the book-within-a-book. But they all achieve liberation. Is this the moral of the story? Self-knowledge only comes from a place of, or an act of, desperation? It could be ... It's also a case of "Who knows what's good or bad" (the old Taoist parable) ... Which is a theme that kind of runs through the book. I suffered a nervous breakdown as I turned thirty, was in hospital for three months, a lot of people might say "How awful" but actually it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Maybe that experience is echoed in the book. There's a fifth character, though: Gil Ichiyama, his presence felt in the "real" world of Nao, Steve and Gregory through his work. Can you tell us more about him? That's a pretty website he's got . Well, he kind of echoes the main story too, he's "hafu," like Nao and his work, the 'ichi' manga/anime in some way holds up a wonky mirror to the events and characters in the primary narrative. Doing his website, with the help of Mike from the Gorillaz websites, was a lot of fun. Gil Ichiyama, yesterday Vinyl toys: this demi-monde Nao and Steve inhabit. I don't know much about it myself, but the work exhibits a strong affection toward it. You've worked with Kid Robot in the past, and there's a toy coming out to tie-in with the book, right? Yeah, I love toys. And I really liked the idea of things from the