The TradeWaiters

The Tradewaiters return with a new book to read. "Flip" by Ngozi Ukazu is a new twist on a “Freaky Friday” storyline. Chi-Chi and Flip switch bodies, and must experience race, gender, class, and their own mental health and personal hang-ups while living in each other’s shoes. We’ll talk about the ethics of body-swapping, the power of comics, and whether everyone in Vancouver has small house Stockh...

On today’s Gutter-Take, Jam, Jeff, and JD talk about zines! Zines are back. They never left. We talk about their history, their future, and the many roles they can play in your life. Music by Sleuth. Our next episode will be on "Flip" by Ngozi Ukazu.

With the recent passing of Marjane Satrapi, we are reposting this episode from 2018 that we recorded with Kathlees Gros and Jess Pollard about "The Complete Persepolis." Marjane shared several stories with the world in a few different media during her life, but Persepolis in particular is a seminal work in the medium of comics. This memoir of her life growing up in Iran and then Europe is more imp...

We’re back with the weighty graphic novel "Hello Sunshine" by Keezy Young, a book that weaves together one person’s mental health crisis with supernatural horror in a way that is simultaneously smart, original, and respectful. This book is a lot more than just “Scooby-Doo, but serious.” Be prepared for spoilers (go read the book first), and stay tuned for some character-revealing moments. Music by...

The TradeWaiters return with an old friend, Jess Pollard, as she gets us to read the first two seasons of the Webtoon "Everything Is Fine" by Mike Birchall. This comic might seem cute and simple, but don’t let the “Hello Kitty” faces fool you. This is a story about existential dread, paranoia, and the death of optimism. We’ll also talk about what makes a comic a comic, and where the lines get blur...

It’s a (winter) summer crossover spectacular! For this episode Jeff and JD were joined by Jack and Diane of the Panel Pals podcast to read "Minus" by Ryan Armand and "Sweet Poolside" by Oshimi Shuuzou. And then you can continue the crossover over on the Panel Pals podcast for part 2 later this week! Join us as we talk about lost and hard-to-find comics, the early 2000s webcomic scene, and why on E...

Come with us to the future of the past as we read "Kingdom Come," written by superhero powerhouse Mark Waid and painstakingly painted by Alex Ross. This dark vision of the future of DC superheroes might be a commentary on the grim-dark comics of the 1990s, or it might be an excuse to get all of Mark Waid’s favourite characters in a room with Alex Ross’ dad. Either way, the art (in this fully audit...

On today’s Gutter-Take, Jam, Jeff, and JD talk about how to make friends in comics. Maybe the real comics were the friends we made along the way. Music by Sleuth. Our next episode will be on Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.

This week we read "Home by the Rotting Sea" by Finnish cartoonist Otava Heikkilä, a short but emotional journey to another world where the Arctic is melting and gender is what you make of it. We’ll talk about anthropology, allegory, and Otava’s unique page compositions. We’ll also talk about the censorship situation with Itch.io and payment processors, which does nothing to convince JD to choose d...

This week Jam, Jeff, and JD went back in time to read "The Rose of Versailles" Vol. 1 by Riyoko Ikeda, one of the foundational works of all shoujo comics. Get into your Versailles mindset (Versaind-set) for some gorgeous dresses, elegant balls, murder, and class warfare. Listen in so as to put this work in its proper historical context, and to avoid a case of “Paris syndrome.” Music by Sleuth. Our...

On today’s Gutter-Take, Jam, Jeff, and JD talk about manga. What’s it like to read manga for the first time? What was it like for manga to be widely available in North America for the first time? And what have been the lasting impacts on both readers and creators alike of manga’s English-language successes? Music by Sleuth. Our next episode will be on the first volume of "The Rose of Versailles" b...

Today’s book is weighty. We read "Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir" by Tessa Hulls. This book follows the lives of Tessa’s grandmother, mother, and herself through some of the most difficult periods of Chinese history in the first half of the twentieth century, as well as the mental illness and generational trauma that has bound them together ever since. It’s not all doom and gloom as we also talk...

In today’s episode we discuss "Blurry" by Dash Shaw, a nesting onion of vignettes of the lives of people facing indecision. Follow along as we fight our way through the fog and find out how they’re all connected. Take a delicious detour with us as we pick apart the mechanics of how this comic is built, from its 4/4 beat of the page layouts to the sparse but grounded character designs. Music by Sle...

