Podcasts about The Best American Comics

EPISODE 1824: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Nora Krug, author of DIARIES OF WAR, about the contrasting realities of a Ukrainian journalist and a Russian artist in the first year of the Russian invasionNora Krug is a German-American author and illustrator whose drawings and visual narratives have appeared in newspapers, magazines and anthologies internationally. Her illustrations have been recognized with gold and silver medals by the Society of Illustrators and the NY Art Directors Club. Krug is a recipient of fellowships from Fulbright, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Maurice Sendak Foundation, and others. Her books are included in the Library of Congress and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University. Krug was named Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year and 2019 Book Illustration Prize Winner by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her visual memoir Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home (Scribner, 2018, foreign edition title Heimat), about WWII and her own German family history, was chosen as a best book of the year by the New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, Kirkus Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. It was the winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award, the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, the Art Directors Club gold cube and discipline winner cube, the Society of Illustrators silver medal, and the British Book Design and Production Award, among others. Her collaboration with historian Timothy Snyder, a graphic edition of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Ten Speed Press, 2021), was named a Best Graphic Novel of 2021 by the New York Times, a New York Times Editor's Choice, one of Germany's Most Beautiful Books of 2022 and won a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. Diaries of War, her Pulitzer Prize-nominated book of graphic journalism that chronicles the contrasting experiences of a Ukrainian journalist and a Russian artist, both grappling with the realities of Russia's renewed invasion of Ukraine in 2022, won the Oversea's Press Club's Best Cartoon Award runner-up citation. Her visual biography, Kamikaze, about a surviving Japanese WWII pilot, was included in Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics and Best Non-Required Reading, and her animations were shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Krug is Associate Professor of Illustration at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Prior to her professorship at Parsons, Krug served as a Professor of Illustration at Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel, Germany. She holds a B.A. Honours degree in Performance Design from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a Diplom in Visual Communications from the University of Arts Berlin, and an M.F.A. in Illustration as a Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Creativity through the lens of a comix maker and graphic novelist,"Creativity is so much more than art. Being able to express that constant bubbling spirit within you."Jennifer Hayden is a comix maker and graphic novelist based in New Jersey. She isthe creator of The Story of My Tits, a graphic memoir about her life and her experiencewith breast cancer. Nominated for an Eisner Award and named one of the best graphicnovels of 2015 by GQ, Library Journal, and NPR, The Story of My Tits has beentranslated into three languages.Hayden's first collection Underwire was excerpted in The Best American Comics 2013.Her work has appeared in anthologies, online, and in several academic works. Hercomics have been exhibited in shows from Rome to Bologna and Madrid. She is afrequent speaker to literary, comics, medical, and student audiences, as well as breastcancer groups.Currently Hayden is finishing her first work in color, a graphic anti-cookbook calledWhere There's Smoke There's Dinner. She plans to use the proceeds to hire apersonal chef. jenniferhayden.comSocial media handles:Twitter - JenhayGoddessIG - jenhaygoddessFB - jenniferhaydenauthorSubstack - Goddess Memos

“I wasn't thinking about an audience. It was a pure outpouring of just whatever came to me. I was rebelliously and  ambitiously not giving them the book they were looking for.” Adrian Tomine is an American cartoonist who we've admired** for years. Adrian is the creator and writer of the 2007 graphic novel SHORTCOMINGS, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the year. SHORTCOMINGS was also recently turned into the film of the same name*, which happens to be the directorial debut of Randall Park. Shortcomings premiered at the 2023 Sundance film festival. This is a book and film you need to see. Adrian's been creating comics since he was SIXTEEN - and since then he's become known for not just his comics, but also his infamous New Yorker covers (since 1999!). His artwork and stories have a wry, thoughtful candor about them. From comics like Optic Nerve, Sleepwalk, Killing and Dying, all published from Drawn & Quarterly. Adrian also created graphic memoirs like Scenes From an Impending Marriage, and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist. Adrian's comics have been anthologized in publications such as McSweeney's, Best American Comics, and Best American Nonrequired Reading.   In 2022, Adrian's short stories were adapted into the film Paris, 13th District directed by Jacques Audiard, with a screenplay by Céline Sciamma and Léa Mysius. As you'll find in this candid conversation, Adrian Tomine is many things - a cartoonist, filmmaker, husband, father, and reluctant Taylor Swift fan. More importantly, his work will make you think, wonder, and sometimes smile, smirk, wonder, and most importantly feel.  *NOTE: This conversation was booked independently through Adrian's book publisher - Drawn & Quarterly, not the film studio, out of respect for the ongoing writers' and actors' strike. Huge thanks to the team at Drawn & Quarterly for arranging this interview with a creator whose work we've loved for so long.  **Extra special thanks to Quarantined Comics co-host Ryan Joe for jumping to join Raman Sharon while she was out saving cinematic orphans from the evils of avarice and artificial intelligence. LEARN MORE ABOUT ADRIAN adrian-tomine.com instagram.com/adriantomine FILM / TRAILER: Shortcomings (2023): imdb.com/title/tt14483774 BOOK: Shortcomings (2007): drawnandquarterly.com/books/shortcomings MENTIONS BOOK: Love & Rockets - wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_and_Rockets_(comics) PERSON: Richard Sala - wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sala PERSON: Daniel Clowe - wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Clowes PERSON: Charles Schultz - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Schulz SHOW: Curb Your Enthusiasm Pilot Episode - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218388/ Band Cut Worms - allmusic.com/artist/cut-worms-mn0003661980 PERSON: Larry David - wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_David FILMMAKER: Céline Sciamma - imdb.com/name/nm1780037 FILM: Paris, 13th District - imdb.com/title/tt12708658 FILMMAKER: Ari Aster - imdb.com/name/nm4170048 FILM: Beau Is Afraid - imdb.com/title/tt13521006 FILMMAKERS: Coen Brothers - wikipedia.org/wiki/Coen_brothers FILMMAKER: Alexander Payne - imdb.com/name/nm0668247 FILM: Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett) - imdb.com/title/tt0076263 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anne Elizabeth Moore is the author of the essay collection Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes, available from The Feminist Press. It is the official May pick of the Otherppl Book Club. Moore was born in Winner, SD. She is the author of Unmarketable (2007), the Eisner Award-winning Sweet Little Cunt (2018), Gentrifier: A Memoir (2021), which was an NPR Best Book of the Year, and others. She is the founding editor of Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics and the former editor of Punk Planet, The Comics Journal, and the Chicago Reader. She has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. She is a Fulbright Senior Scholar, has taught in the Visual Critical Studies department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was the 2019 Mackey Chair of Creative Writing at Beloit College. She lives in the Catskills with her ineffective feline personal assistants, Taku and Captain America. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch @otherppl Instagram  YouTube TikTok Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of UIndy's Potluck Podcast, where we host conversations about the arts, Barney Haney, assistant professor of English, interviews illustrator and writer, Margaret Kimball, a guest of the Kellogg Writers Series, which is a series that brings writers of distinction to the University of Indianapolis campus for classroom discussions and free public readings. Special thanks to Music Technology professor Dr Brett Leonard for editing this episode's audio. Margaret Kimball is an award-winning illustrator and the author of And Now I Spill the Family Secrets, a graphic memoir about mental illness and family dysfunction. Her writing has appeared in The Believer, LitHub, Ecotone, Black Warrior Review and elsewhere. Her hand lettering and illustrations have been published around the world, and she's worked with clients like Smithsonian Magazine, Macy's, Marks & Spencer, Boston Globe, Little, Brown, Simon & Schuster and many others. Her work has been listed as notable in Best American Comics. We thank you for listening to UIndy's Potluck Podcast, which is hosted by students and faculty of the University of Indianapolis. We would like to thank our guests and the Shaheen College of Arts and Sciences. To learn more about UIndy's Potluck Podcast and hear other episodes, please visit etchings.uindy.edu/the-potluck-podcast. Thank you for your support.

