Inkstuds

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the idea of doing a cartoonist’s mix tape. Well, I decided to give it a  shot. There will be no regular schedule to it, they will just appear out of nowhere. For the first mix, I thought we should start out with a bang. Trevor Alixopulos does his own radioshow as well as great comics, so he seems to be a perfect mix for what we are trying to do here. Here...

Gene Yang and Derek Kirk Kim dropped by the Inkstuds to chat about their new book, The Eternal Smile and take part in hurling a couple of kind insults at each other. Take a careful listen for the lovely surefire hit, I Love My Shigacorn.

Troy Little’s Angora Napkin is fine, fun little gem of a comic. Its one of those books where you can tell that the creator is having lots of fun making it. He also has Chiaroscuro, which seems to take on the darker part of Troy’s imagination.

It’s been awhile since I laughed this hard in an interview. Lauren Weinstein was a lot of fun to talk to, and I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did. Lauren’s work includes Girl Stories, Goddess of War, and Inside Vineyland. Lauren brings a unique view to comics that really expands on the artist aesthetics.

Jordan Crane’s Uptight is one the last regular comics coming out nowadays. The series format is much like old issues of Love and Rockets or Yummy Fur, something that is a nice break in this “graphic novel” focused market. He has also been doing these incredible Silk Screen prints that blow my mind and as well as a little series of comics called Non.

T. Edward Bak’s Service industry is high on my list of comics that you haven’t read yet, but really should. Since putting that out, he has a great ongoing story begining in Mome 15 , Drawn and Quarterly Showcase 5 and the great anthology, Orchid (worth picking up just for Lasky’s adaptation of the Raven alone). He also did a couple of great pieces that are on the National Geograp...

Noah Van Sciver makes some great self publish comics that read like they came from the mind of a crazed hobo. Seriously, they are great. Check out Blammo and his story in the Mome 15 .

For the conclusion of my own going interviews regarding comics as a form of media, Scott McCloud . I am really thankful for Scott taking the time to chat with me, given the importance of Understanding Comics in courses on comics, it is vital to have him taking part in an ongoing dialogue on comics.

Matt Madden brings some really great idea’s from the artists point of view on Media topic.

Jeet Heer brings some really interesting ideas to the table in regards to the formation and history of comics.

Here is the full interview with Tom Spurgeon for the Comics and Media Audiodoc.

Here is my conversation with Eddie Campbell , about comics as a form of media. I think you will be Surprised by what Eddie has to say.

This weeks Inkstuds is a little different. I put together an audio documentary as a project for school on the history of media. As you can no doubt guess, my interest is in comics and I try to do as many of my papers as possible on some kind of topic that has to do with comics.   This project is an audio documentary that looks at comics as a form of media in itself. I was lucky to get some really...

Carol Tyler’s books You’ll Never Know , Late Bloomer and The Job Thing , cover a very interesting and unique life. This is a pretty lively discussion, where we touch on alot of her work. It was such a good conversation, that we still had lots left to talk about. I hope she will be back on next year, when the second part to her You’ll Never Know series comes out.

Dave Lapp ‘s collection, Drop In , is a good example of the Canadian identity in cartooning. The stories cover a multicultural scope of experiences faced by impoverished children that Dave had worked with in an inner city art program.

Brian Sendelbach joined me to discuss his treasury collection Planet of Beer . Brian is known for his great strip, Smell of Steve. He is also been a regular visitor to Vancouver, which is good in my books.

Peter Kuper is a bit of highlight to have on the show. He has been involved in making comics in different capacities over the last nearly 40 years, at a super young age. His work has ranged from the very political World War 3 Illustrated that he does with good friend Seth Tobocman, to autobio works like New York, New York, and Stop Forgetting to Remember as well as his new collection about his tim...

Simon Roy is an example of one of those kids doing good comics that is miles ahead of his age. Jan’s Atomic Heart is like a mix Gipi and Heavy Metal stuff from the 70’s before it became all barbarians with Boobs. Check out a preview here .

Bob Fingerman joined us for a chat about his two new books, Connective Tissue and From the Ashes . Both books are great examples of a cartoonist having fun making comics, which is what its all about really, having fun.

Here is the audio results of the panel I was a part of at TCAF. I was joined by my fellow nerds, Robert Dayton , Frank Santoro , Dash Shaw and Dustin Harbin for a discussion on mainstream comics and the influence that they have had on alternative comics. It’s not the most focused panel, but we had fun and got some good discussions going with the audience. The idea that Frank and I had going...

Craig Yoe joins the Inkstuds for yet another awesome conversation. This time, we talk about the Boody Rogers collection from Fantagraphics and Secret Identity, the Fetish Art of Joe Shuster put out as a part of Abrams new Comic Arts line.

Chris Brandt’s documentary, Independents , as an interesting look at the creative process in the comics world. It’s an interesting documentary worth checking out, to get a look into the minds of some interesting comics folks.

This has to be one of the more inspirational guests that I have had on in a while. Emmanuel Guibert’s latest books, The Photographer , as well as Alan’s War are both incredible looks at unique men in unusual situations. The Photographer, follows the his close friend Didier Lefevre as he joins Doctors Without Borders in 1986 Russian invaded Afghanistan. Alan’s War is the story of...

Box Brown’s new book, Love is a Peculiar Type of Thing , is a great little debut. It is a fine mix of some cute loveydovey stuff and some more honest self exposing harsh material, creating an interesting balance.

Miss Lasko-Gross’s autobio series from Fantagraphics are some of my fav autobio comics I have read in a while. Escape From Special and A Mess of Everything are both excellent books and well worth checking out. Its not often that you come across such honest work.