Whether it’s battling your girlfriend’s “seven evil exes," reinterpreting childhood memories or celebrating the beauty of becoming a parent, comics and graphic novels transport readers to different worlds … and help us better understand the one we live in. In the first season of Bookends, Mattea Roach spoke with some of today’s leading cartoonists about their work and the inspiration they draw from life. In this special summer edition of the show, we’re revisiting Mattea's conversations with Adrian Tomine, Alison Bechdel, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Sarah Leavitt and Chris Ware.

Hear the full conversations here:

• Adrian Tomine: Answering his readers' burning questions
• Alison Bechdel on making money and seeing Fun Home in a new light
• Bryan Lee O’Malley: 20 years of Scott Pilgrim
• Sarah Leavitt: Illustrating grief too wide for words
• Chris Ware: Inside the sketchbooks of a comics master