Grant Snider writes, draws, and lives in Wichita, Kansas. His first book, "The Shape of Ideas," is a personal exploration of the joys and frustrations of the creative process. His work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Kansas City Star, The Best American Comics 2013, and across the internet as the popular strip "Incidental Comics." Grant works as an orthodontist in his day job. You can often find him carrying a sketchbook, lost in his own thoughts.In The Art of Living, cartoonist Grant Snider, author of The Shape of Ideas and I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf, has created an all-new collection of one- and two-page comics that map his inner thoughts, poetic observations, and frequent failures at living mindfully. With both humor and a touch of reality, The Art of Living centers on mindfulness, but also empathy, relaxation, gratitude, and awareness—evergreen subjects that are more important and relevant now than ever. With a striking package, The Art of Living is an extension of the themes of Snider's first two books—which explored the creative process and the love of reading—and is the perfect gift for those in a need of reflection, commiseration, hope, and a little extra self-care. Above all, Snider's cartoons will inspire and encourage a more thoughtful way of experiencing the world.To learn more visit, grantsnider.com or incidentalcomics.com

's comics and drawings have appeared on the cover of The New Yorker and in every section of The New York Times. His work has also appeared in Granta, McSweeney's, Best American Comics (cover artist), Nickelodeon Magazine and Time Out among many others. His comics and illustrations have been published in the UK, France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Australia. Heatley's graphic memoir My Brain is Hanging Upside Down was published by Pantheon Books in 2008. He illustrated the Otis Dooda children's book series for MacMillan 2012 and 2013, recording 20 songs to accompany their publication. ​ Heatley is working on his second graphic memoir for Pantheon titled "Qualification," publication date TBD. David's Info https://www.davidheatley.com/ https://davidheatley.bandcamp.com/  

Benjamin Percy is the author of six novels. His honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Whiting Writers' Award, two Pushcart Prizes, the Plimpton Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics. And his story “Refresh, Refresh” was included in 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories. His new release, The Unfamiliar Garden, launched in January 2022. It is the second book in The Comet Cycle, which started with The Ninth Metal. His earlier work includes The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding. He's also penned three books of short stories, and his craft book, Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction, is now widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He's written comics since 2014, with a two-issue Batman story arc for Detective Comics. He is known for his celebrated runs on Nightwing, Green Arrow, Teen Titans, and James Bond. He currently writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics, and the series Devil's Highway and Year Zero for AWA Studios. He's also written audio dramas, including “Wolverine” and “The Long Night.” His latest podcast is Wastelanders: Old Man Starlord (produced by Marvel and SiriusXM/Pandora), a post-apocalyptic take on the Guardians of the Galaxy. He co-wrote the feature film, Summering, with director James Ponsoldt, which will be released in 2022. He is a member of the WGA screenwriters' guild and has sold scripts to Paramount, FOX, Sony, and Starz. He currently has several film and TV projects in development. https://benjaminpercy.com/ About the Show: This LIVE podcast brings you interviews with trending authors in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, and Romance. If that sounds like an odd combination, blame the host. A red shirt in a browncoat, Allison Martine (“A.M.”) Hubbard was busy writing speculative fiction when she tripped and fell in the hot tub. Now, she writes romance, too. This master of bad analogies, mixed metaphors, and poorly translated Latin, (which she vaguely recalls from her years as an attorney), has a penchant for bourbon, wonderfully weird books, and throwing tropes out the window. afictionalhubbard.com #allisonmartinehubbard #allisonmartine #tothemoonallison #authorsontheair #authorsontheairglobalradionetwork #interview #podcast #writing #books #BenjaminPercy #TheUnfamiliarGarden @copyright by authors on the air global radio network

Benjamin Percy is the author of six novels. His honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Whiting Writers' Award, two Pushcart Prizes, the Plimpton Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics. And his story “Refresh, Refresh” was included in 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories. His new release, The Unfamiliar Garden, launched in January 2022. It is the second book in The Comet Cycle, which started with The Ninth Metal. His earlier work includes The Dead Lands, Red Moon, and The Wilding. He's also penned three books of short stories, and his craft book, Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction, is now widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He's written comics since 2014, with a two-issue Batman story arc for Detective Comics. He is known for his celebrated runs on Nightwing, Green Arrow, Teen Titans, and James Bond. He currently writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics, and the series Devil's Highway and Year Zero for AWA Studios. He's also written audio dramas, including “Wolverine” and “The Long Night.” His latest podcast is Wastelanders: Old Man Starlord (produced by Marvel and SiriusXM/Pandora), a post-apocalyptic take on the Guardians of the Galaxy. He co-wrote the feature film, Summering, with director James Ponsoldt, which will be released in 2022. He is a member of the WGA screenwriters' guild and has sold scripts to Paramount, FOX, Sony, and Starz. He currently has several film and TV projects in development. https://benjaminpercy.com/ About the Show: This LIVE podcast brings you interviews with trending authors in Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, and Romance. If that sounds like an odd combination, blame the host. A red shirt in a browncoat, Allison Martine (“A.M.”) Hubbard was busy writing speculative fiction when she tripped and fell in the hot tub. Now, she writes romance, too. This master of bad analogies, mixed metaphors, and poorly translated Latin, (which she vaguely recalls from her years as an attorney), has a penchant for bourbon, wonderfully weird books, and throwing tropes out the window. afictionalhubbard.com #allisonmartinehubbard #allisonmartine #tothemoonallison #authorsontheair #authorsontheairglobalradionetwork #interview #podcast #writing #books #BenjaminPercy #TheUnfamiliarGarden @copyright by authors on the air global radio network

Episode #388! It's our 4th of July Spectacular! With fireworks! This week we are talking books. First up DL has the anthology series "The Best American Comics" from book publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Scott brings Adrain Tomine's interesting looking book "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist" to the podcast. Next up, DL talks Jack Kirby's "Kamandi vol.2". Scott tells us about movie novelizations including Spider-man and Once upon a time in Hollywood. Check this popping episode out!

Thank you for joining me today on this value-packed episode. We’re back with the Design Special: Meet The Cartoonists.I’m joined by illustrator and Cartoonist Eleanor Davis. Eleanor is the author of the New York Times Bestseller How To Be Happy; she has also written You and a Bike and a Road, and The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. Her work has been included in five issues of Fantagraphics' anthology MOME as well as Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics in 2008. Eleanor has won the Eisner Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer award, and her short story In our Eden won the gold medal from the society of illustrators.In today’s episode, Eleanor gets honest about how she gets clients and how she works with Art Directors. You will learn about how to price your illustrations and what book you should refer to for pricing guidelines. She also warns you about what contracts you should not sign.To find out more about Eleanor visit doing-fine.com or follow her on Instagram @squinkyelo and Twitter @Squinkyelo. Make sure you’re subscribed to Wanna Be on iTunes, Spotify, google play, acast or your favourite podcast app.Visit wannabepodcast.com to read extended show notes and free downloads.You can follow me @ImiMorgan on Twitter and Instagram.

Eisner-nominated cartoonist Scott Chantler talks about his new book Bix, which follows the life of 1920s jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke. Scott and I talk about the movement and characterization of the story and illustration, and the ways he has been able to capture an important life in the history of American Jazz. Buy Bix wherever books are sold! Like on Indigo.ca: https://bit.ly/35aOx8m Connect with Scott through his website https://www.scottchantler.com or on Twitter https://twitter.com/scottchantler Follow Samantha on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrSCutrara See all the Source Saturday videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLpPhMEW_jxqClGskVJgNeA More about Scott: Scott Chantler is the acclaimed creator of the graphic biography Bix, which will be published by Gallery 13/Simon & Schuster in April 2020. His graphic memoir Two Generals was nominated for two Eisner Awards, named one of Chapters-Indigo's Best Books of 2010, selected for Best American Comics 2012, and voted by CBC's Canada Reads as one of the 40 best Canadian non-fiction books of all time. His other work includes Northwest Passage (nominated for Eisner and Harvey Awards) and the Three Thieves series (winner of the Joe Shuster Award for Best Comic for Kids and listed by YALSA as a Great Graphic Novel for Teens). In 2015, he served as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Windsor, the first cartoonist to be appointed so by a Canadian university. Learn more about me at https://www.SamanthaCutrara.com/ Order Transforming the Canadian History Classroom: Imagining a New 'We' today: https://www.amazon.ca/Transforming-Canadian-History-Classroom-Imagining/dp/0774862831 https://www.ubcpress.ca/transforming-the-canadian-history-classroom #MeaningfulLearning #ComicBooks #ChallengeCdnHist

Anthologies are a great way to introduce new work, new creators, even new ideas to a readership. Mike and Greg spend the first half of this two-part book discussion looking at two anthologies whose mission statements are exactly that: Bell & Sinclair's Pictures and Words and the long-running Best American Comics series (2013 and 2019, to be precise).  The lads breakdown why these works are excellent additions to any comic fan's bookshelf!  Robots From Tomorrow is a weekly comics podcast recorded deep beneath the Earth’s surface. You can subscribe to it via iTunes or through the RSS feed at RobotsFromTomorrow.com. You can also follow Mike and Greg on Twitter. Stay safe and enjoy your funny books.

