Comics Are Great!

To make good comics and graphic novels, all you have to do is draw really well and write pretty well, then mix them together, right? Then why is it so challenging to make comics that connect with audiences? How do you describe that unnameable quality that makes certain art and stories arresting? After a long […]

Talking about composition, context, and color on CAG! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=e96lFpKwTS4 Photographers got it easy, right? All they have to do to tell their stories is point their magic box at their subject and hit click. Cartoonists, on the other hand, have to create the reality of their work from scratch. Surely photographers have zero insights to […]

El Deafo! Hilda and the Midnight Giant! Roz Chast, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvY3-YoKV5k We’re continuing our tradition of closing out the year with Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier of The Comics Bakery. Join us for a rapid round of book talks on some of our favorite comics, which you can use as your last-minute holiday gift guide! And […]

Talking about the special communicative power of the cartoon on Comics Are Great! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8PsQi99nok Anthropomorphic comics characters have enjoyed a wide appeal almost since the invention of the comic. Who doesn’t love Snoopy? Characters like Garfield have inspired an entire generation of professional cartoonists. Even the critically-acclaimed Maus featured talking animal characters. So what is […]

Broxo! Ewoks! Shakespeare! Banjo music, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuLb6XdoQzs It’s time to unbox the age-old question of Talent vs. Effort on Comics Are Great! How does your comics work change when you shift your focus from “expressing yourself” to “putting in the effort?” Are these terms mutually exclusive, or does the focus oscillate between those poles […]

Challenged Comics! Censorship! Dave Carter, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5TpS-rpSnI Join us for a discussion on Banned Books Week with David Carter, Librarian at the University of Michigan’s Comics and Video Game Archive. Together we explore censorship in comics and ways we can better advocate for our medium. Links mentioned in this episode (thanks to Eric Klooster […]

Gregg Schigiel! Laura Given! Erin Helmrich! Finding new audiences for your work, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAAzJsOrAys It’s the 100th episode of the Comics Are Great show, recorded live before a studio audience at the 2014 Kids Read Comics Celebration! I’m joined by guest co-host Gregg Schigiel of the Stuff Said Show, librarian Laura Given, and librarian […]

Talking about walking the line between eerie and cute on CAG! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNhieWXymL4 In this special unscheduled episode of the Comics Are Great! show I’ll be joined by Eric Orchard, cartoonist behind Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch, published by Top Shelf. Maddy Kettle is a plucky young girl who faces witches, vampire bats, and […]

Talking about the role of fandom on CAG! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=-of8-cBDmHc Whatever your stance on cosplay, one can’t deny that it’s an active arena in fan participation with media. Is it simply a distracting branch that interferes with the “pure” transactions between fans and creators? Or is it a means for fans to enrich their participation with […]

Comics Are Great! returns with a battle between kid and adult authors! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BmkddnAWE We grown-up cartoonists think we know what kids are and aren’t picking up on in our work. After all, we were kids once! But memory can be fickle testimony, so in the next Comics Are Great! I’ll be joined by 12-year-old cartoonist […]

Muppets Most Wanted, Perils of Retreading, and more! It’s another special audio-only “therapy session” of Comics Are Great! I’m joined by Dave Roman for a discussion on Muppets Most Wanted. Together we explore how this film scratched many of the itches we were left with after The Muppets movie, how revisiting a franchise almost demands […]

Talking about independent publishing on the Comics Are Great! show! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpX5d1IRI2Y This time I’m joined by Jamie Gambell, writer of The Hero Code, for a discussion on the various channels available to us when publishing our comics independently. With so many options like Kickstarter, Comixology, IndyPlanet, Patreon, and publishing on the web, how do you […]

Talking about getting out from behind the desk and reaching out to new fans on the Comics Are Great! show! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2bTGpTg1FU We all know that making the work is only half of the battle facing an author or cartoonist these days. Once the work is done you have to market the work, and for many […]

Talking about everyone’s favorite Dark Knight on CAG 97! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_f7EasqzHo You may have heard that 2014 is the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Batman. So for this episode of the Comics Are Great! show we had a roundtable discussion on why the Caped Crusader remains such an enduring character. I’m joined by Dean Trippe, author […]

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=940vG8Mr7DI Talking about independent animation, working with what you got, and keeping on! In CAG 92 I talked with Ben Hatke about the importance of giving our heroes a reason to quit. Why? Because it’s so, so satisfying to see them not quit when all evidence suggests that quitting is the sensible solution. Why is […]

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UcBl3mDthw Find a publisher, POD, Webcomic, or all three? Figuring out your comic’s destiny! Whether your hope to get your comic published in the Direct Market or by one of the major book publishers, or self-publish through a Kickstarter or print-on-demand service like Ka-Blam, or publish directly to the web (as either a webcomic or […]

Talking about what cartoonists can learn from filmmakers on Comics Are Great! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olua0Ls4JiU Comics and film share a lot of DNA, though their strengths and weaknesses greatly differ. In the end they’re trying to do the same thing–convey ideas and explore narratives visually. So what might cartoonists learn about their own craft by studying the […]

