Inkstuds

Christopher Butcher and Peter Birkemoe are organizing the very exciting Toronto Comic Art Festival aka TCAF. I really appreciate the different take that they have on the standard convention platform and are instead puting together, for lack of a better term, a kind of celebration of comics. The festival takes place on May 9 and 10 at the Toronto Reference Library with a slew of other events happen...

Jason Turner and Manien Bothma came by for a chat about their new book, True Loves 2. I really liked True Loves 1 and the second is even better. It is one of the most Vancouveresque comics you could ever come across. Check out New Reliable Press’s website for a preview of the book.

Mike Dawson joined me for a chat about his latest book, Ace-Face as well as his past work, including the autobio epic, Freddie and Me. I really enjoyed both of those books and think that Mike crafts some good fun comix. He can also be found in the new anthology, Awesomer , by some guys called IndieSpinnerRack . It actually sounds like a decent anthology.

I interviewed Jaime Hernandez at Emerald City Comicon was my highlight of the trip to Seattle. We sat down for a chat in probably the only quiet spot in the whole convention center. I shouldn’t have to tell you how important Jaime is in the world of alternative comics, but if you haven’t read Love and Rockets yet, do yourself a favor and pick up one of those great cheap collections fro...

Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester joined me for an extensive conversation about their latest collection, A Comics Studies Reader . The book is a great collection of essays about different aspects of involving the favorite topic of this show, Comic Books. We had a great conversation around the importance of the development of comics scholarship within academic disciplines. Trust me, its a lot more inter...

Just in time for Paul Hornschemeier ‘s visit to the Pacific Northwest. I am really excited about him coming to Vancouver on Friday at Lucky’s Comics , and I better see all of you there. This is Paul’s second time on the show and we have lots to talk about including some good process chat about the rerelease of Mother, Come Home .

Nate Powell joined me to discuss his two books,  Swallow Me Whole and Sounds of Your Name. Swallow Me Whole has found itself at the top of many critics list for 2008 and I can see why, it is a really great book.

This has to be one of my favorite interviews i have done in awhile. Ted Stearn started doing Fuzz and Pluck in one of my favorite comic series, Rubber Blankets , on the insistence and support of Dave Mazzucchelli. Fuzz and Pluck in Splitzville is his latest collection, which nicely follows  the cartooning traditions Gary Panter and Terrytoons. This show also features a bonus of 15 minutes of me c...

Since I got the new site up, I have been spending countless hours trying to clean up some of the past shows and do a little maintenance work. Most of the shows on the site should be at 128kbps, some are less, but most are at that standard. As well. I FINALLY fixed all of the ID3 tags on the files. I am the first to admit that sometimes I get really lazy about the small stuff. and as the show pr...

Pohadky has to be one of the nicest looking books that Drawn and Quarterly has put out in their Petit Livres series. I got the chance to sit down the duo behind the book Marek Colek and Pat Shewchuk aka Tin Can Forest and discuss their work in great detail. Don’t forget that they will be in town, March 20th, at Lucky’s comics for a book launch and art show.

Lucas Soi is a local Vancouver artist putting together a great series of illustrations exploring images of sex violence. I recommend checking out his book from Medium Rare , it has some awesome filthy goodness.

Chris Wright has a really interesting unique vision in comix that I think is just freakin’ awesome. He creates this awesome Victorian world of odd obscure creatures. Check out his book Inkweed from my good friends at Sparkplug Comics

Nathan Fox has some great new work out and is pumping out some the nastiest goodness that I have seen in a while. Check out his Pigeons From Hell series from Dark Horse or his Fluorescent Black work in Heavy Metal. His work has great visceral quality that most cartoonists can only attempt, while Nathan rocks it. Check this out too, someone just brought it to my attention – Nathan doing an en...

Derf and I sat down for a chat about punk rock, Jeffrey Dahmer and much more. His book P unk Rock and Trailer Parks is a lot of fun and you should check it out. He also does an ongoing strip The City , that is carried in a whole bunch of different alt weeklies.

John Kerschbaum is the man behind the hilariously funny book, Petey and Pussy from Fantagraphics. All of his work is great and makes me laugh my ass off.

CF aka Christopher Forgues aka Kites and some other musical projects, sat down with me for a chat about comix. His series from Picture Box , Powr Mastrs has been getting alot of love and I have really enjoyed it so far as well.

George Metzger continues chatting with us about his comix and experience in the underground comic scene. Patrick Rosenkranz covers George†s work in some detail in his book Rebel Visions .

George Metzger is one of Vancouver†s best kept secret. He hasn†t been making new comix in a number of years, but his underground comic work is noted for its highly imaginative scifi elements. His series of note include Moondog, Truckin†and Mu: The Land That Never Was. I would suggest hunting down anything by him if you can.

Jason Lutes joined us for an extended discussion about his Berlin series from D&Q , teaching at the CCS and the power of a twenty sided die. Jason has some really great things to say about comix and strong passion for them.

This week, I chat with local Vancouver painter, Mark Atomos Pilon . Mark has a show opening on Friday February 6th in Chicago at Rotogui , featuring a highly ambitious project of 101 paintings. Mark is a fixture of the Vancouver art scene, and his illustrations can be found each week in the Georgia Straight .

Austin English is the young man behind Windy Corner Magazine . It is a fascinating little anthology/magazine of varied comix interest. He also has his solo book, Christina and Charles from Sparkplug Comics . You can also find Austin here , doing his own interviews with various talented cartoonists. I am hopeful that Austin will be joining the Inkstuds family with some audio interviews with some of...

Jacob Covey and I sat down to chew the fat about his latest project, Beasts 2. We discuss some other aspects of his work at Fantagraphics and his awkward unruly love of the TMNT. If you are in San Francisco, make sure to check out the Beasts art show at Giant Robot .

Today i was joined by three stellar comics critics to discuss some of what 2008 had to offer. Tom Spurgeon , Paul Gravett and Douglas Wolk all had some great stuff to say about a fine selection of books.

Robert Goodin†s comics are a fun rare gem. He has been featured in such great books like Mome and Mcsweeny†s as well as a nice selection of self published goodies . His latest release is The Man Who Loved Breasts from Top Shelf is on my own personal list of comix I enjoyed in 08.

Matt Forsythe†s Ojingogo is a fun surreal journey through an imagination influenced by the surroundings of a foreign land. This interview was conducted in my living room, while Matt was in Vancouver for a signing. I think its my favorite place to do interviews.