The Minicomic Awards are back, and we’re here to celebrate them! For this episode, Jam, Jeff, and JD read as many of the winning comics as we could get our hands on, and some of the nominees as well. Here are the winners: Ratgirl by STC09 Scoot by Cam McCafferty The Pool by Leda Zawacki Diaphanoids by Anna Bow and Hagai Palevsky The Ballad of Black Cassandra Olivia Stephens Wisteria House by Danie...

On today’s Gutter-Take, Jam, Jeff, and JD talk in-depth about our experiences seeking balance between making comics, having a day job, and getting a life. If you’re an artist here’s your chance to learn from our mistakes and match your priorities to your lifestyle. Music by Sleuth. Our next episode will be on some of the comics from the Minicomics Awards 2025.

For this episode our panel read "Banned Book Club" by Kim Hyun Sook, Ko Hyung-Ju, and Ryan Estrada. This book follows Hyun Sook's adventures as a young revolutionary during South Korea's Fifth Republic dictatorship. Because irony is dead, this book has in turn faced book bans of its own. Join us as we talk about the freedom to read, the importance of being able to imagine a different world, that a...

We’re going back to 1987 to read "Kraven’s Last Hunt" by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck, which collects issues from The Amazing Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man. This is a classic capes and tights story about how some men will fight a decade-long battle to best Spider-Man in hand-to-hand combat rather than go to therapy. Several content warnings apply to th...

It’s time for another Gutter-Take. Webcomics are harder to find than ever. Or is it the opposite? Where do you find your webcomics, and how do you get readers to find yours? Jeff, Jam, and JD have questions and also answers. Music by Sleuth. Our next episode will be on "The Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt" by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck.

Our panellists are back with volumes 3 and 4 of "Our Dreams at Dusk" by Yuhki Kamatani. This time we get to talk about all the characters in depth, including matters of life, death, marriage, and friendship. We finish off the series knowing a lot more about the characters, but not everything! We also talk about the founding of Cloudscape, and the difference between understanding and acceptance. Mu...

This week Jam, Jeff, and JD read the first two volumes of "Our Dreams at Dusk" by Yuhki Kamatani. As Jeff says in the episode, this is a deep dive into queer culture in Japan that celebrates the importance of community and third spaces. Join us as we visit the town of Onomichi, with its cats and old houses, its queer drop-in centre and its many photogenic bridges. This is a different kind of manga...

We’re doing something different for this episode. In between our regular panels on great graphic novels lies the gutter (get it?). And in the gutter this week, Diamond Distributors, who once held a monopoly on delivering comic books to readers, just filed for bankruptcy. What does this mean for comics? What even is “distribution?” Jeff, Jam, and JD are here to let you know, in our first mini episo...

We’re back to read volumes 2 and 3 of "O Human Star" by Blue Delliquanti. This time we get into the trans text and subtext of the series, how metaphor and text support each other, and break down the main characters to see what makes them tick. We’ve got an alternate political universe, a true AI singularity, disability representation, a long-expected Astroboy moment, and some unexpected difficulti...

This episode is on the first volume of "O Human Star" by Blue Delliquanti. Read the webcomic and then listen to our thoughts on planning a webcomic, the best uses of science fiction, and the unique advantage that a limited colour palette has for comics. Fair warning we spend like half of this episode griping with where the conversation on AI has gone since this book was finished, but I promise thi...

For this episode on "As the Crow Flies," by Mel Gillman, Jam, Jeff, and JD are joined by Ryan Estrada. We talk about one of Ryan’s favourite banned books. Is this a thoughtful story of alienation, doubt, microaggressions, and faith? Or is it, as one book banner summed it up, just “gender chaos?” We’ll talk about the power of traditional media (by which I mean pencil crayons), libraries, and how no...

This week we return to "Thunderbolts Volume 1: Justice, Like Lightning," by Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley, Sal Buscema, Peter David, Mike Deodato Jr., Steve Epting, and others. We look deeper into the main cast of the series, and propose a wish list of changes (thirty years too late). We’ll see henchmen doing hench things, learn about incels and doxxing before those terms existed, talk about mall gothe...