Comics as we know it is wide and fractured. There’s Direct Market comics, bookstore comics, webcomics, indie comics, manga, Eurocomics, and several more subcultures. I’m curious about what working under the broad umbrella of “comics” is like for creators, publishers, critics, academics, and more. Over the course of this month, I’m going to interview several people whose work, position, or goals I find interesting and attempt to paint a picture of what “comics” means today. I’m speaking to Spike Trotman, cartoonist and publisher, about making money in comics.

For the month of February, I’m taking over the Inkstuds podcast in order to introduce Inkstuds Spotlight, a focused look at what it means to be in comics. A comprehensive look isn’t my goal. My goal is to show you several different slices of life in comics, as the people I’m interviewing this month play a wide variety of roles in comics.

A bit of context before we begin: Inkstuds is a comics podcast founded and hosted by Robin McConnell. It’s focused largely on indie and underground cartoonists, and now that it’s 500 episodes deep, exists as a great resource for finding out not just more about comics, but about the lives of cartoonists. ComicsAlliance is one of the most important news outlets in comics. I’m biased, having written for CA for a few years, but the staff has a voice and variety of interests that still can’t be matched. With their powers combined, I’m hoping we can reach a wide slice of the comics readership.

Today, I’m talking to Spike Trotman, creator of the webcomic Templar, AZ, mastermind of Iron Circus Comics, and skilled fundraiser. The ways a cartoonist can raise money have shifted greatly as the landscape of comics has changed. Trotman has been particularly successful in this area, and has used the foundation early successful fundraisers supplied to help produce a range of comics. I spoke to Trotman about her experience fund raising and working as a cartoonist.

Inkstuds Spotlight - Spike Trotman & Money in Comics [ 36:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

0:00: Trotman discusses how she came to reading comics, newspaper strips, Gary Larsen’s The Far Side, having a “very narrow” interest in Marvel Comics’ Excalibur, getting back into comics her freshman year of college thanks to Evan Dorkin’s Milk & Cheese, Wreckers (the first comic she put out for public consumption), Webcomics Nation, and monetizing the internet.
10:00: Choosing to go with the popular comic that wasn’t paying her anything instead of two comics on a pay site, making her first book, thermometer graphics, asking for money, “he who hesitates is lost,” Iron Circus Comics-as-publisher, Smut Peddler was incredibly popular, “a life-changing amount of money,” paying a page rate, Poorcraft 2: Wish You Were Here, Ryan Estrada is writing it, Diana Nock is drawing it, how she got started publishing other cartoonists, filling a niche or two, missing Taboo, supplying business savvy, and some good advice: “Don’t let people convince you they’re doing you a favor by employing you.”
20:00: Iron Circus Comics breaks a lot of rules and conventional wisdom, anthologies in comics, learning the logistics of making comics, being done living with books, Kickstarter buying the foundation to build other types of projects, Smut Peddler as a final exam for all she’s learned in comics, giving advice to help others, her sorta-24-hour comic This Is Everything I Know, the changing sources of money in comics and how that affects giving advice, the more timeless advice of Poorcraft, her community growing up in comics, and growing up in the woods.
30:00: On the teenaged idea of not being good until you turn 21, imagining what it was like to work as an animator, going to Criminal Records in college, James Kochalka’s Monica’s Story, Jeff Smith’s Bone, hanging out with friends post-midnight, staying productive, and the danger of Youtube/Tumblr/etc.

Recommended Reading:
–This Is Everything I Know
–Spike’s Kickstarter Advice.
–Criminal Records
–Trotman in conversation with Alex Dueben of Comic Book Resources
–Evan Dorkin’s Milk & Cheese
–Smut Peddler on ComiXology

Spike Trotman:
–Twitter
–Tumblr
–Templar, AZ
–Iron Circus Comics

Comics as we know it is wide and fractured. There’s Direct Market comics, bookstore comics, webcomics, indie comics, manga, Eurocomics, and several more subcultures. I’m curious about what working under the broad umbrella of “comics” is like for creators, publishers, critics, academics, and more. Over the course of this month, I’m going to interview several people whose work, position, or goals I find interesting and attempt to paint a picture of what “comics” means today.

For the month of February, I’m taking over the Inkstuds podcast in order to introduce Inkstuds Spotlight, a focused look at what it means to be in comics. A comprehensive look isn’t my goal. My goal is to show you several different slices of life in comics, as the people I’m interviewing this month play a wide variety of roles in comics.

A bit of context before we begin: Inkstuds is a comics podcast founded and hosted by Robin McConnell. It’s focused largely on indie and underground cartoonists, and now that it’s 500 episodes deep, exists as a great resource for finding out not just more about comics, but about the lives of cartoonists. ComicsAlliance is one of the most important news outlets in comics. I’m biased, having written for CA for a few years, but the staff has a voice and variety of interests that still can’t be matched. With both sites broadcasting Inkstuds Spotlight, I’m hoping we can reach a wide slice of the comics readership.