Visit queenofpeaches.com for show notes! Keiler Roberts has been writing autobiographical comics for ten years. Her six books include Sunburning, Chlorine Gardens, and, most recently, Rat Time, all three of which were published by Koyama Press. Her self-published autobiographical comic series Powdered Milk received an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series in 2016, and in 2019 Chlorine Gardens received Slate's Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of 2018, which was selected by The Slate Book Review and The Center for Cartoon Studies. Her work has been included in The Best American Comics in 2016 and 2018 and was mentioned on their Notables list for 2014. She has taught at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago since 2013 and lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her husband, the artist Scott Roberts, their daughter Xia, and perhaps the most famous cartoon pet since Snoopy, their dog Crooky.

Scott has approached rarefied air that very few Canadian cartoonists have ever reached. His historical graphic memoir Two Generals was nominated for two Eisner Awards, named one of Chapters-Indigo’s best books of 2010, selected as a Best American Comics in 2012 and named by CBC as a “Canada Reads” selection and one of the 40 best Canadian non-fiction books of all-time. Not to be out done, his book Northwest Passage also has Harvey and Eisner nominations to its name. Plus, his young adult comic Three Thieves won a Joe Shuster award as The Best Canadian for Comic for Kids. He's a contributor to the Canadian superhero anthology, True Patriot, which was edited by past Speech Bubble guest J. Torres and he's currently doing covers for the Bettie Page comic published by Dynamite Entertainment. The project he's working on (as of this recording) is a graphic biography of a jazz cornet player Bix Beiderbecke aptly named, Bix.On the pod, Scott comes to the recording session, fresh off his stint as a panelist on Librarian and Educator Day at the Toronto Comic Art Festival, carrying All-Stars, a mini-comic he put together with University of Windsor librarians and history professors Heidi Jacobs and Miriam Wright about the Chatham [Ontario] Coloured All-Stars and their victory in 1934, as the first black team to win the Ontario Baseball Association title. Aaron and Scott cover the Chatham All-Stars and their star player Wilfred “Boomer” Harding, but not before bonding over their mutual love of the Batman 1966 TV show and chronicling Scott's path to professional comics making through animation. His early influences include the great Will Eisner, Canadian legend Ty Templeton and Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics – all of which put him on a path toward cartooning instead of drawing superheroes. He talks about what attracts him to simple storytelling and that mid-century design style that has become a bit of a calling card for him. Plus, he goes behind-the-scenes on the development of Two Generals – a highly personal project for him. This podcast is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula.@scottchantler (Instagram)@scottchantler (Twitter)@ScottchantlercartoonistScott's WebsiteBuy Scott's Original ArtScott on AmazonScott in Maclean's as The University of Windsor's Cartoonist-in-ResidenceScott's TEDx TalkSponsorHairy Tarantula

Sterg and Derek have Bill Kartalopoulos back on this episode to talk about the current year's volume of The Best American Comics.

Time Codes: 00:01:23 - Introduction 00:03:26 - Live streaming again...and some context 00:06:25 - The Best American Comics 2018 01:39:33 - Wrap up 01:41:03 - Contact us As they always do, the Two Guys with PhDs use their penultimate show of the year to discuss the current volume of The Best American Comics. this year guest edited by Phoebe Gloeckner. Earlier in the week they released their interview with Bill Kartalopoulos, the series editor, about the 2018 collection, and in that conversation they talked about the process of pulling the anthology together and Bill's experiences working with Gloeckner. But on this episode, Sterg and Derek discuss the actual content of volume. Among other topics, they highlight the "best of" contributions from creators they were already familiar with -- e.g., Gabrielle Bell, Geof Darrow, Guy Delisle, Jaime Hernandez, Jesse Jacobs, Joe Ollman, Gary Panter, Keiler Roberts, and Ariel Schrag -- and also talk excitedly about artists they hadn't yet discovered, including Margot Ferrick, Julia Jacquette, Julian Glander, Chloë Perkis, and Lale Westvind. In all, it's another great of Best American Comics! Go to The Comics Alternative's YouTube channelif you want to see the recording of the guys' live-streaming broadcast of this show!

Comics scholar Bill Kartalopoulos joins the show to talk about editing the annual Best American Comics series. But first, nearly three dozen of the year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2018 and the books they hope to get to in 2019! Guests include Jerry Beck, Christopher Brown, Dave Calver, Roz Chast, Mark Dery, Michael Gerber, Cathy B Graham, Dean Haspiel, Steven Heller, Richard Kadrey, Paul Karasik, Ken Krimstein, Nora Krug, John Leland, Alberto Manguel, Hal Mayforth, Dave McKean, Mark Newgarden, Audrey Niffenegger, Jim Ottaviani, Robert Andrew Parker, Shachar Pinsker, Nathaniel Popkin, Chris Reynolds, Lance Richardson, JJ Sedelmaier, David Small, Willard Spiegelman, Levi Stahl, Lavie Tidhar, Mark Ulriksen, Irvin Ungar, and Henry Wessells! Check out their selections at our site! Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

Time Codes: 00:01:15 - Introduction 00:03:15 - Setup of interview 00:05:06 - Interview with Conor Stechschulte 01:15:57 - Wrap up 01:17:44 - Contact us On this episode of The Comics Alternative's interview series, the Two Guys have the pleasure of talking with Conor Stechschulte. The third volumeof his ongoing series, GenerousBosom (Breakdown Press), was released in the spring, and Sterg and Derek have an enlightening conversation with Conor about this narrative. While in the first two parts the story was flowing in one discernible direction, more or less, it takes a strange and disturbing turn in the third part. The guys talk with their guest about this narrative trajectory and what it may portend. And as they intuit from the latest installment of Generous Bosom, there are more surprises in store. They also talk with Conor about his other comics, The Amateurs (which was reviewed on the podcast in June 2014), his self-published work, his relationship with his UK publisher, and his inclusion in last year's volume of Best American Comics. This interview has been a long time in coming, and the guys make the most of it. Be sure to check out Conor's band, Lilac, and the sounds they make!

I am fascinated by funny people. Gina is both funny and fearless, qualities that make her a world-class cartoonist and an extremely engaging interviewee. Her book Someone Please Have Sex With Me was excerpted in the 2015 edition of Best American Comics and has been translated in Spain, Norway and Denmark, and she has continued to explore the themes of lust and longing in subsequent mini-comics. I'm so thankful that Gina traveled across the city to talk to me about, among other things, her apartment, her job, her art-making process, boys, capitalism, Puerto Rico, Dancing, fashion, isolation and the internet. And I learned the term "chuckle-fuckers". At the end of the interview, you'll hear Nuestro Planeta by Kali Uchis.

The Weekly vmcampos Comic Book Club - 108 S3E04 The Best American Comics 2016. The great thing about anthologies is that they cull the wheat from the chaff. This particular one does that, expertly: the funniest, most thought-provoking, realistic, crazy comics are in this tome.

Time Codes: 00:00:28 - Introduction 00:02:26 - Better late than never 00:05:42 - The Best American Comics 2017 01:30:43 - Wrap up 01:32:15 - Contact us On this episode of the podcast Paul and Derek discuss The Best American Comics 2017, edited by Ben Katchor along with series editor Bill Kartalopoulos. The Two Guys usually discuss Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's annual contribution to comicsdom in the penultimate episode of every year, but this time around life got in the way -- and Paul, everyone's heart goes out to you -- so they had to postpone slightly the current show. But better late than never! As Paul and Derek reveal, this has to be the most experimental volume of The Best American Comics we've ever seen. Editor Ben Katchor does his best to challenge our understanding and definition of "comics" and to interrogate the very concept of "best." In fact, you could call these efforts provocative. This most recent anthology is attuned to the current political environment, and this is perhaps best demonstrated in Katchor's multifaceted and hilarious introduction, as well as Kartalopoulos's insightful Foreword. The contributions themselves are perhaps the most fascinating, and definitely the most varied, of any The Best American Comics volume.  There are many names that would be recognizable to listeners of the podcast -- e.g., Kim Deitch, Tim Lane, Gabrielle Bell, Ed Piskor, Joe Sacco, Josh Bayer, Michael DeForge, and Sam Alden -- but what marks this annual is the sheer number of contributors that neither Derek nor Paul had previously known. Indeed, at least a good half of this collection is comprised of creators never before discussed on the podcast, and it's exciting to discover this many new artists. To say the least, this is the most engaging, and the most challenging, volume of The Best American Comics to date.  

Time Codes: 00:00:24 - Introduction 00:02:38 - Setup of interview 00:04:40 - Interview with Roz Chast 01:12:04 - Wrap up 01:13:54 - Contact us Paul and Derek are pleased to have on The Comics Alternative the great cartoonist, Roz Chast. Her new book, Going into Town: A Love Letter to New York, was recently released by Bloomsbury Publishing. The Two Guys have been longtime fans of Chast's offbeat and hilarious New Yorker strips for years, and they spend a good bit of time talking with their guest about how she has translated that sense of humor into a long-form narrative. They also talk with Chast about her previous book, Can't We Please Talk about Something More Pleasant?, her memoir on living with aging parents, and how her mother and father find prominent places in the latest work. Along the way, Chast discusses her process of writing -- she indiscriminately explores narrative paths to see what does and doesn't work -- her unique non-comic-book community of cartoonist colleagues, and her experiences editing last year's Best American Comics volume. And of course, she spends a lot of time talking about her experiences and love of Manhattan, complete with its mind-blowing variety of restaurants, its subway system, its out-of-the-way specialty shops, its giant waterbugs, and the annoyance of rat afterbirth. Yes, rat afterbirth.

Imagine Wanting Only This (Pantheon Books) When Kristen Radtke was in college, the sudden death of a beloved uncle and, not long after his funeral, the sight of an abandoned mining town marked the beginning moments of a lifelong fascination with ruins and with people and places left behind. Over time, this fascination deepened until it triggered a journey around the world in search of ruined places. Now, in this genre-smashing graphic memoir, she leads us through deserted towns in the American Midwest, Italian villas, islands in the Philippines, New York City, and the delicate passageways of the human heart. At once narrative and factual, historical and personal, Radtke's stunning illustrations and piercing text never shy away from the big questions: Why are we here, and what will we leave behind?  Praise for Imagine Wanting Only This: “Cities, ambitions, romances, and bodies come to ruin before our eyes, as Kristen Radtke invites us, in her beautifully understated way, to be disturbed, fascinated, and yes, even attracted to that ruin. A remarkable bildungsroman!” —Eula Biss, author of On Immunity “Kristen Radtke leads us through a bleak and beautifully crafted story of heart and heartbreak—creation, connection, decay, and loss. Imagine Wanting Only This is challenging and inspiring.” —Ellen Forney, New York Times bestselling author of Marbles  “Kristen Radtke’s Imagine Wanting Only This doesn’t tell a single story but a chorus of histories, personal and familial and historical, and invents its own marvelous language for their telling—a language forged from interior thought and visual imagination, bringing together words and illustration in continually surprising and moving ways. The voice in these pages is eloquent in so many ways at once, like a shape that exists in three dimensions rather than two, and it’s utterly singular: visually alive, attentive to details, self-questioning and tender as it surveys variously haunted terrains of heart and landscape. Radtke’s world is so immersive, and so sensitively conjured, that once I entered the sketched chamber of her pages, I didn’t want to leave again—or even pause for breath—until I reached the end.”  —Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams "Riveting and glorious. A book of sorrow filtered through intellect. In Kristen Radtke's hands, nonfiction becomes poetry. A tremendous achievement.” —Tom Hart, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rosalie Lightning Kristen Radtke is a writer and illustrator based in Brooklyn. She is the managing editor of Sarabande Books and the film and video editor of TriQuarterly magazine. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program. Jordan Crane is an American cartoonist.  He is best known for his graphic novella The Last Lonely Saturday (2000), his graphic novel The Clouds Above(2005) and his ongoing solo anthology comic book series Uptight (2006-present). His comics have received two Ignatz awards, a Xeric grant, an AIGA book design award, and have been included in the The Best American Comics 2012. As editor and publisher, Crane produced the influential comics anthology NON (1997-2000), and the anthology website What Things Do (2010-2016). His illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, McSweeney’s and elsewhere.  His large format screen printed editions hang in private collections across the world.  Crane lives in Los Angeles, where he currently nearing completion of the graphic novel Keeping Two, to be published in 2018.  Libby Flores is a 2008 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow. Her short fiction has appeared in Post Road Magazine, The Open Bar at Tin House, The Rattling Wall, Paper Darts, Bridge Eight, FLASH: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She lives in Los Angeles, but will always be a Texan. Libby is the Director of Literary Programs at PEN Center USA. She can be found at libbyflores.com.

Welcome to Flex Your Heart Radio! This podcast is about body, fat and gender positivity, fitness, feminism, recovery, risk, and crushing it at life.  On this episode we talk to cartoonist, radio maven, and productivity expert, Jessica Abel! Jessica Abel is the author of Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You're Drowning in Your Daily Life , the graphic novel La Perdida (winner of the the 2002 “Best New Series” Harvey Award), Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars, as well as two collections of stories from her omnibus comic book Artbabe, and the graphic documentary (and podcast), Out on the Wire, about how the best radio producers in the world use story to keep us listening. Abel and her husband, the cartoonist Matt Madden, were series editors for The Best American Comics from 2007 to 2013. Together they’ve authored two textbooks about making comics, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics. Her latest comics series, Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars, debuted in November 2016. Abel recently returned from a four-year residency at the Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême, France to take up the chair of the Illustration Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She lives with her family in Philadelphia.   In this podcast we discuss: - Working your creative practice into your busy life, no matter what! - Procrastination and anxiety, and how the two are intertwined - The importance of having one solitary big goal  - Saying no to things that don't help you say yes to your larger purpose and so much more!  --- A very special thank you to our 10$ and 25$ level Patreon Patrons, Bianca Phillips, Sky Chari and Kelly Knight! I love you all. If you like the podcast: Support our Patreon! Leave us an iTunes review! Join our facebook group! Email us at flexyourheartradio@gmail.com!   ----  And now for me! I wrote a graphic novel with my partner and it's on pre-order NOW. If you've ever wanted to read about my recovery from anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive overexercise, this is your chance. Buy today, get stoked, share with your friends!  and now....  You can follow me on Instagram You can visit my blog You can check out my amazing body, fat, and gender positive gym, soon to be open in Portland, Oregon  You can email me with podcast questions or inquiries about coaching (olympic lifting, power lifting, interval training, etc.) at Lacy@liberationbarbell.com. I currently have space for private, semi-private and group class clients.    ----  Intro/outro song: outta me by Bikini Kill 

Time Codes: 00:01:30 - Introduction 00:03:21 - News and updates 00:12:05 - Best American Comics 2016 01:07:29 - Wrap up 01:08:37 - Contact us Every year the Two Guys with PhDs use the final two episodes of the year as a respective, a look back at some of the best comics out there. Next week they'll release their own favorites of the past twelve months, but for this, their penultimate show of the year, Andy and Derek discuss what others consider outstanding. The 2016 volume Best American Comics, edited by cartoonist Roz Chast (and with series editor Bill Kartalopoulos), includes thirty contributions from a variety of creators and displaying a wide range of styles and storytelling strategies. These comics were originally published between September 1, 2015 and August 31, 2015, and in many cases they include titles that the guys have discussed on past episodes. (For insights into the selection process for this volume, check out the previously published interview with Bill Kartalopoulos.) As the guys point out, there are entries in this collection that should come as no surprise to comics readers -- e.g., Adrian Tomine's "Killing and Dying," Drew Friedman's "R. Crumb and Me," various Kate Beaton strips, and excerpts from Richard McGuire's Here and Chris Ware's The Last Saturday -- but some of the most notable contributions are from artists with whom the guys weren't yet familiar, or are selections that might not be on most readers' "Best of" lists. As you'll hear on this episode, Derek and Andy are excited to discover the work of Taylor-Ruth Baldwin, Sophia Zdon, Lance Ward, and Char Esmé, while at the same time they are glad to see recognition of works by Joe Ollmann, John Porcellino, Keiler Roberts, and Nina Bunjevac. But every piece in this anthology is worthy of attention, as are the various titles listed in its "Notable Comics" section at the very end. With a new year on the horizon, it's always useful to look back at those comics that have helped define where we are today. And as the guys point out, the annual Best American Comics volumes are some of the gauges out there.

Time Codes: 00:01:20 - Introduction 00:03:07 - Setup of interview 00:04:13 - Interview with Bill Kartalopoulos 01:17:31 - Wrap up 01:18:53 - Contact us Andy and Derek are pleased to have back on their podcast Bill Kartalopoulos, the general editor of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Best American Comics series. He was on the show two years ago to discuss the 2014 volume of Best American Comics, that one guest-edited by Scott McCloud and Bill's first after assuming editorship. This time around the Two Guys talk with him about the latest volume guest edited by Roz Chast. They specifically ask Bill about his experiences in working with Chast, a cartoonist who brings a very different sensibility to anthology. Most of the conversation is devoted to the process of pulling together each year's volume, and Bill goes into great detail in explaining both his and his guest editors' roles. But they also discuss the specific contributions to the 2016 edition, the decision-making behind those selections, and the many discoveries Bill and Roz made along the way.

Jessica Abel is known to some for her comics/graphic novels such asLa Perdida, ArtBabe, Life Sucks, or Trish Trash. A new, teen-to-adult audience are about to know her from her coming November new release Trish Trash, Roller Girl of Mars. Still others know her for a skinny little handbook she and Ira Glass of this American Life put together in 1999 called Radio: An Illustrated GuideI only knew Jessica Abel's name as the editor of the annual Best American Comics anthologies I loved, until last spring, when, in a mix of preparation/procrastination for beginning this podcast, I was reading her hit book, Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio.The book led me to her podcast, which led me to her Creative Focus workshop, which helps artists get shit done. The workshop was six weeks long, six weeks which, coincidentally were scheduled to end exactly when I'd told myself (my fourth such deadline, the first three having failed miserably) that Episode 1 would be done and dropped! When that workshop and those six weeks were up, Episode 1 of 15 Minutes launched, and five months later, here we are at Episode 16.Jessica and I talked about fame, of course, and her books, and went deep into one of her primary missions of her work/creative life: "Helping creative people make their work, not just dream about it."Find her stuff at: http://jessicaabel.com/***Please rate review subscribe on iTunes or wherever you listen,and find us at:http://15minutuesjamieberger.comor by searching "15 minutes jamie berger" on facebookorWe’re@15minsjamiebOn twitter and instagramANDLast, and newest, any day now I’ll be up and asking you for money at patreon.comThanks! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

MariNaomi has been making memoir comics since 1997. She's the author and illustrator of the SPACE Prize-winning Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011), the Eisner-nominated Dragon's Breath and Other True Stories (2dcloud/Uncivilized Books, 2014), the newly released Turning Japanese (2dcloud, 2016) and I Thought You Hated Me (Retrofit Comics, 2016), and her self-published Estrus Comics (1998 to 2009). Her work has appeared in over sixty print publications, and has been featured on numerous websites, such as The Rumpus, The Weeklings, LA Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast, Truth-out, XOJane, Buzzfeed, PEN America and more. Mari's work on the Rumpus won a SPACE Prize and an honorable mention in Houghton Mifflin's Best American Comics 2013.

Turning Japanese (2D Cloud) In 1995, 22-year-old Mari has just exited a long-term relationship, moving from Mill Valley to San Jose, California. Soon enough she falls in love, then finds employment at an illegal hostess bar for Japanese expats, where she is determined to learn the Japanese language and culture. She hopes to finally connect with her Japanese relatives without her mother as a translator and filter. Turning Japanese is a story about otherness, culture clashes, generation gaps and youthful impetuosity. Praise for Turning Japanese “It is a tremendous blessing to read anything that comes from a skillful graphic memoirist like MariNaomi. In Turning Japanese, her unflinching honesty, open heart and hard-earned wisdom challenges us to embrace the unexpected detours that unfold in our own lives. The empty spaces in her minimalist artwork contain many wells of unspoken feelings that linger with you long after you finish reading her book.”  -- Yumi Sakugawa, author of Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe Praise for MariNaomi’s Past Work “Refreshing and poignant...” -- Publishers Weekly  “In Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories, MariNaomi weaves a crazy-quilt of despair, hope, lost loves, new beginnings, horrible regrets, hilarious memories, and above all else, survival. Her beautiful, spare line is stripped of all but the most important details in order to impart the greatest emotional impact in a given story, creating a delicate storytelling rhythm built on restraint, subtlety and total vulnerability. Her short autobiographical anecdotes create a gestalt of a person who has lived and viewed life with a curious intellect and her heart on her sleeve.” -- Rob Clough, The Comics Journal “...just how a girl does it in this day and age.” -- ELLE Magazine  “Packed with wisdom and raw experience.” -- BUST Magazine  MariNaomi is the author and illustrator of the SPACE Prize-winning graphic memoir Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22, the Eisner-nominated Dragon's Breath and Other True Stories, and her self-published Estrus Comics. Her work has appeared in over sixty print anthologies, and has been featured on such websites as The Rumpus, The Weeklings, LA Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast, Truth-out, XOJane, Buzzfeed, Bitch Media, and more. She is also the creator and curator of the Cartoonists of Color Database and the LGBTQ Cartoonists Database. Yumi Sakugawa is a comic book artist and the author of I Think I Am in Friend-Love with You. She is a regular comic contributor to The Rumpus and Wonderhowto.com, and her short comic stories “Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years” and “Seed Bomb” were selected as Notable Comics of 2012 and 2013 respectively by the Best American Comics series editors (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Her comics have also appeared in Bitch, the Best American Non­Required Reading 2014, Folio, Fjords Review, and other publications. A graduate from the fine art program of University of California, Los Angeles, she lives in southern California. Visit her on the web at www.yumisakugawa.com.

As has become an annual event, Andy and Derek use their penultimate show of the year to discuss the current volume of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's The Best American Comics. The series is overseen by Bill Kartalopoulos -- whom the guys interviewed on the show last year -- and this year's collection is edited by novelist Jonathan Lethem. The entries collected in The Best American Comics 2015 represent what both Lethem and Kartalopoulos consider to be the most outstanding comics published between September 1, 2013, and August 31, 2014. The guys begin by highlighting the organization of this year's volume, pointing out that Lethem has retained the topic- or theme-based approach used by Scott McCloud in last year's collection. The editor breaks down his entries into ten different chapter topics, ranging from the self-evident "Storytellers" and "Biopics and Historical Fictions" to more obscurely intriguing groupings such as "Brainworms" and "Raging Her-Moans." The guys are familiar with most of the contributions included this year -- to paraphrase Andy, The Best American Comics volumes just seem to reinforce their tastes in comics-- and many of them have been the subject of previous Comics Alternative reviews and interviews. They comment on the sheer number of entries that are excerpts from longer works, including Roz Chast's Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?, Jules Feiffer's Kill My Mother, Farel Dalrymple's The Wrenchies, Gabrielle Bell's The Colombia Diaries, Sept 14-16, Cole Closser's Little Tommy Lost, Matthew Thurber Infomaniacs, Anya Ulinich's Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel, Jim Woodring's Fran, Anya Davidson's School Spirits, and Josh Bayer's Theth. Most of these selections easily stand on their own, but some could have benefited from more content or additional editorial context (examples being the excerpts from Anders Nilsen's Rage of Poseidon and Joe Sacco's The Great War.) Some of the highlights in this year's volume include works by creators that either Derek or Andy have never read before, such as Mat Brinkman and his darkly surreal Cretin Keep on Creep'n Creek, or Gina Wynbrandt and her hilariously self-deprecating Someone Please Have Sex with Me. This is another must-read book for the Two Guys, but their discussion isn't without its disagreements. In good Siskel and Ebert fashion, the guys spar over the nature of the Best American Comics volumes and, specifically, over the curious “Notable Comics” list in the very back of the book. (This is a list of other significant comics published between September 1, 2013, and August 31, 2014, but not making it into the volume proper.) Derek mentions the almost complete absence in this list of any titles reflecting mainstream (in a broad sense) sensibilities -- the one exception to this is Geoff Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy from Dark Horse Comics -- and scratches his head over these choices that come with no permission or copyright obstacles. And he argues that discussing a text by what it is not can actually give a firmer grasp of what it actually is. Andy, on the other hand, is completely OK with the totally subjective approach to anthologies such as this, and he questions Derek's assumptions of the book's readership. The guys also discuss the notion that, in many ways, these selections are also political choices, especially when published by a major trade house such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. But these are the kinds of debates that should sound familiar to Comics Alternative listeners, especially when it comes to matters of awards, essential readings, and “Best of” collections. The bottom line, though, is that both Andy and Derek agree that The Best American Comics 2015 is yet another important contribution to our ever-expanding understanding of the medium. “Best” or not, these comics are definitely well worth reading.

On this episode, Derek is happy to have as his guest Sophie Goldstein. Her latest book, House of Women, Part II, came out in September, and her other book from this year, The Oven, was just listed by Publisher Weekly as one of the five best comics of the year. Indeed, 2015 has been fruitful time for the young red-headed creator. Regular listeners of the podcast will know that this isn't the first time that Sophie has been on the show. She spoke with Derek twice before at two different events, while at HeroesCon back in June and more recently at the Small Press Expo. This time, however, there isn't the hubbub and distractions of the crowd, and the two have a more focused and leisurely conversation. Derek asks Sophie about all of the attention that her work has been getting -- in addition to the Publishers Weekly selection, she's won three Ignatz Awards over the past two years, and her story "The Good Wife" was included in Best American Comics 2013 -- and if this recognition has brought any new challenges. She shares how her work has evolved since graduating from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2013 and the opportunities available for independent, free-lancing artists. But most of the conversation is devoted to Sophie's actual work, including The Oven (published by AdHouse), her recent contribution to Chris Duffy's Fable Comics (First Second), the webcomic Darwin Carmichael Is Going to Hell (coauthored with Jenn Jordan), and the first two volumes of her self-published longer narrative, House of Women. Indeed, Derek asks Sophie not only about the composition of the latter, but also about her hand-crafted books as art objects. They also discuss her contributions to a variety of anthologies and collections, including The Pitchfork Review, Maple Key Comics, Irene, Symbolia, The Nib, Dog City, and Sleep of Reason. Find out more about Sophie's work by visiting her website, Red Ink Radio!

On this episode of the interview series, Andy W. and Derek have as their guest Jessica Abel, whose latest book, Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio, was recently released by Broadway Books. In her conversation with the guys, Jessica discusses her history with narrative-based radio and how her earlier work, Radio: An Illustrated Guide (cowritten with Ira Glass), helped to open the door for her exploration of the medium. Out on the Wire is based on over three years of research and hours of interviews she conducted with the creators behind programs such as This American Life, Planet Money, Radiolab, The Moth, and Snap Judgment. The text culls the various storytelling strategies of these producers and dissects their effectiveness. This kind of expositional writing -- or "documentary comics," as Jessica calls it -- is something that the Two Guys rarely discuss, so they use this opportunity as a way into the genre. Along the way they also talk with Jessica about her podcast based on the new book, her work on Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars, her series editorship (along with her husband, Matt Madden) of the annual Best American Comics for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and her earlier books, including La Perdida, the instructional text Drawing Words and Writing Pictures (again, along with Madden), and the series Artbabe. For those interested in storytelling and the spoken word --  and not only for radio, but also as it applies to podcasting -- this interview with Jessica Abel is essential listening.

Andy and Derek are pleased to have as their guest on The Comics Alternative the artist who has done more than anyone to help us understand comics, Scott McCloud. He has just concluded an exhausting world tour -- traveling all over the United States and Europe, and then wrapping up at this year's TCAF -- and the Two Guys were able to catch him during a breather and talk with him about his latest book, The Sculptor (First Second). They begin by asking him about the reception of his new graphic novel and the kind of reader reaction he had experienced on the road. Scott shares some of the commentary he received, such as finding the book a quick read as well as questions regarding the story's ending. In fact, the guys spend a bit of time discussing the concluding section of the book -- without really spoiling anything -- and ask Scott about his thoughts on structuring his narrative. He reveals that The Sculptor was a long time in coming and that he's been thinking of the ending almost from the beginning, over five years ago. This leads Derek and Andy to observe that this is a meticulously crafted book, one that demands multiple readings in order to see the various clues and allusions that are buried throughout the text, linking the end to the beginning and revealing a solid narrative cohesion.  The guys also ask Scott to speculate on his current statue as one of comics' preeminent spokespersons. They wonder if his celebrity as "the guy who wrote Understanding Comics" has been eclipsing his reception as a fiction writer. That then becomes a springboard into a fruitful conversation about Scott's career as struggling young fan-turned-artist, the creation of Zot!, the critical reaction to his expository trilogy -- Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics -- his prescient advocacy for webcomics, his brief stint on Superman, the writing of The Sculptor, and his current project concerning visual communication. They even discuss Scott's recent work as editor on last year's Best American Comics, and how in many ways it brought him back into an awareness of current comics. Toward the end of the conversation, Scott shares his experiences as a teacher, and he even gives Andy and Derek useful strategies for using comics in the classroom. (Hint: The guys are going to fish out their copies of Shaun Tan's The Arrival.) All in all, this was an incredible interview. Derek and Andy had really wanted to have Scott on the show around the pub date of The Sculptor, but this later post-publication conversation turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Not only are they are able to talk with Scott McCloud about his latest project, but they also get all of the detail surrounding his world tour, his thoughts on the critical response to his book, and how his recent post-publication activities have impacted an already impressive career. This is an interview you cannot miss!

Yumi Sakugawa is a comic book artist and illustrator based in Southern California. A graduate of the fine art program of University of California, Los Angeles, Yumi is a regular comic contributor for The Rumpus and Wonderhowto. Her illustrations and comics have been featured on Buzzfeed, Lifehacker, PAPERMAG, Apartment Therapy and all over Tumblr. Her short comic story "Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years" was selected as Notable Comics of 2012 by the Best American Comics anthology editors. She is the author of I THINK I AM IN FRIEND-LOVE WITH YOU and YOUR ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO BECOMING ONE WITH THE UNIVERSE. Visit her on the web at www.yumisakugawa.com.

On this regular review episode of The Comics Alternative, the first of 2015, Andy and Derek discuss three very different titles. First, they look at the new graphic memoir from Nina Bunjevac, Fatherland: A Family History (Liveright). This is the story of the author's life growing up with — or growing apart from — a father who becomes a staunch Serbian nationalist. Bunjevac provides a bit of history surrounding the Balkans, and does so through sophisticated storytelling, but one of the most outstanding aspects of Fatherland is her highly detailed, almost photographic art.  The guys got a little taste of Bunjevac's work, particularly on the subject of her father, in their earlier discussion of Best American Comics of 2014. That collection included an excerpt from her previous book, Heartless, that had a similar feel. In her latest work, Bunjevac provides a more complete, and more complex, story that addresses the various facets of her father and his relationship with the family. Next the Two Guys look at two independent creators with unique offerings. They begin with Andrez Bergen's Bullet Gal (If? Commix), which has is now up to issue #8. This is a different kind of crime or noir story, a fumetti-infused narrative that mixes tried-and-true conventions of the genre with off-beat salutes to classic cinema. As Derek and Andy point out, beginning with issue #7 the story takes a leap down the narrative rabbit hole, turning a mirror onto itself and becoming very Grant Morrisonesque. There are twelve issues planned for this series, and all will be collected in a 348-page trade that will be released this spring, Bullet Gal: It's Not You, It's Me (Under Belly Comics…and a Kickstarter campaign). This is definitely something you have to check out! And the same goes with the next work the guys discuss, Daniel White's self-published 1976. This is perhaps one of the most difficult comics the guys have ever discussed on the show, primarily because most of the narrative is visually driven. Describing it on an audio-only podcast doesn't do the book justice, and you have to see the actual copy to get the complete experience. The first installment, “New Rose,” is a surreal, even psychodelic comic whose framing and action appear to owe a lot to Jack Kirby. Along with the second part — although not yet published, the artist was kind enough to provide a preliminary print-off — it's a punk rock-infused “journey” of self-discovery (maybe?) that strategically utilizes a simple color scheme. In fact, the guys recommend that you listen to White's musical allusions in this comic, The Damned and The Sex Pistols, as you experience the work.

