Jillian Tamaki was one of the first people on our East Coast roadtrip list and was also our first interview on the trip. We met up with Jillian the Saturday morning of SPX. Her latest book is This One Summer, written by her cousin, Mariko Tamaki. Her other upcoming work includes the SuperMutant Magic Academy and a wide range of amazing illustration work.
This Inkstuds was sponsored by Stuff Said.
Disclosure, this inkstuds maybe a little self serving, because it promotes the work of Brandon Graham and friends while Brandon has also been my cohost on the Inkstuds Roadtrip.
I’m a big fan of the work that Brandon, Simon Roy, Giannis Milogiannis, Farel Dalrymple and Joseph Bergin III have done on the Prophet comic. It’s a great series pushing some great story telling ideas in a forward looking style. I’m a big fan of what they are doing and happy to talk about it. On top of being a great cohost, Brandon Graham is doing some of the most exciting comics right now, so it’s always good to have a guy like that on the other side of the mic too.
This Inkstuds was sponsored by Stuff Said.
With the end of our brief visit to Portland, we bring you Lin Visel. Lin’s work can be found on the porn comic site Slipshine, as well as her own Chipperwhale Tumblr, Lin’s comics are fun and full of sexy life.
Portland cartoonist and community organizer Sean Christensen joined us for a chat about his work and much more. Sean’s project, Gridlords is very progressive way at presenting comics in unorthodox events. There is a lot of positive reviews and affection for the Gridlords and Sean and co-organizer, Emily Nilsson are doing some good important work.
Sean’s comics work is extremely enjoyable to read, he is doing some great formalist work that continues to evolve in great ways. You can get his minis and art here and Gridlords publications here.
Our time in Portland brought about our longest roadtrip interview yet. Bob Schreck has been a key figure behind the scenes in comics for the last 30+ years. From his early days at Comico, to Dark Horse comics, co-founding Oni Press, his impressive time at DC and now as the chief dude at Legendary, Bob has been involved in bringing forward work by some of the biggest creators in comics.
It’s hard to overstate the impact that Bob has had on mainstream comics. Getting the chance to chat with Bob was both exciting and illuminating.
John Martz joined me to discuss his new kids book from Koyama Press, A Cat Named Tim. John’s illustrated work is really wonderful, filled with a great personality. John was also the founder of the very popular and much missed Drawn blog. He has recently returned to blogging again with his Research and Development tumblr. John will be debuting the book at SPX this weekend and an event at Little Island kids comic store in Toronto in October.
Roman Muradov joined me to talk about his new book from Nobrow, (In A Sense) Lost & Found. I find Roman’s work to be very exciting to read. He is doing some really interesting complex work contained in an extremely visually pleasing art style. His other work includes Picnic Ruined from Retrofit and his self-published Yellow Zine series.
Roman will be debuting his lastest book at Mission comics on September 6th and at SPX in Bethesda, Maryland September 13th and 14th.
This roadtrip interview serves as a nice companion piece to last weeks. After a spectacular lunch, we caught up with Matt Fraction. Matt’s latest work is the wonderful Sex Criminals with graphic artist Chip Zdarsky. His other ongoing series include Satellite Sam with Howard Chaykin, the just announced ODY-C with artist Christian Ward and Casanova with Brazilian wonder twins, Ba and Moon.
Matt is one of the more fascinating writers in mainstream comics right now, creating very personal work that is well worth spending some time with.
Like the previous interview, Kelly Sue DeConnick joins in as well.
Brandon and I threw in an extra stop on our epic roadtrips. We made a short jaunt down to portland for a Weekend. Our first interview while there was with writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick. Kelly’s work includes Captain Marvel, which has spawned off the amazing Carol Corps fan community as well as leading Dark Horse’s Prometheus based story projects.
You should definitely check out her collaboration with Emma Rios in Pretty Deadly. I really liked it and am excited to see where it goes in future volumes. Her other Image series, Bitch Planet, will be coming out in the winter.
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at LifeSpan Society.
Our last interview on the first leg of the roadtrip was a special one for me. I have been a fan of JH Williams III since I was a young man working in a comic store. It’s been really exciting to see how is work has grown. Not just visually, but as a writer, JH has crafted some really heartfelt work that shows amazing understanding and nuances that may not be as easily found in contemporaneous mainstream work. I highly recommend reading his writing for the great illustrator Seth Fisher in Batman: Snow.
JH and his wife Wendy were wonderful hosts for a carload of tired travelers, providing Brandon with coffee and me with a bottle of mexican coke. I really wish we could of spent more time with them, but the road was calling and we needed to make our way back up to Canada. Wendy joined us in the interview as well, which I really appreciated. She has an amazing insight into his work and process, that only a partner can.
You can find his most recent work in the pages of Sandman Overture and the Tales of the Batman collection of all of his Batman related work. I am personally looking forward to seeing what he writes next, as his amazing skills as an artist over-shine his exceptional writing.
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at LifeSpan Society.
