Inkstuds Radio

Day 8 – By the end of this day, I will have met most of my artistic heroes. The day started out with a lot of standing and waiting. Sparkplug tabler, Virginia Paine was also staying with Shannon, and i helped her with bring boxes from post office to the venue. American post office’s are kind of insane. Ok, not kind of, are insane. There was a ridiculous line up with only one person working. My favorite part was the very impatient lady in line, and her continuous commentary of what was going on at the wicket. “Oh hell nah, they aren’t going to weigh all those envelopes!”. Virginia and I rushed to the venue by way of one of those fancy town-cars.

© Philippe Jarry and Desert Island

We got there with lots of time to spare for set up. I was manning the table for my publisher Conundrum books. The books had been sent to a friend of my publisher’s in Queens, so all I had to do at that point, was sit and wait for the boxes to show up. My guy ended up being a little later than planned, so I had some time to bum around and check out what some of the folks had catch up with some friends. This report will be less linear, more capturing the madness of the day. The day itself was 9 hours of madness.

© Desert Island

My table was surrounded by Lizz Hickey on one side, and Sally Bloodbath and Kate Beaton on the other side. I felt like I was in some pretty good company. Next to Kate was Doug Allen, Gary Leib and one of my favorite cartoonists of all time, Charles Burns. I hit up Charles pretty quickly for a sketch when the day started. I regret not talking to Doug and Gary. They are both guys that I would like to talk to at some point in the future.

Since my publisher was unable to make it down to the festival, I enlisted the help of Zack Soto in exchange for giving him some space at the end. Having Zack was great. He is a super charismatic guy that folks are just drawn to talking to. He also seems to know everybody. I took this photo of him, talking to Vanessa Davis, Sam Gaskin and Brian Chippendale, just to show you what kind of show it was that day. Every corner you turned, there was an amazing cartoonist to talk to.

I had Johnny Ryan and Lisa Hanawalt running the Pigeon Press table behind with Julia Wertz and Ben Catmull next to them on one side and Domitille Collardey on the other side. I had enough time to be able to get Johnny’ s latest book of madness off of him but totally forgot to check out Domitille’s books, and was kicking myself for it later.

Across the aisle from me, was the Closed Caption Comics crew. I had met Zach Hazard Vaupen the night before at the Nazi Knife art show. They seem to have some great releases. Zach gave me a copy of his latest Hatred for a Human Host.

An early highlight of the day was looking up and seeing these guys standing there.

I grew up on the Simpsons and Life in Hell, so needless to say, I was super-excited to see Matt Groening in front of me. I thrusted a disc of Inkstuds interviews into his hand and gave one to Gary Panter as well. Gary was really nice to finally meet. Interviewing him, has not only been personal highlight for the show, but I also feel like it is one of my strongest and a point when I feel I really understood what I want to do with the show. Gary’s comment at the end of the interview, was surprise that I knew so much about him. Gary is like the spiritual father of the Brooklyn Comics Fest. You can feel his legacy in so much work represented there. Gary was nice enough to come behind the table and do this great sketch for me. Gary, like many more people I would be talking to that day, is in the Inkstuds book.

It was the type of day, where you would be talking to Jillian Tamaki, and suddenly Jessica Abel and Matt Madden appear to chat comics too. Sorry for the bluriness.

Matt is set to be on the show again at some point soon, so we can discuss the work of French artist, Aristophane. Jillian did an amazing sketch in the book. It seems to be along the lines of her work that has been printed in her DQ book, Indoor Voice. I really love the direction of her personal work right now. I think of her work, as coming from an artist that is technically killing it, and really getting more and more in touch with something unique as time goes on.

The worst moment of the day, had to be a visit by this guy. He calls himself Captain Zorikh, the Brooklyn Cowboy. He did a quick 3 minute interview with me, that I am sure will never surface, but count your blessings if it is. He seemed to grate on my nerves very quickly, and I made that known during the interview, by selling comics to folks, while he was asking me some pretty asinine questions. In his bio, he describes himself as an amateur grappler. What does that mean? Does that put him on some offenders list?