Talking Doctor Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Masters of the Universe with Kevin Coppa of The Puppetbenders! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSiN_GupCSs What’s the appeal of action heroes who use violence as a last resort? I’m joined by Kevin Coppa of The Puppetbenders for a discussion on how our hearts can sometimes be captured by an action hero […]

The ultimate comics gift guide on this episode of Comics Are Great! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOx_Erz4ZzM The final CAG of 2013! I’m joined by Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, and Sharon Iverson for a list of our favorite comics and graphic novels of 2013 and which ones would make a great gift for that loved one who doesn’t consider […]

Talking about how to get your work seen on the Comics Are Great! show! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7lHY0oQBBU There are more ways than ever to share our work with our intended audience. Some solutions are as simple as pushing a button, while others may require a little bit of technical know-how. But how do you find the hosting/publishing/social […]

Zita the Spacegirl! Superman! Writing heroes, and more! I’m joined by Ben Hatke, author of the Zita the Spacegirl graphic novels, for a talk on writing Really, Really Good Guys (and Gals). Together we discuss the appeal of a character who has an inner sense of what is right, the perils of writing ultra-powerful characters, […]

Broxo! Star Wars! Zack Giallongo, and more! Most of us love to talk about our influences. They’re often the reason we decided to get into this cartooning game. We’re influenced by things that evoke a strong emotional reaction in us. But how does our approach to our work change when we search out and broaden […]

Video games in libraries, what cartoonists can learn from video games, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_LCraRNerA We’ve all heard the dig: a book starts with a map, and many readers immediately tune out. But there are plenty of stories about the excitement gamers felt when opening up the big Zelda or Metroid map in Nintendo Power Magazine. […]

Horror! Thrillers! Bera the One Headed Troll, Nightmare Pro Wrestling, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVPDe3H9B8A How do you make a horror story in a static medium like comics? What are the tricks to building dread and suspense? And how does visual style contribute to creating images that are unsettling or frightening? I’m joined by cartoonists Jon David […]

Missile Mouse! Orc Wars! Jake Parker, Kohl Glass, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=amzYhWwofgA There is so much to learn and master in making comics. Drawing, design, composition, pacing, color, and sound all stand ready to bewilder us as we try to communicate our ideas and stories. And while intense work and study in our medium is often […]

Elsewhere Chronicles! Bande dessinée! Famous Shoes! Nicolas Bannister, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNTULuIxG-M What are the secrets to designing a world that your readers will believe in? How do you compose panels that communicate tone, tension, blocking, and character? If the “camera” in comics can be anywhere, how do you navigate the nearly infinite choices to create moments that […]

Working for money vs. working on spec, Ryan Estrada, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV9YJUh8VsA Is there anything wrong with agreeing to do some work for free? After all, it might catch on with the Internet, and you can cash in later. And this is the webcomics model, after all! You put out consistent and professional-quality work for […]

Character Design! Delilah Dirk! Tony Cliff, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFqQv8saTKA Comics may be a static medium, but the best cartoonist create an illusion of movement so convincing we’ll often forget that we, the readers, are creating the movement in our minds. How do they do they pull off this trick? And what’s the “secret” to writing […]

Crowdfunding! Kickstarter! Self-Publishing! Getting the Word Out! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJquIvm1rwg Hooray! Thanks to services Kickstarter and Indiegogo, we finally have a mechanism to fund our dream project! But is it as easy as just asking your friends or audience to support your thing? It sounds like a lot of work. And how do you avoid annoying everyone […]

Copyright! Public Domain! Fair Use, and More! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu31d8Jx5KI What is the benefit of working with public domain characters and stories? Is it just fun to play in “someone’s sandbox,” or is there a larger cultural benefit to authors building on and expanding the works of those who came before? What might happen if more creative […]

Superheroes! Batman! Superman! Dean Trippe! Dan Mishkin, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJwfPCQK3eQ Over the past years we’ve seen more and more summer blockbusters featuring superhero characters and stories. Are they just fashionable again, or is there something to these kinds of stories that connects us to them? What characterizes an effective superhero story? I’m grateful to be […]

Pacific Rim! Jaegers! Kaiju! Dave Roman! and Spoilers! I’m joined by Dave Roman for a talk on how the author’s analytic eye affects his or her enjoyment of media. What happens when you can’t stop picking at story when reading a book or watching a film? Besides making you insufferable at parties, are there any […]

Designing characters with appeal, G-Man, writing from life, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MRbB5tkYs0 It’s hard enough to learn how to draw, but things get even dicier when we start talking about what it takes to create appeal. Fortunately I’m joined by Chris Giarrusso of the eminently appealing G-Man series and Dave Carter of the University of Michigan […]

Chris Houghton! Shane Houghton! Tony Cliff! And more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlGWrGYj7co How do you design awesome action sequences? What’s the secret to writing scenes that make the audience roar with laughter? I know I couldn’t answer these questions on my own, so I’m grateful to be joined by the perfect roundtable for the job: Tony Cliff, author […]

He-Man! Zeus! Posedion! Olympians rule! George O’Connor, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7VJZ5PW1s What better medium than comics to capture the majesty and mayhem of Greek Mythology? Especially in the hands of celebrated cartoonist George O’Connor, creator of The Olympians series from First Second books. Together we talk about kid logic, how an author must get to the heart […]