Today, I’m talking to Darryl Ayo, cartoonist and critic. He creates the comic Little Garden, has a deep interest in the comic strip format, is a prolific Twitterer, and provides comics criticism as well. Cartoonist/critics face an interesting dilemma, in that they risk alienating peers while offering evaluations of work, and I thought talking to Ayo about that, in addition to the nitty-gritty of creating comics, would make for a good conversation. Ayo more than rose to the occasion. Pardon the slightly muddy audio quality—the conversation is worth bearing with it, I think.

Inkstuds Spotlight: Darryl Ayo & Being A Creator/Critic [ 42:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

0:00: Ayo discusses how he got started in comics, creating characters as a young child, examining those ideas as an adult, being into adjectiveless X-Men and X-Force, how making comics can feel pointless, how drawing comics is calming, how drawing compares to the other parts of making comics, the pacing of newspaper comics versus the pacing of the comic book, and the muddiness of critiquing comics while working in comics himself.
10:00: Being a creator/critic changes both roles and makes them hard to distinguish, why he was never not discussing comics, the inextricable link between comics and talking really excitedly about them, hanging out with other cartoonists, not having the Who Would Win In A Fight conversations, attending art school, shifting from formal criticism to informal writing on Tumblr, choosing his battles when it comes to reviews, and seeing people he’s reviewed at cons.
20:00: Comics is small and high school is large and easy in comparison, getting familiar with different types of comics, absorbing enthusiasm from others, reading and figuring out where Inaki Miranda & Caitlin Kittredge’s Coffin Hill sits in his personal taste, the indie and minicomics he focuses on, and why it would feel treacherous to misrepresent his interests.
30:00: Not hiding his love of the X-Men or anything at all, why talking about diversity in comics is more or less down to pure self-interest, the necessity of being race conscious, letting things slide because he knows he needs a home run, being interested in being right versus making a difference, not wanting to become the race guy, not wanting to seem like a nitpicker because it wears down everyone involved, and introducing new ideas to people.
40:00: Change coming from within and being inspired from without, discussing things in the abstract, and where to find him online: littlegardencomics.com, HoneyBeeRevengeParty.tumblr.com, and darrylayo.tumblr.com.

Recommended Links:
–Darryl Ayo on Benjamin Marra’s Lincoln Washington
–Darryl Ayo on Sam Alden’s Backyard
–A well-curated list of artcomics creators by Ayo

Darryl Ayo:
–Twitter
–Little Garden Comics
–Honey Bee Revenge Party tumblr
–Darryl Ayo on tumblr
–Comix Cube

Comics as we know it is wide and fractured. There’s Direct Market comics, bookstore comics, webcomics, indie comics, manga, Eurocomics, and several more subcultures. I’m curious about what working under the broad umbrella of “comics” is like for creators, publishers, critics, academics, and more. Over the course of this month, I’m going to interview several people whose work, position, or goals I find interesting and attempt to paint a picture of what “comics” means today.

For the month of February, I’m taking over the Inkstuds podcast in order to introduce Inkstuds Spotlight, a focused look at what it means to be in comics. A comprehensive look isn’t my goal. My goal is to show you several different slices of life in comics, as the people I’m interviewing this month play a wide variety of roles in comics.

A bit of context before we begin: Inkstuds is a comics podcast founded and hosted by Robin McConnell. It’s focused largely on indie and underground cartoonists, and now that it’s 500 episodes deep, exists as a great resource for finding out not just more about comics, but about the lives of cartoonists. ComicsAlliance is one of the most important news outlets in comics. I’m biased, having written for CA for a few years, but the staff has a voice and variety of interests that still can’t be matched. With both sites broadcasting Inkstuds Spotlight, I’m hoping we can reach a wide slice of the comics readership.

Today, I’m talking to Whit Taylor, creator of Watermelon …and things that make me uncomfortable as a black person, Madtown High, and Stethoscope Microphone. Taylor creates indie comics and sells them at cons like SPX in addition to working a day job. Taylor’s work caught my eye with Watermelon, and I was pleased to see that the combination of genuine emotion, comic timing, and clever storytelling that she displayed in that book reflects through her other work, as well. I spoke to Taylor about creating comics, working conventions, interviewing, and her storytelling techniques. Between our conversation and today, Sparkplug Books announced that it will be publishing her comic The Anthropologists this summer, and she is currently editing an anthology with a working title of Subcultures for Ninth Art Press. On top of that, Taylor has an essay on comics and music coming in Leah Wishnia’s Happiness #4, due this March.

