When Ninth Art caught up with former GLOOMCOOKIE artist Ted Naifeh at a San Francisco comic store, he was wearing a ruffled white shirt, a black waistcoat and overcoat, a powdered wig, a hook-nosed mask and a huge cross. Which might well be everyday dress for Naifeh, but on this occasion at least, he had an excuse.

This was the costume party launch for Naifeh's new miniseries from Oni Press, COURTNEY CRUMRIN AND THE NIGHT THINGS, at Comics And Da Kind, a most civilised kind of comic store given that, at its numerous parties, operates a generous free bar until late into the night.

For the interview, Naifeh and I retreated to the store's back room, where, appropriately enough, we sat in the dark to discuss his new book, sipping on rum cocktails. "I've only had one, and half a one at that," Naifeh reassured me. "But I'm sure it was a potent one."

COURTNEY CRUMRIN AND THE NIGHT THINGS is a book about the dark, and the monsters that lurk within it in our bedrooms at night. "They're sort of monsters from the unconscious, but they're real. In the story they will actually eat you," Naifeh explains.

"Sometime last year I was lying in bed, unable to sleep, and I thought back to this one event that happened to me years ago when I woke up in my own bed and there was something sitting on the corner of the bed," he says. "Now I don't have pets. So I see this thing and it skitters across the bed before I even get a good look at it. I turned the light on and there was nothing in the room.

"It was obviously not really there. It was just a stray dream. My first thought was, wow, that's just the scariest thing that's ever happened to me, and my second thought was, hey, that's kind of cool. It just came back to me, that scene, that moment. I thought that would make a good scene in a comic book. And it just went from there."

With its often cute and cartoony art and its darkly gothic themes, COURTNEY CRUMRIN is similar territory to Naifeh's previous work, Slave Labors Graphics' GLOOMCOOKIE. Written by Serena Valentino, this 'goths and monsters' tale now has a new artist in the form of John Gebbia. (Naifeh's six issues are collected in the first trade paperback collection.) So why did Naifeh leave?

"I felt a little unfulfilled on GLOOMCOOKIE, because I wasn't able to draw exactly what I wanted," he says. "I wasn't able to get the stuff that was in my head quite working for the story. It's always fun working on other people's stories, but after ten years of just being an artist, I realised the main reason I was in comics was because I liked stories, and I wanted to be writing."

COURTNEY CRUMRIN marks Naifeh's debut at Oni Press, and a switch away from SLG. "Oni really liked it," explains Naifeh "I pitched to Slave Labor initially, and I got the impression they just weren't too keen on it, so I thought, well, I'll see what other people think about it. Oni was ready to promote it last year at San Diego, and Slave Labor was still talking about changes to make to it, and I kind of wanted it to be the way I wanted it. ... So I thought, let's pitch something else to Slave Labor. I'd just as soon present them something they like right off the bat."

Naifeh's other current release is very much not his own work. "I have a STAR WARS book I did with Dark Horse. There are these two bounty hunter characters in EPISODE II - Jango Fett, who is Boba Fett's father, and Jango Fett's rival bounty hunter, a sometime friend and sometime lover named Zam Wesell, who is like this hot chick bounty hunter. I did a graphic novel about that character." Naifeh says he's happy with the work, but it's "not my thing".

Indeed, for a better idea of what is his thing, one need only look to the artists that inspire him, such as Dave McKean, Mike Mignola, and illustrator Aubrey Beardsley. "I'm sure you can see the influence," says Naifeh of the famously stylised Beardsley. "Although obviously he used mechanical pens, and I use a quill, cut from an ostrich feather," he jokes.

He clearly finds the idea of using a quill pen appealing. He says his ideal work environment would include a tall Dickensian wooden desk. "I'd wear shirts like this every day," he adds, showing off his flouncy cuffs and ruffles.

"I have this theory that I'll someday have my own separate room to draw in. A nice actual room room. I'll move into a house and I'll use the attic as my drawing studio." The current reality? "I draw in my living room. Plates piled up everywhere. Dishes, comic books and whatnot. It's a nightmare."

Naifeh's flamboyant attire brings to mind a label that's been readily applied to books like GLOOMCOOKIE and COURTNEY CRUMRIN; goth. Is he happy with that label?

"I have no problem with that. I'm perfectly OK with it. That was certainly my subculture growing up. I got into Bauhaus by the time I was 15. Some friends saw that I was interested in new age music and they said, 'That's nice. Why don't you listen to some cool music now?' So I moved on from there.

"The goth community is one of the few communities out there that really likes to be represented by stories, and I really like that. It's a theatrical culture, and I think that that's a good thing, that's a healthy thing. It fires people's imaginations. And they're very loyal to their scene and books and comic books and other products that accurately and interestingly reflect their lifestyle, self-image, sense of dramatic culture."

There's another advantage to the intersection of goths and comics, notes Naifeh. "They're definitely the best dressed people who show up at the conventions. The sexiest girls and the coolest guys are the goths. They show up at conventions wearing the bustiers and these black long coats that hang down to their ankles with tarnished silver buttons on them."

Is Naifeh still part of that goth scene? "I'm not really active in the culture anymore. I spend too many nights at home, drawing. ... In a way it's a dead scene. There's not a lot of good goth or industrial music coming out lately. There's some, but it's not really good music. It's good industrial music, but it's so busy trying to be that genre that it's not good by itself.

"I find that the culture, because it's become so defined, has become a little bit tired. Unless you like sticking to the rules, you aren't really identified as that kind of music, and if you're sticking to the rules then you're too much that kind of music and not offering anything really new."

Naifeh has worked in comics almost consistently since he was eighteen, apart from three years spent working in video games. "That was a very different experience, because there are so many opinions that go into games, and I was surprised that any idea I had would get listened to or looked into at all, because there were so many people involved. It was an experience where, if I made one little change or suggestion that people liked and got put into the game, I was beside myself with joy.

"In comics I can do it all and make all the decisions, and it's my show. If it's a good decision, then I get all the reward, and if it's a bad decision then I only have myself to blame. So, you know, it's more comfortable for me."

But is a life in comics an easy life? "God no. It's rewarding, but it's not easy. It's definitely a real challenge to keep the money coming in and do independent work. I'm finding that I'm just not particularly fulfilled doing the STAR WARS stuff. ... That's not to say that I don't like STAR WARS - I do, I like STAR WARS enormously - but I'd rather be writing and drawing my own stuff than just working from a script from a person I don't know.

"If I'm not writing and drawing my own stuff, I miss opportunities. The writer doesn't usually go back to retool the writing to suit the art. There's a real interplay between the writing and the art where they become one thing when you're writing and drawing it, and it doesn't happen when you're just either doing the writing or doing the art."

When he's not doing either, and is just looking to take a break from it all, Naifeh has a particular preoccupation that he likes to indulge in. Karaoke. His song of choice? "Lately it's been Purple Rain." That doesn't sound very goth. "Prince is the shit, man, he's awesome," says Naifeh, adding, "They generally don't have any Suede at Karaoke."

Andrew Wheeler is a London-based entertainment journalist.

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