Editing, writing, graphic novels, First Second Books, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=R10AAaL7zKc I’m excited to talk with Calista Brill, Senior Editor at First Second Books, about the entire process of developing and publishing a graphic novel. What does a good pitch look like? What qualities are editors looking for in a graphic novel proposal? Once the book […]

Mini-Comics, Sumo, Tumblr Comics, Thien Pham, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-5uYdsO0jI This time we discover that Sumo wrestling can be a metaphor for the creative life thanks to the work of Thien Pham, author of Sumo from First Second Books. Together we explore how the philosophy of “every moment is the moment of truth” applies to just […]

Finding your venue, loving parody, Broodhollow, Kris Straub, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvrE75Cv5kQ Stick to your knitting. Specialize. Find your niche. Operate in your wheelhouse. And a zillion other clichés that get thrown around. It’s been accepted as common wisdom that one should find the one thing they have some talent in and pursue that to the […]

Finances, Poorcraft, Polterguys, Mini-Comics, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNn3bKSHu8Q The hard fact of it is, few people make a ton of money at this comics jazz. And while we’ve talked about creating various streams of income in past shows, we’ve yet to talk about how to get more out of less of our financial resources! We’re joined […]

Spongebob, work-for-hire, the importance of comics podcasting, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSR9RzdRqfg We’re thrilled to have Gregg Schigiel, the artist behind many of the ever-present images of Spongebob Squarepants in comics and on products, for a talk on working on a beloved children’s character. Is it all fame and candy-eating, or is there a certain work ethic […]

Author visits, marketing your book, Mal and Chad, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3LX1AXR1cs Whether you’re self-publishing or working with a publisher, a cold hard reality we cartoonists face is getting the word out about your book. This time I’m joined by author Stephen McCranie for a discussion on how he used a special promotion on his site […]

Drama! Smile! Baby-Sitters Club! Raina Telgemeier! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO0bjO1XETI We close out the 2012 broadcast schedule with a special event! I’m joined by guest co-host Cassie, who helps me interview Raina Telgemeier about her latest graphic novel Drama. Together we talk about how Drama is a “spiritual sequel” to Smile, how an author might use their own […]

Sherlock Holmes, Rick Leonardi, Brandon Perlow, Paul Mendoza, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=P89-0ftkE2s This time we talk with the team behind the new Watson and Holmes comic about iterating on public domain stories, new publishing strategies, and how a cartoonist might think about “acting” through their characters. And we’re joined once again by Sharon Iverson of the […]

Writing horror with Jon David Guerra, Paul Storrie, and Dave Carter. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OifG9ih9pk It’s a Halloween-themed episode with a talk on what characterizes a scary story, and we’ve got a full roundtable of people well-suited for the job! I’m joined by Jon David Guerra, Paul Storrie, and Dave Carter, who help to draw the line between […]

World building! Backstory! Writing! With Dave Roman, Brandon Dayton, and Paul Storrie. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIB_QGw57GQ What’s the difference between story and backsory? It’s a tricky question, so I was lucky to assemble a rather impressive roundtable of comics people to help sort this one out. Brandon Dayton, Dave Roman, and Paul Storrie all return to the show […]

Publishing, Pitching, First Second Books! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_CBtrV8wGk Some of us have come face-to-face with the grim reality of getting our work published. It’s not quite as glamorous and easy as the fantasy we might have constructed as a kid. But Gina Gagliano of First Second Books stops by the show to lend a bunch of great […]

Chad Sell, Sally Carson, and the Small Press Expo! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZclwsMJuA I’m back from the Small Press Expo and ready to share some of the exciting things that happened while I was there. I’m joined by two other SPX 2012 exhibitors, Chad Sell and Sally Carson. Together we talk about the unique tone the convention has, […]

It’s the never-before-seen-on-the-Internet live CAG show recorded at the Ann Arbor District Library during Kids Read Comics 2012! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRL770fuwcE I’m joined by a live studio audience and a panel of excellent guests of KRC including: Dave Roman Raina Telgemeier Rob Stenzinger Joe Foo Sharon Iverson We start out with some reflections and stories from KRC […]

Topics: Writing, sketching, and finding your voice as an author. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Qh8IZt3sU As counter-intuitive as it may seem, illustration is only one small part of the overall effort in making comics. What really defines what a graphic novelist, cartoonist, or comics artist does happens at the thumbnail level. It’s there that you decide on the panel […]

Topics: The Legend of Korra, cartoons, writing, storytelling //www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdAyA4TqGoE Spoiler alert! If you haven’t finished watching the first season of The Legend of Korra, you might want to do so before enjoying this episode. But even if you’re not a Korra fan, there’s some fun storytelling talk and analysis on this edition of CAG, as […]

Topics: Find new audiences through libraries, publishing, and self-promotion //www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUkNhqhUc8M Many of us agree that web publishing is a terrific way to build an audience for your comic, graphic novel, or comic strip. It’s an easy, low-risk way for audiences to try before they buy. And the same is true for getting your books into […]