Inkstuds

This week Meredith Gran, the Ignatz Award winning creator of long-running webcomic Octopus Pie, joins us to talk about her creative history and process as well as the release of Octopus Pie in trade form from Image Comics, out February 26th. Meredith is one of my absolute favorite cartoonists and I consider her a huge creative pillar both in webcomics and the medium in general. She is constantly pushing the limits of the medium with a uniquely cartoony style and digs deeper with every story arc into the complex and sometimes absurd emotional drama of being young, chasing your dreams and confronting harsh realities, forming and breaking relationships, and trying to just live all the while watching the novelty of youth escape you.

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It’s the Return of Derf. Derf’s latest book is Trashed, a look at his time as a garbage man, mixed with a look at the trash industry. A really interesting look at how we process garbage and the life of a garbage man.

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In a moment of rash impulsiveness last year that he’s surely regretted ever since, Robin asked whether I’d be interested in guest-hosting some episodes for Inkstuds. We bandied about names and one of the first we settled on was Michael DeForge. Michael’s been interviewed on Inkstuds twice previously -in 2010, and then 2012, and Robin’s hope was that my approach would be different enough to provide a fresh and interesting perspective. I don’t think the resulting chat is *quite* that…

But the reason I wanted to interview Michael wasn’t necessarily because there’s new things to say and glean about his work, but because he’s one of a handful of cartoonists operating at a level of astonishingly consistent excellency. He’s also rather prolific, and conversely those two aspects can often come together and lead to a sense of flat expectation, of taking things for granted. In comics, more so than any medium -and maybe, too, it’s a symptom of the volume and quality of work on offer today- we’re eager to move on to the next thing: looking forward at the expense of engagement and being present. Look, I’m not saying he’s under-appreciated (as such), but that it’s difficult sometimes, when you’re in the midst of a thing, to recognise it for what it is.

Like many people, I anticipate a new DeForge work, but then I put off reading it until I’m sufficiently geared up to do so because of how much it moves me. Art provides us with varying emotions/reactions; my personal preference for it is to elicit joy and affirmation, enrichment and strength. Michael’s work fulfills the latter quotient in a way that’s acutely resonant. Colours and lines thrum and question. Shapes bulb and pulse. Tendrils weave and synapses spark. It makes me anxious and tense and restless, and yet it’s so gnawingly beautiful -shouldn’t the effect of beauty be the opposite of those things? I don’t always get it, but I get from it. And that’s enough, and then some.

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Jonathan Chandler joined me to talk about his new book from Breakdown Press, Another Blue World. He also has work out from Landfill Editions and the upcoming Decadence anthology. Jon’s work is a weird exploration of sci-fi anxieties fueled by drugs, sex and navigating the unknown. Very natural feeling stuff.

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Benjamin Marra joined me to talk about his latest books. I had Ben on many years ago, so it was great to catch up and see how things have changed and what’s going on with his comics. His most recent book is Terror Assaulter: O.M.W.O.T. from fantagraphics. It’s an extreme visceral work that has some major punch to it. He’s trying to some new weird ways of straight forward story telling in it. I really liked it a lot. His other new work from Sacred Prism is the brightly coloured Blades and Lazers collection. It’s got monsters, tough guys and some great battling. I totally dig it. well worth checking out.

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I was joined by UK cartoonist, Sean Azzopardi to talk about his comics work. Sean has a range of different work ranging from genre series Necessary Monsters for the renewed First comics to his wandering autobio work like in Rain on Glass and Twelve Hour Shift, which I especially enjoyed for how he was able to explore the world around himself with an interesting compelling distance.

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Jane Mai joined me to talk about her new books, Soft from Peow and See You Next Tuesday from Koyama. Jane’s new books are very different but both great. See You Next Tuesday is a natural extension of her previous book from Koyama, Sunday In The Park With Boys. Really funny personal revealing sketchbook and off the cuff comics. Soft is more of a fleshed out contained story exploring the high drama and despair of teen romance.

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New Zealand cartoonist, Ant Sang, joined me to talk about his work in comics. Specifically we discussed the release of his classic work, Dharma Punks. Collecting the series he put out in the early 2000s, Dharma Punks is a fantastic look at passing through adolescent, reconciling nihilism and coming out at the end. I really liked this book and am happy to talk to Ant about it. More recently, he took his work into a different direction with the book Shaolin Burning.

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Harrow County artist Tyler Crook joined me to talk about his comics work. Tyler has been making some fantastic series with writer Cullen Bunn. Tyler also worked on a lengthy run of BPRD and Bad Blood both also for Dark Horse. Tyler first got notice for his art on the Petrograd graphic novel. He has been churning out some refined work really quickly. I am excited by his stuff and to see where he goes with it.

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I caught up with Gene Luen Yang to chat about work while he was in Vancouver for a writers festival. Gene’s latest work is Secret Coders illustrated by Mike Holmes and Shadow Hero with artist Sonny Liew. Gene has been actively putting out a wide range of comics capturing the young adult market. Starting with American Born Chinese, Gene has deftly exploring sensitive topics in a way that hit’s close to home for his young readers. Gene was one of the best in his field and i was very happy to get the chance to catch up with him.

If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon.