Inkstuds

Chip Zdarsky was in Vancouver for our local Comics Art Festival. Brandon and I took advantage of this opportunity to sit down with him and chat about his comics. We locked Chip in my office for about 2 hours and a pretty great freewheeling conversation. Chip’s latest work can be found writing for Marvel Comics’ SpiderMan and Howard the Duck. His personal work includes his collaboration...

Hosted by Sloane Leong and recorded at the Vancouver Comics Art Festival – From the magically urban to the ancient and otherworldly, this panel will explore a large body of work from a diverse range of contemporary cartoonists whose stories reinterpret and interrogate this genre†s traditions. With guests Jayd Ait-Kaci , Farel Dalrymple , Evan Dahm , Sam Beck and Kel McDonald. If you like t...

Kentucky cartoonist Ben Sears joined me and Brandon Graham to talk about his comics during his visit to Vancouver for Vancaf. Ben’s got a couple of books from Koyama press, the latest being Volcano Trash . His comics have a great life to them. I really enjoy how easily you get pulled into the story telling and weird worlds he creates. If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please co...

Bug Boys cartoonist Laura Knetzger joined me to talk about her comics. Her aforementioned Bug Boys collection from Czap Books is a great thick tome of fun exploratory mini comics. She has also been doing some really stellar and thoughtful autobio comics, including Sea Urchin from Retrofit. If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon .

Originally recorded live at Seattle Emerald City Comicon, this discussion features Adam Warren, Brandon Graham, Carla Speed McNeil, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, and David Brothers. They dig deep into Adam Warren’s EMPOWERED, exploring everything from the tiniest bit of continuity to how Warren taps into the culture at large with his sexy superhero comedy. EMPOWERED, the Graphic-Novel Series: 10 Years...

Thi Bui joined me to talk about her debut memoir book, The Best We Could Do , looking at her parents emigration from war torn Vietnam. It’s a really amazing work that succeeds in capture a rich storied history. It has a lot of strengths in Thi’s ability to tell her parents story, and to also historically contextualize it. The book feels very prescient right now in regards to current po...

It’s the return of an old guest, Roman Muradov. Roman’s latest book is Jacob Bladers and the State of the Art from Uncivilized . Roman is an amazing talent in comics, creating beautiful unique works that show his continuous progression as an artist. We discuss his changing work and the directions he explores. His other recent work includes The End of a Fence from the great Kus Comics a...

I sat down with artist, Jonah Kinigstein for his book from Fantagraphics , the Emperor’s New Clothes: The Tower of Babel in the “Art” World. The book is a collection of large one panel comics about his feelings around modern art through the 20th century. Jonah, now in his 90s, is still very active, working on similar work critical about Donald Trump and his space he occupies. Jon...

Cartoonist Michael DeForge and  SPX  organizer Sam Marx sit down to talk about Magic: The Gathering in the lead up to Michael†s tour to promote his new book  Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero  from  Drawn & Quarterly   There†s about five minutes of comics talk in this one, but it goes deep on our own histories with the game of Magic, our favorite cards and archetypes, and our feelings on th...

German cartoonist Anna Haifisch joined me to chat about her work, including the Aritst which has it’s first collection published by Breakdown Press and has been serialized on Vice . Anna’s work really excites me. She has been pushing her work in interesting directions. She has a new risograph zine out from Perfectly Acceptable as well. This interview ends a little early because my skyp...

New York cartoonist, Wren McDonald joined me to talk about his comics and art. His latest work is a book from NoBrow called SP4RX . It’s a really fun futuristic graphic novel in a similar vein to Hackerz. His work is a lot of fun to read and introduces some great idea. If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon .

Rich Tommaso joined me to discuss his current work from Image comics that includes She-Wolf, Dark Corridor and the upcoming Spy Seal. He has a great history in comics as well, starting out in the 90s era of one man anthologies, spending times working in the basement at Fantagraphics, to his work for Dark Horse, Alternative, Hyperion books and much more. Rich is a great cartoonist who’s work...

