off about."