On this episode of the podcast, the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics review The Best American Comics 2014, the latest installment in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's ambitious anthology series. This follows a previous review show published earlier in the week where the guys spoke with Bill Kartalopoulos, the new editor of the series. But whereas during the interview Derek and Andy learned about the process and backstory to the Best American Comics series, in this episode they plunge into the specifics of this year's volume and give their own takes on the comics included. They begin with a larger discussion on the concept of “best American comics,” the kind of audiences the annual collections appeal to, and the efforts of the editors in pulling together a select or representative anthology. Here, the guys return to issues they had previously highlighted in their review of The Best American Comics 2013: the predilections and experiences of guest editors, the challenges of being inclusive, as well as the viability of a “best of” anthology. This time around Andy and Derek bandy about definitions of “mainstream” and speculate on the book's intended audience. Although both feel that this is an intelligent and eclectic collection of comics (first appearing between September 1, 2012, and August 30, 2013), Derek feels that the book might appeal more to academics and the New Yorker crowd than it does to general comic shop-visiting readers. (Returning, once again, to a topic that the guys have discussed many times previously, the unintended bifurcation of comics readership.) Furthermore, he wonders what a volume guest edited by someone enmeshed in mainstream comics – and not just superhero comics – might look like…if that is indeed a direction that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt would sanction. Andy reminds Derek how inclusive this year's volume is, and that depending on your definition of “mainstream,” McCloud's includes several comics you could certainly define as “popular.” But despite these dialectics, both guys agree that this is one of the strongest collections in the series' run and that the way that McCloud has organized his presentation is compelling. In this year's volume you have selections from the grand figures of contemporary comics (e.g., R. Crumb, the Hernandez brothers, Charles Burns, Ben Katchor, and Adrian Tomine), all-age and young-adult comics, excerpts from memoir and autobiographical comics, historical works, experimenters of narrative form, abstract and avant-garde comics, and almost as a centerpiece, a selection from what McCloud christens “the book of the year,” Chris Ware's Building Stories. Webcomics are given their fair share of attention in this volume, and the guys understand McCloud's decision to highlight and list URLs instead of attempting to reproduce comics from another platform (although they're not as excited by the one webcomic that does find its way into the collection, an excerpt from Allie Brosh's “Depression Part Two”). All in all, the guys have a great time discussing the many selections in The Best American Comics 2014, and in doing so, they get all revved up for their own “best of” exercise which they will present in next week's podcast episode.

On this episode of The Comics Alternative Interviews, and in anticipation of their review show later this week, Andy and Derek are pleased to talk with the new editor of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Best American Comics series, Bill Kartalopoulos. They congratulate him on the publication of the first volume under his stewardship, guest edited by Scott McCloud, and then ask him a variety of behind-the-scenes questions. For example, Bill discusses the laborious process that goes into screening and choosing which comics to pass onto the guest editor, the challenges he and McCloud faced in compiling their selections, the unexpected finds and discoveries he makes when interacting with the comics community, the logistics of incorporating comics that appear in unconventional -- including non-print -- formats, and his attempts at balancing a "best of" volume that represents the contemporary comics scene. The guys also ask him about the process behind choosing each year's guest editor, how this volume is different from those under his immediate predecessors (Jessica Abel and Matt Madden), and if he thinks this year's selections adequately do justice to the comics-publishing mainstream. The conversation is engaging, and Bill gives Derek and Andy much to think about, and a variety of talking points, as they prepare for their own discussion of The Best American Comics 2014 later in the week. And who knows...perhaps talking with the BAC series editor will be a yearly event for the Two Guys.

On this episode of The Comics Alternative Interviews, Derek talks with Dakota McFadzean about the release of the latest issue of Irene -- co-edited with Andy Warner and DW -- as well as his own comics output. They begin by focusing on the eclectic comics and art anthology, now in its fifth issue, the genesis of the publication, and how co-editing Irene has helped define his career after having graduated from The Center for Cartoon Studies. Derek asks Dakota about the challenges of overseeing a graphic compilation and how his own work has seen similar inclusion in such anthologies as The Hic Hoc Illustrated Journal of Humor, Lies Grown-Ups Told Me, and the prestigious Best American Comics 2012. But the heart of the conversation is devoted to Dakota's own prolific output, especially his daily online strip, The Dailies, and last year's impressive collection, Other Stories and the Horse You Rode in On (Conundrum Press). Derek asks Dakota about the fantastical and even surreal quality of his stories, his penchant for childhood narratives, and the iconic prevalence of faces and masks in many of his comics (of which Dakota isn't immediately aware). Stories such as "Standing Water," "Ghost Rabbit," and "Unkindness" -- all collected in Other Stories -- are excellent introductions to Dakota's unique style, as is the more realistic narrative Hollow in the Hollows (One Percent Press) that came out earlier this year. Indeed, the latter is one of Dakota's most developed stories, and the two discuss the demands of writing more sustained and longer-form narratives as well as the artist's plans for this kind of storytelling. Dakota also talks about his upcoming book from Conundrum, Don't Get Eaten by Anything, a collection of the strips that make up The Dailies. This s definitely an artist to keep track of, and if you're not familiar with Dakota McFadzean's work, you should definitely check out The Dailies as well as has book through Conundrum Press.

Bill Kartalopoulos was on to talk about his first volume as series edit of the Best American Comics series from Houghton Mifflin books. For the first volume, he worked with renowned cartoonist, Scott McCloud in crafting a very smartly constructed anthology … Continue reading →

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe (Adams Media) Please join us as one of Skylight Books' favorite (and best-selling) artists celebrates the launch of her newest book. Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe erases the boundaries of the standard self-help book and sets you free on a visual journey of self-discovery. Inside you will find nine metaphysical lessons set against a surreal backdrop of intricate ink illustrations and dreamlike instructions that require you to open your heart to unexplored inner landscapes. From setting fire to your anxieties to sharing a cup of tea with your inner demons, you will learn how to let go and truly connect with the world around you. Whether you need a little inspiration or a completely new life direction, Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe provides you with the necessary push to find your true path—and a whimsical adventure to enjoy on the way there.  Yumi Sakugawa is a comic book artist and the author of I Think I Am in Friend-Love with You. She is a regular comic contributor to The Rumpus and Wonderhowto.com, and her short comic stories “Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years” and “Seed Bomb” were selected as Notable Comics of 2012 and 2013 respectively by the Best American Comics series editors (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Her comics have also appeared in Bitch, the Best American Non­Required Reading 2014, Folio, Fjords Review, and other publications. A graduate from the fine art program of University of California, Los Angeles, she lives in southern California. Visit her on the web atwww.yumisakugawa.com.

We almost always talk about things that we love on the podcast and usually that love is directed towards comics and lately the World Cup. This week we are still giving our love to lots of comics but we’re shaking things up a bit and sharing our Top 5 Albums, Movies and TV Shows of all-time. Ooh la la! If you feel like listening along check out our  Spotify playlist of our Favorite Albums! (Note: Spotify doesn't have The Beatles, Tool, or Pamelia Kurstin) Lightning Round books include: Empire of the Dead, Avengers, Harley Quinn, Red Sonja, Aquaman and the Others, Preacher, Flex Mentallo, Sex Criminals, Uncanny X-Men, Original Sin. Books of the Week include: Silver Surfer, Star Trek: City on the Edge of Forever, Ghosted, Hellboy in Hell, The Wicked + the Divine, The Occultist, The Strain, Best American Comics of 2013.

Fred Chao appears at the 2013 Library of Congress National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: Artist and designer Fred Chao wrote and illustrated the graphic novel "Johnny Hiro," which was nominated for four Eisner Awards and included in "The Best American Comics 2010." He has done illustrations for HarperCollins Publishers, First Second Books, Soft Skull Books and several Disney magazines. His new graphic novel is "Johnny Hiro: Half Asian, All Hero." For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6079

Benjamin Percy appears at the 2013 Library of Congress National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: Benjamin Percy is the author of two novels, "Red Moon" and "The Wilding," as well as two books of short stories, "Refresh, Refresh" and "The Language of Elk." His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Men's Journal, Outside, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House and the Paris Review. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writer's Award, the Plimpton Prize, the Pushcart Prize and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics. He is working on a novel, "The Dead Lands," forthcoming from Grand Central/Hachette in 2014. He is the writer-in-residence at St. Olaf College and teaches at the low-residency MFA program at Pacific University. For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6066

This week the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics take their annual look at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's The Best American Comics collection (including material published between September 1, 2011 and August 31, 2012), this year edited by Jeff Smith. They begin by noting that this volume is significant for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that this is the last to be overseen by series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. Andy and Derek marvel at the work the two have been doing since they began with the 2008 volume, and they wish Abel and Madden well in their future endeavors…and they look forward to seeing what the new series editor, Bill Kartalopoulos, will bring to the table. The guys highlight what they consider to be their favorite contributions to the 2013 volume, specifically commenting on the sheer number of entries that originally appeared in Dark Horse Presents. They also discuss the need for a book such as this to introduce readers to new material, the pros and cons of excerpting from longer works — Derek noted the potential pitfalls of the practice, although Andy was more accepting — how the 2013 volume differs from  previous years' collections, the kind of trends they see in this year's volume, the fact that Evan Dorkin has two different kinds of contributions in the book, the growing representation of webcomics in these yearly volumes, and the dominance of comics anthologies in Smith's collection as well as the relatively little attention this year given to serialized titles. (Were there just not that many “good” serialized comics between September 2011 and August 2012?) The Two Guys also get into a larger discussion of the very idea of publishing a “best of” anthology of this type. The “best” according to whom? Might there be certain biases involved? What's the role of editorial predilection? Who is included as part of the “best,” who is excluded, and why? They don't attempt to second guess this year's volume editor, Jeff Smith, but they do think it's important to keep these questions in mind. Well…Derek does. He had a problem with the “Best” part of the title and would feel more comfortable with a different name. Andy thought that Derek was being too critical in addressing the series name. Derek said that maybe Andy should change his name, as well. But once again, the Two Guys with PhDs hearty recommendation the annual Best American Comics collection, marvel at the gargantuan task undertaken by the editor, and thoroughly enjoy the many contributions collected between the covers!

