Inkstuds

Young cartooning upstart Blaise Larmee sat down for an extended chat about art, comics and identity. His latest book is  Young Lions as well as publishing Gaze books. Blaise is doing some interesting and challenging work. I am really curious to see where his cartooning is going to take him.

Edie Fake’s Gaylord Phoenix is one of my favorite books of the past while. Edie is able to touch on something very personal and explore in a way that reaches far and succeeds. I think that Gaylord Phoenix is an important work on sexuality in a way that few have been able to successfully approach in an abstract way. Thanks to Edie for having such an open conversation with me about it.

Ex-pat Canadian cartoonist, Mark Kalesniko ‘s latest book, Freeway explores some of the idea’s around his move to LA and working into the animation industry. Mark was on the show for the first time, many years ago when I was still getting my grips on what I was doing with Inkstuds. As with the last time Mark was on, Colin Upton joins us as well.

Julia Wertz was on the show a couple of years ago, and had since gone through some pretty important changes in her life. Since that time, her book, Drinking In the Movies came out from a big time New York book publisher, and much more. This was a really great catch up conversation with Julia that touches on some pretty important subjects.

  Image stolen from Kevin Boyd and the Shuster Awards blog. http://joeshusterawards.com/2011/05/09/my-tcaf-thoughts-2011-day-1/ Here is the audio from the panel on Canadian Cartoonists Working in the Mainstream from TCAF. I have a hard time summarizing it down to a particular topic, mostly we discussed Canadian identity. The guest list was a bit of a superstar showcase. I was a lucky host. Ra...

This interview is a little different. Keith Jones is one of my favorite people, as I have stated several times on this blog. He is about to go move to New York to be with his new bride, the very talented Lizz Hickey . Lizz thought it would be fun to have the two of them on together, and I have to agree. It was awesome. Enjoy.

Hive editor and publisher of Grimalkin Press, Jordan Shiveley was kind enough to answer my call for interviews when I had some last minute cancellations. I was really happy to talk with Jordan, since he has been putting out some really nice books that could use some more eyes pouring over them. He is also publishing books by a couple of young guys I think the world of, Phil McAndrew and Noah Van S...

Greetings, humble Inkstudians! I’m Caitlin McGurk , indomitable zinestress and head librarian at The Schulz Library of The Center for Cartoon Studies . As many have already recapped, this years TCAF festival was absolutely unforgettable. One of the highlights for me was the opportunity I was given to moderate a panel with Adrian Tomine, Jillian Tamaki, and Lorenzo Mattoti on comic artists wh...

Zach Worton ‘s The Klondike , is the latest in the fine Canadian tradition of historical narratives. His book is a great look into a particular point in time of what can be described as the Canadian frontier.

One of the panels I moderated at TCAF, was a conversation between Paul Pope, Brandon Graham and Sam Hiti. I really like to pair up artists with contemporaries that are doing like minded work, that is still very different in a lot of ways. Last year, I had Paul on with Dash Shaw, and it was a really great talk. This year, we went in a completely different direction than last year. For the second ha...

Photo courtesy of Jen Vaughn Here is the audio from the panel I did with Sarah Glidden at Stumptown. I really enjoyed this conversation. Sarah is a really smart creator and comics are better to have her making them. In the panel, we touch on her Cartoon Movement piece .

Jeffrey Brown and I had plans to do a panel at Stumptown, where we discuss comics we grew up reading. The three of got to talking over the weekend, and decided it would be fun to have Brandon Graham join us for a pretty fun geek out over comics with ninjas.

Scott Hampton was in Vancouver to give a talk at a local art school, and I took advantage of his proximity and set up an interview. It’s a pretty interesting conversation about comics vs media property that I wasn’t expecting to get in to. I was joined by Brandon, who mentioned the interview here .

Brecht Evens is by far, one of the most exciting young cartoonists. His debut book from Drawn and Quarterly, The Wrong Place was one of the my favorite releases of 2010, garnering much praise on our year end show. Top Shelf recently released an earlier work by Brecht, Night Animals , another whimsical gem. Brecht is another person that I am very excited about meeting at TCAF .  

Drew Weing ‘s comics are among some of my favorites. Along with his wife, Eleanor Davis , they craft some amazing objects. Drew’s first book, Set to Sea is a beautifully drawn little book, garnering some well deserved praise. He also has a story in the new issue of Papercutter #15, a must have anthology.

Lorenzo Mattotti has been doing comics for a little over 30 years. Only a handful of work is available in English, but it’s a handful of excellence. His work first gained notice to North American audiences, thanks to a couple of appearances in RAW and his books, Murmur and Fires. Mattotti’s work is that of a creative giant. He breathes a life into comics that utilizes an unparalleled s...

Smart comics folks, Dr Bart Beaty and Kim Thompson joined me to discuss European comics scene. It’s a pretty broad subject, but we are able to cover a lot of different points of interest. The amount of amazing comics out of Europe is really more than I can comprehend. Perhaps this will help navigate the abundance.

Darryl Cunningham ‘s Psychiatric Tales is a fantastic and smart look at mental health and creating an understanding of the disease. He has also been doing some great reporting pieces on a variety of subject.

Aidan Koch is a part of that smart crew of cartoonists in Portland, putting out some thoughtful modern work. Her book, The Whale is the inaugural release from Gaze books, as well, she is also a recent addition the group of folks in the Mome anthology from Fantagraphics. Here is the correspondence project that Aidan mentions at the end.

Canadian Comics historian, Blake Bell , popped by the Inkstuds cyber studio to discuss his biography of cartoonist, Bill Everett . We also the archiving work that he and Fantagraphics have been doing, in regards to the legacies of Steve Ditko and Everett.

I don’t think Inkstuds listeners really need to be told much about Joe Sacco. His work in regards to Palestine and the Bosnian War have both been revealingly informative and touchstones in Comics Journalism. Joe and I discussed his latest book, Footnotes in Gaza in advance of his trip to Toronto next week for a talk at the University of Toronto . If you are in town, go check it out and don&#...

Quebecois cartoonist, Jimmy Beaulieu came on to chat with me about his collection of translated work, Suddenly Something Happened . Jimmy has a great eye for life and relationships. His comics are strong compelling. Check out his site for some great sketchbook material.

Aaron Renier stopped by Casa Inkstuds for table side chat about his books, Unsinkable Walker Bean and Spiral Bound. Aaron’s work is a lot of fun to read and world to fall in to.

Geof Darrow is coming to Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon next month, March 4-6, and thanks to the kind folks there, i was able ti gave a great chat with Geof.   I have been reading his work for years. I remember how my mind was blown when first seeing Hard Boiled. Shaolin Cowboy and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot are both fantastic reads as well. You can just spend hours focusing on all the...

My last interview with Carol Tyler was fantastic, and even ended up in the Inkstuds book. In the previous interview, we ran out of time, before we really go to have a deep discussion about You’ll Never Know . This time, we got super in-depth, and as any interview with Carol goes, it was fantastic.