It’s some more visual storytelling talk, this time with Simpsons storyboard artist and cartoonist Luis Escobar!

We spend a little bit of time at the top discussing his work on a recent controversial Simpsons couch gag, followed by an attempt to find a proper name to what people have been calling “motion comics”. It’s a terrific medium, but is it appropriate to call them comics?

From there we dive into a discussion on a new project Luis has been working on, and how the Dramatica writing system has been changing his creative process. If you’ve ever participated in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, you might find Dramatica a familiar method of story and character building!

Links mentioned in this episode:

* The Heart & The Bottle book for the iPad (video)

* Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee

* The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell

* Dramatica: A New Theory of Story, by Melanie Phillips

* The free Dramatica audio book series

* The crazy Dramatica story structure chart (PDF)

* Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud

* Luis’ Illustrated Trip to Italy

* Luis’ animatic teaser showing Rob facing off with the sorcerers

* Ghettomation, a terrific animation podcast

For a preview of how the Dramatica software looks and feels, check out this great video by Jonathan Rector!

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This time it’s a one-on-one conversation between me and Ryan Estrada, the cartoonist who is taking on the brobdingnagian challenge of animating a feature-length film in one month!

As we discuss the project and the perils it presents to Ryan, we wind up investigating some topics that apply to any cartooning endeavor, such as:

* Story and Character as the chief driving force of a project, and finding the right style and structure to service them

* Project constraints and deadlines breed creativity

* The benefits of publicizing the process of your project and how to measure what you do and don’t share

Some of the links we mention during our conversation:

* The One Month Animated Feature process blog

* Jake Parker’s essay on how constraints and accountability are the “flint and steel” of creativity

* Ryan’s Cartoon Commune business

* Ryan’s 168-hour comic, Ped X-ing

* 11 Minutes Ago, a short film made in 24 hours

* Scott Kurtz

* Kris Straub

* Barney Wornoff

* Kevin McShane

* Dan Meth

* John Campbell’s Pictures for Sad Children

* Ryan and I did an Audioboo about a crazy talented kid at Kids Read Comics

* Ryan’s talk on Making Comics Like an Adventurer at the Ann Arbor District Library

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If we agree to the conceit that most of us want more people to read comics, the next question is: How do we recommend works to people who don’t normally read comics? Do we base our recommendations on the genres that the person is interested in, do we try to get them to read something we are personally excited about reading, or do we feel a responsibility to educate and improve the tastes of others? It’s a tricky subject, and I’m glad to have yet another great roundtable to help me try to pin the subject down for a while.

Anne Drozd is the co-author of various comics found at Tiny Astronaut, including Tiny Hamilton, Rocketosaurus!, and Dino Love.

Dave Roman is the creator behind Astronaut Academy, due for release next June from First Second Publishing.

Kasey Van Hise creates the webcomic Winters in Lavelle.

Some of the various websites and webcomics we mentioned this episode:

* The Webcomic Friday Recommendation movement on Twitter

* The 12 Days of Comics series of recommendations on Elephant Eater

* Raina Telgemeier

* Topatoco

* Aga Saga literature

* Goodreads, a social network for book lovers

* Mike deGury’s TED talk about Octopi

And as you might expect, we talk about a ton of books this time, including these!

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Hot on the heels of last episode’s celebration of American Comics, this time we’re paying tribute to the wonderful world of comics from Japan, otherwise known as Manga!

I’m joined by one of my favorite roundtables of cartoonists:

Brandon Dayton is the cartoonist behind the comic Green Monk and contributor to the Feature Creeps process blog.

Kasey Van Hise is the creator of Winters In Lavelle, who may or may not be doing a comic soon called Fat Unicorn.

Dave Roman is the creator of Astronaut Academy, soon to come out from First Second Publishing.

We sit down for a discussion on some of the common misconceptions by American audiences in regards to Manga, followed by some of the lessons we’ve learned through letting some of our favorite Manga influence our works.

Links and artists mentioned in this episode:

* Shaenon K. Garrity’s blog post, Ten Things to Know About the Future of Comics

* Osamu Tezuka

* Hayao Miyazaki

* Katsuhiro Otomo

* Pokémon

* Trigun

* Cowboy Bebop

* GoGo Monster

* Rumiko Takahashi

* Amy Kim Ganter

* Becky Cloonan

* One Piece

* Digimon

* Transformers: Robots In Disguise

* Taiyo Matsumoto

* Natsume Ono

* Ristorante Paradiso

* House of Five Leaves

* Keiko Takemiya

* Cowa, by Akira Toriyama

Some of the books mentioned in this episode:

Other links mentioned at the end of the episode:

This time it’s a celebration of the bombastic storytelling found in American comics storytelling with Norwegian cartoonist Kim Holm. Given the popularity and influence of Manga over the last decade, and considering the terrific outpouring of new indie comics artists who are breaking all kinds of new ground in comics, it’s easy to overlook the rich and wonderful storytelling legacy left to us over the last century by American cartoonists. Kim and I sit down in studio for a discussion comparing European comics to North American comics in an attempt to highlight a few things we can learn from American storytellers as we pursue our own cartooning endeavors.

Cartoonists and comics mentioned in this episode:

* Bamse, the World’s Strongest Bear

* The Adventures of Tintin

* The Katzenjammer Kids

* Carl Barks

* Don Rosa

* Moebius

* Steranko

* Neil Adams

* Klaus Janson

* Al Williamson

* Will Eisner

* Frank Miller

* Jack Kirby

* John Buscema

* Sal Buscema

* Windsor McCay

* Mike Mignola

* Rick Leonardi

* E.C. Segar

Books mentioned in this episode:

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On October 30, 2010 I sat in on the Kids Read Comics panel at Detroit Fanfare. The panelists and I discussed a wide range of topics surrounding the mission of KRC, including the specific concerns facing all ages cartoonists and writers, the importance of cartoonist leadership in comics advocacy, creative marketing, and breaking the stereotypes between cartoonists and librarians.

The panelists:

* Mark Crilley, possibly best known for his series of Akiko books, who was there to promote his latest work, Brody’s Ghost.

* Rob Worley, writer for Marvel Comics who recently sold out of his new series, Scratch 9

* Dan Merritt, co-owner of Green Brain Comics and co-organizer of the Kids Read Comics celebration

Books mentioned in this episode:

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Whether you’re an extroverted or an introverted creator, I think this discussion has something to offer you. This time I talk with Kim Holm about audience engagement and expressing emotions in comics storytelling.

We begin with some talk about the possibilities for interaction and collaborative storytelling provided by webcomics models, using Kim’s excellent Space Monkey as a basis for meditation. Throughout our discussion we investigate how one can re-invent how a story is created by opening up the process to the audience, and how one must think like a Game Master in order to guide the story into a narrative.

We close with some thoughts on the role of Expressionistic thinking in making comics. Whether you’re using lines, moment choices, or color, comics affords a storyteller the opportunity to explore the emotional and tonal content of a story with great immediacy. But how much is too much expressionism?

Kim will be at the UP! Fair this November 19th & 20th in Lexington, Kentucky. I hope you’ll be able to attend and avail yourself of some of the hands-on workshops there. Kim will be leading some himself!

You can get Kim’s book, 19 Charges Against the Young Herr Holm for Gross Self-Propoganda here!

Other links mentioned in this episode:

* Diary of a Space Monkey

* Kim’s Cartoonarchy

* Kim’s Wednesday Lies series

* The UP! Fair

* Art & Story Extreme!!

* Paul Storrie

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This time we take a trip to the murky waters of definitions in writing and storytelling. To complicate matters we take on a term first coined in fanfiction: the Mary Sue character. Though opinions differ on which characters stand as good examples of a Mary Sue (or Gary Stu, read the Wikipedia article), most agree on what a Mary Sue character’s traits are. They are generally held to be characters who act as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author, possessing unbelievable skills, unparalleled physical beauty, and solving a story’s crisis with relative ease. But these days it seems this term gets thrown as a criticism at virtually any kind of character in fiction, and if we extend the logic of wish-fulfillment out, can we even think of the act of writing itself a form of Mary Sue creation? How does one draw the line and make some distinctions so as not to go mad second-guessing everything they create?

I’m grateful to be joined by Dave Roman, Brandon Dayton, and Kasey Van Hise in an attempt to answer these questions.

Links mentioned in this episode:

* TV Tropes

* Brandon Dayton’s excellent essay An Appeal for the Epic Character

* Wikipedia’s article on the Mary Sue character

* A Mary Sue Litmus Test

* A forum thread on the Comic Book Resources site on the subject

* Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends

* A quote on writing by Jim Jarmusch

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This time I have the pleasure of talking visual storytelling with two guys who are way smarter than me. Dave Roman is the creator behind Astronaut Elementary, Agnes Quill, Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden, Zuko’s Story, Comics Bakery, and more. Brandon Dayton is the artist behind Green Monk and the newly launched Feature Creeps process blog.

We get together to continue a conversation we began at Kids Read Comics 2010, during which we found ourselves nearly screaming with excitement when discussing the storytelling principles behind Avatar: The Last Airbender. We spiral that out into a general conversation about storytelling for young people. Throughout our discussion we use Pixar films and 80s adventure cartoons to highlight the difference between writing for a general audience and writing for kids and adults.

Some of the books mentioned in this episode:

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It’s the first episode of the Comics Are Great! podcast, a new show where I’ll be discussing with various people who make comics just why comics are so great.

There’s no one better to start the new series with than Dan Mishkin, not only because he’s the inspiration of this site’s name, but because he’s an inexhaustible source of insight and enthusiasm on the craft of comics making. Dan has been writing comics for over 20 years, working on titles such as Superman and Wonder Woman. He co-created the DC characters Blue Devil and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (the latter of which is one of the finest examples you’re likely to find of pure comics). He’s written many more comics since (check out his entry on Comic Book DB for more info).

Dan and I sit down to discuss the role of writing visually when creating comics. Throughout our discussion we highlight the importance of rhythms in visual storytelling, how words and pictures syncopate to deliver story, some thoughts on how writer/artist collaborations should work, and the special elasticity that words have in the comics medium.

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