Inkstuds Spotlight - Whit Taylor & Creating Comics [ 31:58 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

0:00: Taylor discusses when she started reading comics, hating reading as a kid, reading X-Men and Generation X, enjoying the work of Jeffrey Brown & Craig Thompson, I point out how her work seems like stand-up comedy in a way particularly apparent in this OKCupid strip, her creative process, her book Watermelon and addressing sensitive subjects, whether certain aspects of her work are autobiographical in nature, preferring short works to long-form work, her high school memoir Madtown High, being a nerd in high school, and the origin of Stethoscope Microphone.
10:00: Working in color with Copic markers, finishing Madtown High and wanting to do something fun and no pressure, doing reviews and interviews at Panel Patter, reaching out to noted comics reviewer Rob Clough for guidance, using her social science work while reviewing books, Brené Brown’s TED Talk on shame, studying up to talk about art, working alone on her comics, having cartoonist friends, playing instruments, working at least four conventions a year, and SPX.
20:00: Not being a natural salesperson, being up for an Ignatz for Madtown High, the fun she’s had at the convention MICE, using Jessica Abel’s old website to figure out how to make minicomics, whether she wants making comics to be a full-time career, being prolific, being a quick artist and needing to slow down, the first comics she made, Harvey Pekar seeing her earliest work, on not hating her older work, doing ten minicomics that most people have never seen, Domino Books distributing Onesies for a time, doing interviews with people like MariNaomi and Matt Moses, and disclosure versus reality in autobio work.
30:00: Doing down-to-Earth stories, working in sci-fi or fantasy in the future, her website and store are located at whimsicalnobodycomics.com, and putting comics on tumblr at whimsicalnobodycomics.tumblr.com.

Recommended Links:
–Brené Brown on The Power of Vulnerability
–Sparkplug is publishing Taylor’s The Anthropologists
–Panel Patter
–Winter Break Comics # 9: OkStupid

Whit Taylor:
–Twitter
–The Whimsical Nobody Comics store
–Whimsical Nobody Comics
– Posted in Inkstuds Spotlight, Interview | Leave a comment

Comics as we know it is wide and fractured. There’s Direct Market comics, bookstore comics, webcomics, indie comics, manga, Eurocomics, and several more subcultures. I’m curious about what working under the broad umbrella of “comics” is like for creators, publishers, critics, academics, and more. Over the course of this month, I’m going to interview several people whose work, position, or goals I find interesting and attempt to paint a picture of what “comics” means today.

For the month of February, I’m taking over the Inkstuds podcast in order to introduce Inkstuds Spotlight, a focused look at what it means to be in comics. A comprehensive look isn’t my goal. My goal is to show you several different slices of life in comics, as the people I’m interviewing this month play a wide variety of roles in comics.

A bit of context before we begin: Inkstuds is a comics podcast founded and hosted by Robin McConnell. It’s focused largely on indie and underground cartoonists, and now that it’s 500 episodes deep, exists as a great resource for finding out not just more about comics, but about the lives of cartoonists. ComicsAlliance is one of the most important news outlets in comics. I’m biased, having written for CA for a few years, but the staff has a voice and variety of interests that still can’t be matched. With their powers combined, I’m hoping we can reach a wide slice of the comics readership.

Today, I’m talking to Qiana Whitted, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, academic, and contributor to The Hooded Utilitarian. Professor Whitted has spent quite some time writing about representations of race in popular culture and examining the history of comics, having authored or edited several books, articles, and presentations on the subject. Comics being a part of a college curriculum or being examined in scholarly journals are increasingly common occurrences as the profile of comics rises, but the valuable insights that often come from these places has a hard time reaching the general public. I spoke with Professor Whitted about comics history, little-discussed aspects of Fredric Wertham’s life, studying comics, and placing comics into a greater context.

Inkstuds Spotlight - Qiana Whitted [ 40:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

0:00: Whitted discusses her history with comics, teaching comics to a college class, the various obligations she faces when discussing works, the story of the EC Comic Judgment Day, the long history of black readership, and Fredric Wertham interviewing poor black children in Harlem for research purposes.
10:00: Getting an opportunity to look at Wertham’s research, Wertham opening the LaFargue clinic in Harlem to service and examine young black children, focusing on race & ’50s comics, researching the comics Richard Wright occasionally talked about as a way of examining black readership, the formation of All-Negro Comics in 1947 by Orrin C. Evans, working on blog posts that are relevant to her book-in-progress, and being a panelist.
20:00: Working at Hooded Utilitarian, Brian Cremins, her co-editor on Comics in the South Brannon Costello, having a community of professors to work alongside and discuss projects with, the tenor of the conversation around race and comics, fans agitating for change in comics over the years, her personal reading habits, a brief digression about Deputy Mayor Dave Wylie from Brian K Vaughan & Tony Harris’s Ex Machina, and the Black Panther stories written by Christopher Priest.
30:00: Adilifu Nama’s Super Black and his research into progressive and complex images of african-american superheroes, the caveats you must include when talking about black comics history, the way she approaches teaching comics versus teaching anything else, the various works Whitted has enjoyed teaching in the past, convincing students of the value of comics, the collection of essays in Comics in the South and the vast spectrum they covered, contextualizing the follies of a black Bucky in ’80s Marvel comics, trying to be more accessible in her writing, asking questions that are interesting, people liking to see arguing online, and letting your moment pass.

Recommended Reading:
–Fredric Wertham on Wikipedia
–Brannon Costello on a variety of Black Panther comics
–Tom Spurgeon in conversation with Brian Cremins
–Black Comics: Politics of Race & Representation, edited by Sheena C. Howard & Ronald L. Jackson II
–Multicultural Comics, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama
–Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans, by Jeffrey A. Brown

Qiana Whitted:
–Twitter
–QianaWhitted.com
–Her posts on the PencilPanelPage blog at The Hooded Utilitarian
–Comics and the U.S. South, edited by Qiana Whitted and Brannon Costello, from University Press of Mississippi

Comics as we know it is wide and fractured. There’s Direct Market comics, bookstore comics, webcomics, indie comics, manga, Eurocomics, and several more subcultures. I’m curious about what working under the broad umbrella of “comics” is like for creators, publishers, critics, academics, and more. Over the course of this month, I’m going to interview several people whose work, position, or goals I find interesting and attempt to paint a picture of what “comics” means today. Today, I’m talking to Jimmie Robinson, creator of Bomb Queen and Five Weapons, on what it means to survive in comics.

For the month of February, I’m taking over the Inkstuds podcast in order to introduce Inkstuds Spotlight, a focused look at what it means to be in comics. A comprehensive look isn’t my goal. My goal is to show you several different slices of life in comics, as the people I’m interviewing this month play a wide variety of roles in comics.

A bit of context before we begin: Inkstuds is a comics podcast founded and hosted by Robin McConnell. It’s focused largely on indie and underground cartoonists, and now that it’s 500 episodes deep, exists as a great resource for finding out not just more about comics, but about the lives of cartoonists. ComicsAlliance is one of the most important news outlets in comics. I’m biased, having written for CA for a few years, but the staff has a voice and variety of interests that still can’t be matched. With both sites broadcasting Inkstuds Spotlight, I’m hoping we can reach a wide slice of the comics readership.

Today, I’m talking to Jimmie Robinson. Jimmie is currently writing and drawing Five Weapons, published by Shadowline/Image Comics (my employer, as well). Prior to that, he created Bomb Queen, Avigon, and T. Runt! with writer Derek McCulloch. Robinson is celebrating twenty years in comics this year, having begun self-publishing in 1994 before working with a publisher for his later works. Twenty is a milestone number in any industry, and surviving twenty years in comics is no easy feat. But Robinson has done it, and has created a diverse body of work at the same time.

Inkstuds Spotlight 01 - Jimmie Robinson and Surviving In Comics [ 45:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Show Notes:
0:00: How Robinson came to comics, drawing his idea of what comics were before reading them, association with local artists, being self-conscious about his style, and the diversity of his work.
10:00: The origin of Five Weapons and its relationship with Bomb Queen, the story of Prince Five-Weapons, working conventions, inspiring other people to do the work, how it’s harder to stay in comics than to break into comics, and staying viable in comics.
20:00: Robinson is one of the rare creators who takes part in comments sections on blogs and discusses why, this infamous piece for Comic Book Resources, playing devil’s advocate and seeking balance, putting thought into seeing things from two sides, creating work to fill a needed niche, and the necessity of giving readers space to interpret the story on their own.
30:00: What it feels like now that he’s been in comics for 20 years, feeling like he hasn’t made a significant impact, being interviewed by Publishers Weekly and denying being an icon, canceling his Grey’s Anatomy-style comic Code Blue, working with Shadowline, falling off the Top 300 and how that felt, working mostly in finite series instead of continual ongoings, and Jim Valentino’s non-line.
40:00: working character-driven instead of plot-driven, what he’s working on currently, where to find him online, doing work with a museum in Norway, and the difficulty involved in portraying two sides of a conflict honestly.

Recommended Links:
–Wikipedia
–ComicBookDB
–Preview/Review of Five Weapons #1
–Preview of Five Weapons #2
–Preview of Five Weapons #6
–Preliminary interview on Five Weapons
–Interview with Tim O’Shea
–Interview with Steve Morris

Jimmie Robinson:
–JimmyKitty.com
–Twitter
–Tumblr