Michel Fiffe is a guy that I have been emailing with back and forth for the last couple of years. He even did mix for site. I really like him, and wish we could chat for more than, “Hey, good to meet you”.

CiTR alum and former station president, Becky Sandler stopped by the festival. It’s always nice to see a friendly face from home.

I forgot to get a picture, but meeting Francoise Mouly was certainly a personal highlight. RAW really formed my mind as a reader, and also a critic. It is important to know the difference between good comics and bad comics, and RAW showed what is the best in comics. Nearly everyone that has been published in RAW has had some kind of lasting legacy on the industry that can’t be understated. I am thankful for people like her.

Brian Chippendale did this insane sketch in my book. He saw Keith Jones’ two-page spread and needed to beat him at the game.

Mark Newgarden is another person I was really excited about meeting at Brooklyn. We had been talking about doing an interview before, but could never really get it organized. He is working on a book with Paul Karasik about Bushmiller’s Nancy for Fantagraphics, and we have plans to talk when that comes out.

The whole day is just one exhausting blur. I am really happy that I was able to check it out and be a part of something that felt so alive and timely. The Brooklyn Festival felt a really defined snapshot of what is happening in modern comics. There are varying types of criticism floating around about how inclusive the Brooklyn Festival was, but from my point of view, it was curated with a specific artistic taste in mind. The work featured at Brooklyn represents a specific artistic ideal. I look forward to attending next year, in whatever capacity I can muster.

That night after the Brooklyn Fest, there was an afterparty at the home of Bill Kartalopoulos, Lizz Hickey, and Jon Vermilyea. I was there for about 2 hours and had conversation with an amazing aray of cartoonists. My favorite was probably talking about Grinderman with Zak Sally. Our music tastes have some pretty broad overlaps. On a side note, check out the Kim Deitch portfolio he just published. It’s something quite handsome.

My trip ended with the excellent animation show that Mark Newgarden put on at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. I started out my day having breakfast in a pretty cruddy diner, but crappy food was made better by running into Bill Kartalopoulos and Nadia and George from Typocrat.

The animation itself was awesome. Mark’s collection is legendary. If you ever get the chance to see one of his events, make sure you don’t miss out. After the show, I went out for the worlds runniest milkshake and swell conversation with Vanessa Davis, Tom Kaczynski, Julia Wertz, Karen Schneider, Jon Lewis and more. It was the perfect relaxing way to end the trip.

Many thanks to Andy Brown, Christopher Butcher, Peter Birkemoe, Annie Koyama, Keith Jones, Dave Cooper, Jen Vaughn and Muff Mansion, Al Columbia, Jerry Moriarty, Shannon O’Leary, Zack Soto, Ben Catmull, Gabe Fowler, Bill Kartalopoulos, Dan Nadel and many more for helping to make such an excellent trip. I really wish I had more time to spend with people and meet folks.

Part 1 saw me in travelling from Toronto to Boston, to hidden locales, and eventually winding up in lovely White River Junction.

Day 4 – The journey continues after being kindly sent on my way by the wonderful Jen Vaughn. I had a lively 7 hour train ride with a couple of seats to myself and some crappy tv shows to keep me excited. Not much to say about the train. It’s long and done. When I got into Penn Station, I realized that I forgot to come planned with my hostess Shannon O’leary‘s # and thanks to some helpful folks, we got connected, and I rushed off in a fine New York taxi to the middle of nowhere in Brooklyn. We had plans to go to Lisa Hanawalt’s book launch for the second issue of her series, I Want You at the most excellent, Desert Island. Lisa’s work is really quiet amazing. With only two books out, she is already making the fool out of the competition. That’s right, I said making the fool.

The launch was a really nice affair. The first person I saw when walking in the door was Kate Beaton, who is in the Inkstuds book, but had not yet received a copy. I think the American and Canadian postal system don’t like each other. Kate is always a delight to chat with and it’s great to see a familiar face right away. Gabe Fowler quickly brought me a beer, which is a great way to get in good with a Canadian. It was a good group of familiar faces including Bill Kartalopoulos, whom I have seen in person twice including my trip to SPX in 2006. I really like that guy and like what he has got going on. Shannon and I went out to a bar that gives free pizza with each beer with MK Reed and Gabrielle Bell. We had a good drunken chat and I sent out some terrible tweets. It was a great way of saying hi to the city.

Photo Stolen from Lisa's flickr

Day 5 – My first proper day in New York was a bit of a bust. After going out for some breakfast, New York had a horrendous rain storm that had me soaking to the bone after walking for not even half a block. I’m from Vancouver, I am fine with a little rain. In fact, I am at home in the rain, but this was insane. I ended up passing out for the afternoon with an old cat with the loudest voice in the world and a gentle old dog. I managed to get a little shopping done in the evening.

I picked up a huge Harold Head comic at Roger’s Time Machine on 14th and a handful of undergrounds including one by Catherine Jones (Née Jeffrey) that I had never seen before. I am a huge fan of her work and would love to be able to interview her. Please let me ask you questions Catherine.

I also checked out Forbidden Planet and the Strand. I picked up an art book by Jose Munoz at Forbidden Planet for half off, since the dust jacket was torn. The book is interesting, as it looks more like something I would expect from Lorenzo Mattotti. I was really disappointed by Forbidden Planet. It seems like the future of comics stores is to have a selection of goods available from the Diamond back list catalogue and a handful of floppies. Not very excited for me. The Strand was great as always. I only picked up a couple of books there, but I would return for more.

Day 6 – This day was one of the highlights of my trip. A little more shopping to start the day including Jim Hanley’s, which may have a lack of back issues, but does carry my favorite book ever.

Before coming to New York, Jerry Moriarty had invited me to come visit him. I was super excited, Jerry was a blast to interview and had given me a great quote for the back of the book. Jerry has said that he has done two proper interviews in his career. One with Chris Ware for the Believer and the other, avec moi.

Jerry is very familiar with the Inkstuds and has listened to the show on numerous occasions. I spent a wonderful afternoon hanging out with him in his amazing loft and getting a private tour of his latest series of paintings. Jack Survives is a fantastic collection that shows just how far comics have come in the last 100 years, but at the same time, collecting work that is over 30 years old. Talking art with Jerry is like jumping on a roller coaster and trying to hold on. The whole conversation left my mind a little blown.

Day 7 – The Madness of the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest(BCGF) starts to set in for me. Zack Soto and I had been talking about meeting up at some point for some comicky good times. He wanted to go out and sell come copies of his most excellent Study Group 12 vol 4 anthology. It is really an amazing book. Zack is a good man with some great comics taste. Ben Catmull was also in town, crashing Sarah Glidden‘s table at BCGF, since she was off in the middle of Iraq being smart and stuff, while we went out shopping for Steve Ditko comics. Our first stop in the city, after a quick coffee and bagel in Williamsburg, was a return to Forbidden Planet, which was another bust, since the guy that does the buying was out smoking.

I suggested we kill time by going to The Strand, which is on the same block. I took a closer look at the books this time and picked up some goodies including a manga Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show, the latest BPRD and Hellboy book. I read them on the plane home and of course loved that. I wonder if anyone has done any thorough analysis of Mignola’s work in academic sense, that you would find in Comic Art magazine or Book Forum. There is something about his story telling that I can’t quite place my finger on, that is working so amazingly. It’s not just making good comics, but I do get a feel that there is something deeper in his work that hasn’t been openly tapped yet.

The Strand was great for another couple of reasons. Zack sold all the copies of Study Group 12 that he had brought for selling in the city, so screw going to Forbidden Planet again. We also ran into Michael DeForge. Zack and I both convinced him into buying Kramers Ergot 4 for a paltry $40. Michael gave me a copy of his latest book that he had done over the last week to debut at BCGF. It is printed on a Risograph. I know that Zack Soto and Ryan Sands had also recently gotten their own Risographs, so there should be some awesome crazy looking stuff coming out soon.

Our comic shopping brought us back to Roger’s Time Machine, which I had learned in the meanwhile, is the only reliable place for back issues in New York. Really New York, that’s it. I have a whole bunch of places I can go to in Vancouver. Zack was let down by the lack of Moebius books, since they had a full run of the Epic books the previous week. I got a stack of Wally Wood reprints and an old Steve Ditko collection from Eclipse books.

Our trek took us all the way up to Printed Matter, which bestowed some lovely goodies, including a David Sandlin book I had seen around, but couldn’t afford to get. The price they had it for at Printed Matter was just right. It seemed appropriate, since the previous day, Jerry Moriarty was chastising me for not having read Sandlin’s comics.

The day finished with a stop by Secret Project Robot for the Nazi Knife art show. It was a neat space not far from where I had met up with Ben and Zack earlier that day. We had since all gone our separate ways, with Zack off doing karaoke, Ben going a wandering and me, dumping my books back at Shannon’s. The Nazi Knife show was interesting. They were playing some old Throbbing Gristle, which made me pretty happy. I am still pretty bummed about the passing of Sleazy last month. I was probably most impressed by CF’s work there. He has this dynamic energy in his work that brings the figures right off of the page.

I got reconnected with Ben, and chatted  industry gossip with Heidi the Beat and Dan Nadel. I also finally met Matthew Thurber. That guy is the bees knees. He has been doing these great little mini’s with Marc Bell that I can never get enough of. I kept the night early in anticipation of the coming day and the thought of standing for 10 hours. If you didn’t know this yet, I can be a little lazy in the physical department.

To be continued in Part 3.

My publisher, was kind enough to help pay for a tour that took me to Toronto, Vermont and last but not least, New York. It was a pretty crazy trip with many great adventures and stories.

Day 1 – I flew to Toronto. I was doing an event with Dave Cooper the following day at the Beguiling, so I had a night to wander and enjoy. Because my cat is a bitch, I only slept for about an hour the night before, so Toronto got to meet a very sleep deprived Inkstud.

Amazing dinner

Cartooning patron and publisher extraordinaire, Anne Koyama took me out for crazy Chinese dinner in the restaurant that was in some basement at Spadina and Bathhurst. I was joined by some of my favorite folks in Toronto, Michael DeForge, his wonderful lady and the hilarious Keith Jones.  Michael gave me a copy of Spotting Deer. His chops as a cartoonist, while starting out at the top of the game, have gotten even better and more exciting. He has a future of some great work ahead of him and I suggest buying everything you can find by him. You won’t be sorry. Michael kept talking about how he needed to have a new book ready for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest even though he had Spotting Deer. More on that later. Keith was on the show earlier this year, for a pretty fun conversation about his latest book from Drawn and Quarterly. Keith used to live in Vancouver, but for some reason, I had never met him while he was here, but now he is my favorite person to hang with in Toronto. The night was pretty mellow, but did include some comic shopping at BMV on Bloor. I was trying to be careful and not buy too much on my first day.

Anne, Keith, Michael and Laura

Day 2 – I spent my day taking it relatively easy. I was a little stressed out about my event with Dave Cooper. I really love Dave. He is a very nice and generous guy, but I am still getting used to doing public interviews. I have only done a handful of panels. I went for breakfast with Alex Jensen, publisher of new Canadian publishing house, Pop Sandbox. Alex has a keen eye for marketing and has really done an amazing job getting people excited for his debut publication, Kenk. He mentioned that the Inkstuds book had a good little display at Chapters in their Graphic Novel section.

After that, I walked over to the Silver Snail, and they didn’t even have the Inkstuds book. A good reminder on why comic stores are failing to get new material and understand comics are more than tights, but the bookstore market has a better idea of what is new and has a broader interest base.

WALLY WOOD Y'ALL

My comic shopping continued at BMV again, only this time, Keith Jones was working up a storm to the throngs of Sunday shoppers. Keith did this amazing drawing in my book that day and I got a mean stack of comix. After marking off some comics on my check list and picking up an amazing old Wally Wood comic. I jaunted off to the Beguiling for a little pretalk shopping and then prep.

The Beguiling is really dangerous for me. I always want lots but this time, I behaved myself. The selection of great foreign work doesn’t really have an equal in my experience. I was struck by a particularly amazing selection of Lorenzo Mattotti books. I have been on a big kick of his work lately and have really only scratched the surface of what he has produced. I ended up only getting a couple of early John Pham books. The selection at the Beguiling is a slippery slope of danger on my pocketbook.

Dave, Britt and Vicki

My live interview with Dave Cooper went well. Dave’s work is really unparalelled, and he is constantly at the top of his game and only getting better. His work excites me. Many thanks to Christopher Butcher, Peter Birkemoe and Dave Cooper for allowing and making this happen. I saw lots of good friends, new and old that night, including Dave Cooper

Mr. Dayton

Day 3 – I had another night of sleeplessness, only this time I couldn’t blame my cat. I had an early flight to Boston, where Jen Vaughn would be picking me up at an ungoddly hour. I have not met Jen before, but we had yaked online a plenty. We were going on a three hour drive to the middle of nowhere with just google-maps and an iPhone to plan our way. My insomniac self needed sustenance and Jen talked me into getting a McGriddle. Wow. that was gross but amazing.

Photo courtesy of Jen Vaughn

Our target was lunch with Al Columbia, which was a success. I really like Al. I had previously met him when he was in Portland and had also interviewed him a number of years back. From there, we started the second leg of our epic journey, up to White River Junction in Vermont. I was pretty much a headcase by this point, and was on my second dose of those horrible energy shot drinks. Jen wasn’t impressed by them, but it was either the drinks or a sleepy dirtybird.

Jen and Al

Jen was an amazing hostess. She gave me a grand tour of the Center for Cartoon Studies campus and then got a whole bunch of CCSer’s to come for beers at their lone bar in downtown WRJ. I wish I was more enthusiastic for them, but I was running on fumes at that point and slept like a log in the wonderful Muff Mansion thanks to the hospitality of Jen, Nomi Kane and Betsey Swardlick. They are the best hostesses I could of hoped for.

Jen and Joe Lambert

Day 4 – Another early start. Jen took my on quick round trip of visiting as many people as we could before I had to run off to the train to New York. First we went for a breakfast with Steve Bissette. One of my earliest memories in comics, is reading an issue of the great Alan Moore Swamp Thing run that featured the Justice League. I don’t know what it was about that issue in particular that stood out in my memory. When I was a teenager, I worked in a comic store for about 3 years, and Steve’s Taboo was a source of particular interest for me. He had this one issue which featured a huge story by Moebius on bright yellow paper. This is kind of thing that Free Radicals and Kramers Ergot would be trying 15 to 20 years later, but Taboo did it first.

Me and Steve Bissette courtesy of Jen Vaughn

After breakfast, we tracked down Jason Lutes in his studio, where he was hard at work on Berlin. He showed me his progress map that Alec Longstreth had gotten him into using. Jason’s work on Berlin looks really amazing and is a really excellent work. I am really happy that Jason agreed to be in the Inkstuds book. It was a fun interview with just the right dose of nerdyness. After my quick hello’s and good-byes, it was off to the train and seven hours of sitting.

Me and Jason Lutes courtesy of Jen Vaughn

To be continued in part 2.

Photo courtesy of Jen Vaughn

I will be in Toronto on Sunday to do an event with Dave Cooper at my favorite comic store, the Beguiling. I am really excited about the event. Dave is super nice and those Beguiling guys know how to do things right.

After that, I will be going on a bit of a travel that will eventually take me to New York for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. My publisher will be meeting me there with copies of David Collier’s new book and fine selection of Conundrum goodies. I am really proud to be published by Conundrum, especially when you look at the high quality work that they have been publishing.

In other news, I have done a couple of interviews lately. It’s a little weird to be on the other side of the questions. But it’s a good experience to understand what the interview process is like. I would be happy to do more interviews if any wants to ask me some questions.

First, the Sequential blog of Canadian comics news interviewed me earlier this week.

and Second, CiTR’s Arts Report interviewed me as a part of their funding drive programing. Audio here.

Come say hi at any events I will be at, and get a free disc of over 300 inkstuds interviews.