"I've always considered my early work in underground comics as my
apprenticeship. THE EXPLOITS OF HIERONYMOUS FLASK for TIMELORD was my PhD. I crammed
everything I could in there to produce my ideal comic story: experimental,
adult, as rich as a text novel. It made my name as a comic creator and
influenced many, now famous, names. The biggest innovation, of course, the
one that the book is justifiably famous for, was having the courage to have
a hero with a huge fat belly. You have to remember that, at the time, all
comicbook heroes were musclebound hunks with tiny waists. Well, yes, I know
he'd been around for years and... no, I didn't invent Hip Flask, that's
right, er...but he'd never been in THAT sort of story before. That was the
thing that REALLY pushed back the boundaries of the comic medium."
— Bryan Talbot
