Strip Search: The Comic Strip Podcast

 If you're a fan of comic strips, you may know this month's guest Norm Feuti from his two syndicated strips, "Retail," which ran from 2006-2020, and "Gil," which he drew from 2012-2022. He also does the early reader series "Beak & Ally" — that one was the winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor in 2022 — and "Hello, Hedgehog!," and he just released a new middle-grade graphic novel, "A Kid Like M...

Just when you thought Tim Jones — the creator, artist and writer of the self-syndicated comic strip " Sour Grapes " — couldn't possibly have any more surprises up his sleeve, he joins Pete and Dave on Strip Search to talk about his latest endeavor, an actual Sour Grapes soda! We caught up on that, the spread of "Sour Grapes" throughout the U.S., and what's next for Mr. Jones. Meanwhile, Pete and D...

Artists of the future, have we got the event for you. In this episode of Strip Search, we talk to Meena Jain, director of the Ashland Public Library in Massachusetts, and c artoonist and author Deanna Soukiasian   about the Ashland Library Young Artists Comics Fest coming March 21. (Including about how kid creators can participate with their comics, and sell them too, for cash money.) Also, Dave a...

Strip Search is back for 2026, with a most special of special guests:  Deon Parson , also known by his pen name "Supr Dee." " Rosebuds ," his comic strip about a family of three very different sisters that he produces out of his home studio in Indiana, is nationally syndicated by King Features, and he's also the creator of the strips "Life With Kurami" and "Pen & Ink." We talk with Dee about his r...

Douglas Laubacher is a cartoonist and art educator from Northeast Ohio. You can find his comic strip, " Unbound ," in the Tuscarawas County Bargain Hunter and the Wooster Weekly News.  A member of the National Cartoonist Society , Doug can often be found traversing the land, teaching the mysterious craft of cartooning in various art centers and libraries throughout the region. (We know because he...

Arnon Z. Shorr has done his part to expand the palette of Jewish stories being told, in both film and later in comics and graphic novels . He's penned tales of mythical creatures (a High Holidays unicorn tale will be out soon), monsters, and perhaps most successfully, pirates , all with more than a nod toward Jewish history and culture. Shorr talked to Strip Search  about the joys of telling those...

Boston Kids Comics Fest , which had grown exponentially since it launched in 2018, is taking a pause this year. But the good news is that there's a viable alternative, particularly for those west of Boston: the very first Young Artists Comics Fest , aka ALYAC Fest, coming to the Ashland Public Library on July 13, 2025. We  talked to event organizers Meena Jain, past director of the Boston Kids Com...

Luse — a longtime local cartoonist himself — sat down with Pete and Dave to talk about what people can expect this year's Boston Comics in Color festival , and why it's more relevant, and necessary, than ever. Also in this ep: A new Art Spiegelman doc, the GoComics kerfuffle, and more! 

Brian Anderson isn't just a Worcester, Massachusetts native, although he gets extra props for that. He's also the creator of the very funny comic strip " Dog Eat Doug ," the author of several children's picture books and illustrated novels, including "The Conjurers" trilogy , and now he's released two graphic novels based on the "Dog Eat Doug" characters, called "Sophie: Jurassic Bark" and "Sophie...

A self-described failed cartoonist, Jeff Kinney spent eight years developing his first " Diary of a Wimpy Kid " novel after syndicates passed on his daily comic strip. Within a few years after that, he found himself with a hit book series and a movie in the works (the first of many), and he's since become the steward of a worldwide franchise that shows no signs of abating. Plus, he gives back ever...

Kim Tomsic, the author of middle-grade novels like "The 11:11 Wish" and "The 12th Candle," and nonfiction books like "The Elephants Come Home," has teamed up with "Off The Mark" cartoonist and author Mark Parisi for the new she-said, he-said illustrated diary book "The Truth About 5th Grade," published by HarperCollins. And what a book it is! Find out all about it when the pair appears on the late...

Since getting her start with her hilarious single-panel comic " Half Full ," which is syndicated nationally by Andrews-McMeel, Maria Scrivan has thrown herself into her graphic novel work, and the result seems to have been as much fun for her readers as for herself: 2020's " Nat Enough " was an instant New York Times bestseller, and the series' popularity has only grown since. We sat down with Mar...

