Tom Spurgeon talks with comics author Bob Levin about his new book, Most Outrageous: The Trials and Trespasses of Dwaine Tinsley and Chester the Molester:
SPURGEON: To open Most Outrageous, you tell the story of how the subject matter was suggested to you by Eric Reynolds and your initial pursuit of the story. At what point did you decide it would become a book, and at what point do you think it became roughly the book you ended up doing?
LEVIN: I probably started thinking of it as a book once I saw the material Dwaine’s widow had for me. The narrative line was pretty straightforward — birth to death — arrest through trial — with some organic development en route. Since I like writing more than researching — and revising more than first drafts — I start writing as soon as I can. Then — thank God for word processors — I layer stuff in as I collect it. And, as the book makes clear, I couldn’t've ended the book as I did without my final interview, and it caused me to go back and tweak some of what had gone before.