This week Andy and Derek present the first of two special year-end, holiday season, best of episodes of The Comics Alternative.  In this week's show, the Two Guys with PhDs discuss two comics anthologies, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's The Best American Comics 2012, edited by Françoise Mouly, and Eureka Production's 19th volume in their Graphic Classics series, Christmas Classics. They begin with Mouly's collection and, while appreciating the comics included in this year's volume, speculate on the selection process and wonder about the kind of democratic inclusion that a series with “Best American Comics” in its title necessitates. The Two Guys then turn their attention to the holidays and discuss the various selections found in Christmas Classics. They point out that much like this year's Graphic Classics holiday volume, Halloween Classics, the Christmas one delivers clever and well-crafted versions of classic literature that are sure to please both comics fans and literary aficionados.

This week: Richard and Duncan talk with Anders Nilsen. Anders Nilsen was born in northern New Hampshire in 1973. He grew up splitting his time between the mountains of New England and the streets and parks of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was weaned on a steady diet of comics, stories and art, from Tintin and the X-Men to Raw, Weirdo, punk rock, zines, graffiti and regular trips to art museums. Nilsen studied painting and installation art at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, also making comics and zines mostly outside class. In 1999 he started photocopying strips from his sketchbooks, self-publishing them as Big Questions #1 and #2. That same year he moved to Chicago to do graduate work at the School of the Art Institute. In 2000 he turned an artists book he’d done in undergrad into his first properly printed book, The Ballad of the Two Headed Boy, with a grant from the Xeric Foundation. The same year he took advantage of an offset lithography class at the Art Institute to print the third issue of Big Questions, with all original material. In 2000 he dropped out of graduate school to do comics on his own. He received grants from Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs to publish the next three issues of Big Questions.Anders’ comics have been translated into a number of languages. He has exhibited his drawing and painting internationally and had his work anthologized in Kramer’s Ergot, Mome, The Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Best American Comics and Best American Non-Required Reading, as well as The Believer, the Chicago Reader and elsewhere. Other titles by Nilsen include Dogs And Water, Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow, Monologues for the Coming Plague, Monologues for Calculating the Density of Black Holes, and The End #1. Nilsen keeps a blog at themonologuist.blogspot.com where he posts occasional new work, and a website with examples of past work and various illustration he’s done at andersbrekhusnilsen.com. He currently lives with his cat in Chicago, Il.Anders Nilsen also received Ignatz Nominations for Outstanding Artist for Big Questions #7 & #8, Outstanding Series (Big Questions), and Outstanding Comic (Big Questions #7) at the 2006 Small Press Expo. Dogs and Water won an Ignatz for Outstanding Story in 2005, and his graphic memoir Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow won an Ignatz for Outstanding Graphic Novel in 2007.

Make Me a Woman (Drawn & Quarterly) Vanessa Davis will discuss and sign her new graphic novel, Make Me a Woman. "In fact, if you don't like [Vanessa Davis], you don't like anything good." —Vice "What distinguishes Davis's take is a reflective hunger for meaning and connection in the very mundane." —Bust "Vanessa Davis's autobiographical slice-of-life drawings are both totally relatable and sweetly surreal." —Bitch Vanessa Davis is the award-winning cartoonist of the graphic novel and minicomic, Spaniel Rage. Her new Drawn & Quarterly book Make Me A Woman was serialized online for Tablet Magazine and will confirm Vanessa's spot as one of the leading cartoonist and humorists of her generation. Using beautiful watercolors, refreshing honesty and humor, her comics made an immediate impression and have appeared in such anthologies as Kramers Ergot, Best American Comics, Stuck in the Middle, Papercutter and An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 13, 2010.

Gary Groth,Jeet Heer and Ben Schwartz joined me for a lively roundtable discussion on The Best American Comics Criticism collection out from Fantagraphics. It’s great discussion and I wish we had way more time. It gets very lively.

In a rare episode with an honest-to-goodness direction, we wonder aloud which works we would present to that rare beast, the first-time comic book reader (incorporating Wolverine: Enemy of the State and Old Man Logan, Planet Hulk, Frank Miller's Ronin and Sin City, Secret Wars, New Frontier, Marvels, Cuba: My Revolution, Watchmen, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Mark Millar and Ultimates, The Authority, 28 Days Later, Buffy Season 8, John Byrne's Star Trek, Hack/Slash, Joker, The Mask, Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Asterios Polyp, Three Story, Jeffrey Brown, Locke and Key, The Stand and The Dark Tower, Parker, American Splendor, 30 Days of Night, Ashley Wood and Metal Gear Solid, and more)! Plus, we have enough time left over to talk up The Best American Comics of the Year, Not Brand Echh #3 and Jack Kirby, Marie Severin, recent news concerning Wildstorm and Zuda, Parker and Hardman's Hulk #25, NYCC, Wild Pig, The Stuff of Legend, Alpha Flight, Hulk #181, Desert Island's Smoke Signal #6, and even more! Weep not for the goat, for he has served the dark master well...

Best American Comics Criticism (Fantagraphics) Ben Schwartz, editor of the new anthology Best American Comics Criticism, will discuss comics and comics criticism with Kramers Ergot editor Sammy Harkham, graphic novelist Joe Matt (Spent), and comics critics Robert Fiore and Brian Doherty Ben Schwartz lives in Los Angeles. Besides editing The Best American Comics Criticism for Fantagraphics, he works as a journalist and screenwriter and is currently writing The Lost Laugh, a history of American humor set between the two world wars.  He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Suck.com, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic on-line.  The screenplays he has sold collect dust on A-list shelves all over town. Sammy Harkham is an Award winning cartoonist behind Crickets (Drawn & Quarterly) and the editor of Kramers Ergot. His work has been published in Vice, Arthur, numerous Best American Comics volumes, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Recently, he guest edited the annual Holloween comic, The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror. He lives in Los Angeles. Robert Fiore writes the long-running column Funnybook Roulette for The Comics Journal.  At Fantagraphics Books he edited a number of anthologies of underground cartoonists such as Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Spain Rodriguez and Vaughn Bode. Brian Doherty is a senior editor at Reason magazine, author of the books This is Burning Man and Radicals for Capitalism, and a lifelong Friend of Comics. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MAY 27, 2010.

Duncan and Terri talk to Anne Elizabeth Moore about her book Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity and related topics. For years the do-it-yourself (DIY)/punk underground has worked against the logic of mass production and creative uniformity, disseminating radical ideas and directly making and trading goods and services. But what happens when the underground becomes just another market? What happens when the very tools that the artists and activists have used to build word of mouth are coopted by corporate America? What happens to cultural resistance when it becomes just another marketing platform? Unmarketable examines the corrosive effects of corporate infiltration of the underground. Activist and author Anne Elizabeth Moore takes a critical look at the savvy advertising agencies, corporate marketing teams, and branding experts who use DIY techniques to reach a youth market—and at members of the underground who have helped forward corporate agendas through their own artistic, and occasionally activist, projects. Covering everything from Adbusters to Tylenol’s indie-star-studded Ouch! campaign, Unmarketable is a lively, funny, and much-needed look at what’s happening to the underground and what it means for activism, commerce, and integrity in a world dominated by corporations. Anne Elizabeth Moore is the co-editor of Punk Planet, the Best American Comics series editor, and the author of Hey Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People. She has written for Bitch, the Chicago Reader, In These Times, The Onion, The Progressive, and Chicago Public Radio WBEZ’s radio program 848. She lives in Chicago. I will mail 5 bucks to the first person who can identify the name of the artist and title of the song used to close the show, it has bothered me for years that I don’t know who it is.