If a panel cartoon is good enough, it can wind up adorning kitchen refrigerators, office bulletin boards, and social media feeds for years on end. So how do panel cartoonists do it, with artwork that can sometimes amount to no more than a few scrawled lines, and text that might comprise just a few words? It's a question that, apparently, haunted Phil Witte and Rex Hesner — so much so that they wro...

Bob Eckstein may, by his own admission, not have especially enjoyed being dragged to museums by his parents as a child. But something changed along the way, which is readily apparent If you take a look at Bob's new book, " Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums. " It features 155 beautifully painted depictions of more than 75 museums in North America, accompanied by stories that help get to t...

Trigger warning: If you would rather not remember what middle school was like, you may not want to read "Timid," the new middle-grade graphic novel by local cartoonist and illustrator Jonathan Todd, coming April 2 from Scholastic . But if you happen to be in middle school right now, or know someone who is, it's unlikely you'll find a better depiction of just how fraught and awkward those years can...

"Wallace the Brave" cartoonist Will Henry is far from the first person to find himself on the short end of the cost-cutting stick when it comes to corporate newspaper ownership. But he's one of the few whose brush with the harsh realities of modern journalism had a happy ending. For his second time on "Strip Search" (check out his memorable first appearance, from 2019, here ), Will shares that sto...

It's ironic: We'd never want the Deweys as our next door neighbors, but as for Pat Sandy — creator of the Deweys in the comic strip "Next Door Neighbors" — we could talk to him all day! Join in as Dave and Pete discuss past "Peanuts," Pat's drawing style, and what went into his new collection "Block Party." Also, we revisit past interviews with two 2023 Ruben Award winners, Christopher Weyant and...

"Cartoonist" sounds like one of those jobs that would be cool to have, but how does one go about getting there? Well, turns out there is no one way, says  Heide Solbrig , a cartoonist and media scholar who teaches art, comics and media studies throughout Boston. That's one of the reasons why she — along with LJ Baptiste, another art educator and cartoonist from Boston, whose comic series COMIXSCAP...

With comics and graphic novels being among the most challenged books during the recent upswing in complaints about what's on the shelves at school and public libraries, some might forget the role the medium has played in turning millions of kids onto reading — not to mention providing joy, fun, and excitement to generations of readers. The Boston Kids Comics Fest — coming June 3, 2023 at Northeast...

Strip Search hosts Dave London and Pete Chianca sit down with Boston cartoonist Cagen Luse, creator of the LunchTime Comix strip in Dig Boston, and manga artist and animator Tyrone Motley, better known as ZeroSnake, to talk about the  Comics in Color fest in Roxbury , coming April 29, 2023, to the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Fans of both comics and animals are clearly listening to what Jimmy Craig's creatures have to say. In the seven years since he launched his comic strip " They Can Talk ," it's amassed 615,000 followers on Instagram, 658,000 on Facebook, and has spawned two books; the latest, "Are You Gonna Eat That?" from Ulysses Press, hits shelves this month. Dave and Pete caught up with Craig to talk about talk...

The inaugural chair of the Master of Fine Arts in Visual Narrative at Boston University, Joel Christian Gill recently talked to Strip Search about the exhibit he curated there, " Comics Is A Medium, Not a Genre ," running through March 24, 2023. It's a free exhibit that covers a century and a half of American comic books, comic strips, graphic novels and more, in an attempt to show how comics can...

Christopher Weyant has not just one, but two of the best jobs in cartooning. First off, he's a New Yorker cartoonist, where he's spent 25 years making light of, well, anything and everything. He's also an editorial cartoonist, often for the Boston Globe, skewering the powerful and pointing out the absurdity that seems to run more and more rampant in the halls of power these days. He sat down with...

Harry Bliss is a longtime New Yorker cartoonist with thousands of gag panels and several dozen covers under his belt, and — more recently — the collaborator with comedy legend Steve Martin on a series of books: 2020's "A Wealth of Pigeons," and this year's bestselling "Number One is Walking," a series of comic book-style illustrated anecdotes about Martin's film career. He sat down with Dave and P...

You may not have heard of the comic book "Kellen the Kid." Yet. But odds are pretty good that someday you will. It's one of several comic books and strips created by Kellen Paul, a 9-year-old cartoonist and illustrator who's been plying his trade at the Community Art Center in his hometown of Cambridge, Mass., and whose work has taken the center by storm. Kellen — accompanied by the center's direc...