Seattle cartoonist and publisher, Tom Van Deusen joined me to talk about his new comic from Kilgore books, Scorched Earth . Tom has also been publishing work of his own and other folks under Poochie Press . One of his most important works under that header, was bringing back Dennis Eichhorn to release new Real Stuff work. Tom edited and published one collection, and then edited another for Last Ga...

This is a recording of a live panel that Brandon and I did at Fanexpo Vancouver back in Novemeber. We were both really excited to talk to Brain Stelfreeze. I have admired his work ever since seeing his super stylistic Batman covers back in the 90s. Brandon’s own attraction to Stelfreeze’s work goes back even further to comics that I can’t remember. He is probably most recognized...

At Fan Expo Vancouver this past year, Brandon Graham and I recorded a couple of live panels. The first, posted here, was on the topic of Breaking Into Comics. We were joined by Pia Guerra , Ty Templeton and Kaare Andrews . My goal was to really come across with the idea that there wasn’t one specific way to “break” into comics. And even the term itself is fraught with challenges....

New Orleans cartoonist, Kate Lacour joined me to talk about her work. Kate has been putting out some really amazing comics that are unflinchingly crafted. Her work explores the body in rough fascinating ways. I found her work to sit with me for quite a while after, exploring odd visual threads and narratives. You can find her work on the excellent studygroup website. If you like this podcast and w...

Portland based cartoonist and publisher, Tim Goodyear, joined me to chat about his new book, Video Tonfa . It’s a massive tome collecting his movie watching journals and drawings of classic vhs covers. As a publisher, Tim is the man behind Teenage Dinosaur. He has no web presence for it, but you can find his comics through better comic stores or at conventions in pacific northwest. I like ta...

Jessica Campbell stopped by my office during her book tour promoting new book from Koyama , Hot Or Not. It’s a really funny look at modern artists as creators and as objects. Jessica has a really great sense of humour in her work that comes through quite nicely in Hot Or Not. Jessica also has a smattering of comics on her site and a couple of minis from the much missed Oily comics subscripti...

Anya Davidson joined me to chat about her new book from Fantagraphics, Band For Life . It’s an amazing complex look at relationships and people under the guise of a story of a punk noise band. I really enjoyed this book and was quite taken by characters. I highly recommend checking it out. Her other new work is Lovers in the Garden from Retrofit. A much smaller work than Band for Life, but u...

Photo by Whit Spurgeon My second interview at CXC in Columbus was a conversation between Noah Van Sciver and Seth. It was a blast to do. We threw it together last minute at the end of the day on saturday. It was neat to bring these 2 great talents into a room together. You can tell a lot of these seasoned comics vets have a lot of respect admiration for Noah and it comes through in this. Noah&#821...

Vancouver cartoonist, Troy Nixey joined us for a chat before he moved off to Alberta. Troy’s probably most known for his collaborations with Mike Mignola on writing duties, including the stellar Batman story, the Doom Came to Gotham as well as Jenny Finn. More recently, Troy has returned to comics after directing the movie, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. His most recent story The Black S...

While at the CXC comics show in Columbus, I did a couple of interviews in these weird little pod study rooms just off of the festival floor. It was very convenient to have and easy to use. My first interview was with Sean T Collins. Sean has been involved comics criticism since the early 2000’s. He has been on the inkstuds before for a critics roundtable many years. I don’t see Sean ve...

Last month, I had a privilege to host a panel on Comics with local Vancouver cartoonists and artists for the Canadian book design recognizing, Alcuin Society . I was joined by Sarah Leavitt , Nick Bantock and Johnnie Christmas . It was a fun conversation. If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon .

Tillie is a cartoonist from Austin, Texas who has released three books over the past two years from the UK publisher Avery Hill. The first was THE END OF SUMMER, a gorgeous story of a family who is about to lock themselves into a giant, maze-like mansion at the beginning of a three-year winter. I would†ve been curious to talk to her based on that dream-like family epic alone, but then she releas...

Cartoonist and publisher Kevin Czap joined me to talk about the new Kickstarter for his 2017 releases by other artists.   His latest book Fütchi Perf is a fantastic collection exploring some really forward looking story telling techniques. It’s a fantastic book. If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon .