It’s cockney rhyming slang for being (knocked) out cold. You know, a state of being out of it. Non compos mentis. All effed up.

2) The psychoactive effects of perceiving “God” and the surly drunken angel are just two of the many religious interpretations within the comic. What role is religion meant to play in the story?

I take religion for what it is : a grand idea. The underground world in which our little adventure takes place is a world teaming with sentient ideas, so naturally the inclusion of gods, angels and the like, seemed inevitable and necessary to me.

 

That and Neverwhere had an angel in it, so I just had to go stick one in my story too.

Well, the wall was built under London centuries ago by the church originally to keep certain pagan ideas inside, but over time other ideas that’ve slipped from the  popular consciousness started ending up there too, even people, (ever wonder what happened to Bros?) until eventually it resulted in distorted version of the city upstairs, bubbling over with suppressed memes and stuff.

It's the result of Jung, Pink Floyd and candy bars.

He just wants to be sedated and ends up in a more intense sense of reality with even more problems.

Well, it’s ironic that his quest for self-destruction through drug abuse, designed to numb himself from his feelings, sets him on course for self discovery and healing (ugh, that sounded just like Popsych). 

She’s an inhabitant of the Walled Kingdom on a quest to procure the ransom for the release of their future monarch. Norman, being in the wrong place and wrong time, gets swept along for the ride.

Not really. The idea was that some of the waning ideas in Sparko still retain some of their megalomaniacal aspirations and so evolved the sub plot to restore their place in popular culture, hence the coup.

Amy is Norman’s dead girlfriend who was killed in a car accident in which he was a driver. His guilt over all this is the main reason for his descent from popular musician to worthless self-pitying drug bum. We never get to meet Amy. She’s represents the unobtainable for Norman, something he can never have again, and it’s killing him.

They’re the creators of the problem, so to speak, and the solution to its symptoms in present day London.  Apart from that, every story benefits from assertive actions action and since I knew I couldn’t count on Norman for everything, so I created the Templar, Harry to undertake some of the hero stuff.

 

I’ve always liked the Catholic aesthetic so I had to find a way to work it into the story.

I grew up in South Africa, but British comedy has had a huge influence on the way I write. I’m especially fond of The Young Ones and Black Adder.

 

My comic book influences are almost too numerous to mention, but it was only after reading Tank Girl that I wanted to do comics myself. I also owe a debt to Dave Sim for Norman’s unusually chunky fingers.

All my work is satire and I find it hard to make any kind of serious statement without subsequently making fun of it. I guess I’m one of those perpetual pisstakers.