Making Comics

This week, we recap the LA Times Festival of Books (3:30), rethinking a key splash page (13:40), when the "pantser" method of writing goes wrong (24:20), and thinking ahead for a 2026 project (35:30).

This week, we talk about regaining your artistic rhythm (4:40), expanding your craft through study and mimicry (10:45), understanding the essence of your influences (21:00), writing to understand what you're writing (35:40), and formatting nightmares (49:15).

This week, Jim Lujan (The Full Fungus) joins us (Go watch the Full Fungus)! We talk about repurposing archived material (4:20), working with a printer to meet key dates (11:30), the excitement of starting a new project (21:45), the role music plays in projects (28:30), how improvisation connects different creative forms (54:30), and the feeling when you finish an ambitious project (59:20).

This week, we talk about finishing production work on an anthology title (4:15), a record week of reading (19:40), using the SLAC method to finish a story (28:45), designing the mystery in your story (37:30), and a discussion on creation and commerce (50:20)

This week, we begin with a recap of WonderCon (5:20) and discuss convention do's and don'ts (20:25), then talk about coloring pages (42:00) and when subgenres break formula (45:10).

This week, we sit down with Scott Serkland (The Young and the Dead) to give big picture thoughts on AZCAF (3:15), the right amount of information to share on upcoming projects (17:00), and craft versus promotion (37:15), among other topics.

This week, we talk about found footage when it comes to comics (3:20), knowing the right amount of work and detail for talk-heavy pages (21:50), getting a book back from the printer (28:50), when crowdfunding campaigns offer pleasant surprises (34:45), when the universe does strange things (45:45), and stages of cover assembly (53:20).

This week, we discuss the framing of an unorthodox story (3:10), the challenges some background elements provide (13:30), how changing POV can make a story smoother (25:00), and managing your crowdfunding campaign mid-stream (33:15).

This week, we discuss rarities you can include in your crowdfunding (3:00), a different kind of convention (12:00), making free stuff work for you (17:25), densely paneled pages (26:20), taking the first swing at a change in story structure (35:40), a conversation with a colorist (45:00), and the decision in staking a claim on a story idea (51:25).

This week, we welcome Gary Hodges (D vs. M) and discuss editing an anthology (5:20) and naming conventions for the volumes of your work (9:15) before we open up the conversation on story structure (17:00), keeping the energy of a rough version in later versions (35:00), the rhythm / music of stories (51:50), and more!

This week, we discuss the maddening part of PDF assembly (5:55), the maddening part of PDF formatting (12:00), making a future editing promise to yourself (24:30), settling in to those productive moments (30:25), the right level of detail and quality for books within your story (37:45), finding the right format for your story (48:00), and stylistic choices for voiceover text (55:10).

This week, we discuss character references for your story (5:00), staying on an artist pace for interior pages (16:00), continuity among your comics (26:40), riding a creative wave when it happens (32:45), working through a coloring style (38:45), before we get into the main topic: the hand-drawn element of logos and lettering (45:30).

This week, we talk about drawing a Kickstarter backer into artwork (2:30), locating yourself on the learning curve (13:00), putting the promotional work into your crowdfunding (25:20), when PDF formatting goes wrong (28:15), when a workshop tells you something you didn't see (36:30), working on a letters column (46:50), and getting the complete art to Keith's superhero story (53:45), which...

This week, we go behind the scenes filming a crowdfunding video (3:10), working to an aggressive deadline for completing art (11:15), restarting a story draft before you had planned to (19:30), redefining creative success (24:00), finding the right amount of research for your story (39:00) and being the "last hand" on a book before it goes to press (48:20).

This week, we talk about how aggressive pace-setting goals help (4:45), writer's block (15:00), a change in the setting of a story that changed the story itself (22:45), how bonus content for a comic matters (31:15), tracking down comic scripts to aid craft research (40:00), and reading a first draft at a high level to target edits (47:30).

This week, we talk about the home stretch of a commission (3:30), finalizing the first draft of a story (12:30), making inks and flats one process when doing pages (20:15), changing the method of telling for a series of short stories (31:10), and the giant story structures that drive us (41:10).

This week, we discuss turning a change in the colorist for a project (4:00), close editing of those lines of dialogue that really matter (9:40), coloring techniques (19:00), learning with purpose (27:15), and getting back a bunch of art for upcoming projects (35:20) before we share our 2025 goals (45:20).

This week, we welcome Arthur Ebuen (@alifornia, Inc.) to the podcast and talk about creating something new in a late-stage edit (4:10), knocking the drawing rust off (13:00), and lettering and scripting an issue (18:00) before we talk craft with Art, including the preparation involved in approaching an artist (23:00), world building for a comic series (33:50), and staying true to your vision (43:0...

This week, we discuss how giving yourself a break from creative work can yield results anyway (5:45), holding people to deadlines on a project (11:15), crossing the finish line for a Kickstarter (27:30) and working on a unifying design for a new Kickstarter (33:40), before this week's main topic: flashbacks (49:10).

It's the Year In Review episode, and that means we welcome Gary Hodges (Dinosaurs vs Marsbots) to discuss our year-end favorites, including favorite purchase (4:45), favorite movie (25:30), band and album of the year (1:00:00), and the comic of the year (1:09:00), and many others.

It's the holiday episode, and that means we welcome Gary Hodges (Dinosaurs vs Marsbots) to talk about the ways we were "nice", a.k.a. our greatest creative achievement (4:15), the ways we were "naughty" a.k.a. our greatest creative learning (23:00) before our Holiday Hot Take Extravaganza (39:00).

This week, we talk about finishing pages amidst a busy week (7:05), developing a creative and release plan for an upcoming book (15:30), a wild 24 hours on a secret project (21:00), a workshop that pointed the direction forward (29:40), what you learn giving notes (35:30), and seizing an opportunity to revise a story one last time (48:00) before this week's topic: the story type of "overcoming the...

This week we talk about Kickstarter prep and launch (6:00), choosing a stopping point for the "new story" worked on in November (10:30), the arrival of a long-awaited commission and getting a vibe of an art style (23:30), and streamlining future projects (29:45) before this week's topic: the main plot types of rags to riches (42:10) and comedy and tragedy (50:15).

This week we talk about the right color palette for a variant cover (5:30), interviewing a person who will serve as a character in your story (21:50), what managing a comics project can involve (32:10), and changing the point in time a story is told (49:00).

This week, we talk about working with an artist on art changes for a story (4:30), fine-tuning an experimental art style for a project and the essence of a style (13:45), those days that begin with staring at a blank page (20:50), coloring a cover on a tight deadline (25:20), the best study guides (32:30), and what "being in the zone" is and if there's a way to get there (41:00).