Ed Brubaker was the last interview during our time in LA. He’s probably the perfect person to end our time in Los Angeles with. From his early days in alternative comics to current mainstream acclaim, Ed is in continuing to make personal work that speaks to his strengths as a writer. He just finished his Fatale series with collaborative Sean Phillips, with new work continuously on the way.
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at LifeSpan Society.
Our LA journey brought us to the home of one of the most Memorable characters in comics. There’s not much for me to say about Rob Liefeld that you probably don’t already know. He was an artist at Marvel for his early career, creating characters such as Cable and Deadpool and the poly-bagged X-Force #1. Left Marvel to cofound Image Comics. Created Youngblood and a whole bunch more there, including Prophet(which Brandon and roadtrip buddy, Simon Roy, are both current creators on).
Rob was a very welcoming host, chatting with us for several hours about the highs and lows of comics. It was probably the most energetic part of the LA roadtrip, thanks to Rob’s infectious loves of pictures and words on paper.
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Here is the defining event of the LA trip. As promised in our Kickstarter, we would record a live Inkstuds with some great guests at the excellent Nerdmelt space at Meltown Comics. Brandon and I were joined by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jaime Hernandez, Tom Herpich and Pendleton Ward. It was a weird and interesting conversation that somehow devolved into some odd directions. I am a huge fan of all four of our guests and was really happy to be able to shoot the shit with them. It was a big personal highlight for me.
The image above was drawn during the recording. A viewer in the front row ripped out a page from his notebook for them to draw this.
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at Robots From Tomorrow.
Toronto cartoonist, Georgia Webber stopped by my office during her west coast tour, to sit down for an interview. Georgia’s series, Dumb, is a fascinating work documenting her life, navigating through a severe vocal injury.
Georgia will be in Portland doing a silent comics event at Floating World on July 30th, and events at Fantagraphics in Seattle on August 6th and Luckys in Vancouver on August 8th. Be sure to check her out if you are in any of those towns.
As mentioned in the previous report, the first 2 days of driving left us pretty exhausted. I dont have any photo’s from the first morning in San Francisco, since Brandon and I just ended up napping instead of getting more reading done. I had a case of books with me that we read throughout the trip to prepare for interviews. But the tour still continues! Here is part 2, chronically the excitement. Continue reading
Bryan Lee O’Malley joins me and co-host, Brandon Graham for a talk about his excellent new book, Seconds. Bryan is probably most known for his Scott Pilgrim series of comics. This is his first release after finishing off that series, taking his work in an excited new direction.
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at Robots From Tomorrow.
One of the things on the trip that stuck out for me and Brandon, was almost everyone shared a key influence on the work they made. Jaime Hernandez has had an immeasurable influence on comics creators. His work in Love and Rockets continues to make waves for it’s depth in characters and storytelling. His latest collection, Love Bunglers has received an immense amount of critical praise, all very much deserved.
This is my third time talking to Jaime, and also probably my favorite interview I have done with him. This was also Brandon’s first time meeting Jaime, and he was very very excited. I don’t know if it shows in the interview, but we were very happy to have this opportunity. Thanks Jaime for coming to downtown LA and spending the afternoon with us.
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at Robots From Tomorrow.
Swiss cartoonist, Frederik Peeters joined me to talk about his work, including new book, Aama, the first in a series. There is a fair amount of wide ranging work of Peeters available in English. The story of his the beginnings of his relationship with his ladyfriend, Blue Pills has gotten a lot of acclaim on this side of the ocean, but his work is diverse, it’s only one side of what he has out there. His other work available in English, includes solo work Pachyderme, collaborative works, Sandcastle and Koma. I am a big fan of his work and happy to have had a chance to discuss it with him.
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at Robots From Tomorrow.
Brandon and I were very excited to chat with Steve Wolfhard. Steve is a former Vancouverite that has since moved to Los Angeles to become a storyboarder on Adventure Time. Together with his writing partner Tom Herpich, they create some of the most amazing thoughtful introspective and odd shows I have ever seen on tv. Whenever a new episode by them is on, it’s an immediate watch in my house.
Steve’s comic work in Cat Rackham is very much loved and excellent. During the interview, Steve mentions losing the files for the comics, but thanks to his wife, Leslie, his site is back up with of his lost comics work!
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at Robots From Tomorrow.
Final Incal artist, Ladrönn, joined me and guest co-host, Joe Keatinge for a chat about his work in comics. Ladrönn’s run on the marvel series, Cable along with writer Joe Casey, is a cult favorite among me and many friends. It brings in a unique Kirby styling, working against the flavor of the week of most mainstream comics works. You can also find his work in the first 3 issues of the very BD influenced Inhumans mini series from 2000.
On top of finishing the Jodorowsky’s Incal series, Ladrönn is currently working on conceptual work with Jodorowsky for the Son of El Topo.
This episode is brought to you by the fine folks at Robots From Tomorrow.
