Inkstuds

One the great underground publishers, Ron Turner, joined me to chat about his history in comics. Last Gasp books has gone from publisher of a couple of underground comix, to being one the major forces in counter culture art. From publishing series like It Ain’t me Babe and Wimmens Comix to the work of Ron English and Junko Mizuno, Last Gasp has continued to put out really forward thinking work.

The City of San Francisco just recognized Ron on May 5th by declaring that day, Ron Turner!

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Alex Degen joined me to talk about his new book from Koyama press, Mighty Star and the Castle of the Cancatervater. Alex has a wide range of really interesting work utilizing distinct manga sensibilities in contemporary alt comix context.

Alex will be appearing at TCAF this weekend, so here is something to check out while you are there!

Anne Ishii and Graham Kolbeins joined me and Brandon to talk about their Massive comic anthology; a collection of gay manga comics featuring a wide range of burly men. It’s a really interesting and important piece of work. Graham and Anne have brought together a diverse range of men doing very different but similar work in Japan. They also have the Massive Gay Apparel line, featuring a some sexy outfits and wares.

This week, they will be bringing Gengoroh Tagame to an event in New York and then as a featured artist at TCAF.

Connor Willumsen has a wide variety of comics. When preparing for this interview, both Brandon and I were surprised by how he approaches comics from such and exciting directions. His most recent work in print, Treasure Island can be found from Breakdown Press. He also has a short piece in the 3-d Studygroup anthology and a great short comic with Studygroup bigwig Zack Soto, about Damo Suzuki. We also discuss the comic he did about his brief period as a marvel artist.

In celebration of the complete Zap collection and release of issue 17, Paul Mavrides joined me to discuss his varied comic work. Paul’s work can be found not only in the more recent issues of Zap, but also in the comic posted above, Cover Up Lowdown, Co-Editing the fantastic Anarchy Comics series with Jay Kinney. As an early member in the Church of the Subgenius, you can see his visual sensibilities throughout, especially in the book Revelation X.

Paul also led a court case against the state of California to repeal an extremely damaging tax levy that would hit cartoonists hardest.

Paul continues to be active, most recently with this series of paintings.

New York comicer and animator, Lale Westvind joined me to talk about her comics Hot Dog Beach, Here and Now and much more. She also has a new music video she did for Lightning Bolt.

And go check out the inkstuds patreon!

Ed Luce joined me to chat about his new Wuvable Oaf collection from Fantagraphics. It’s a terrific collection bringing together his great self published run of comics following a uniquely San Francisco cast of characters. It’s a fun book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Dylan Horrocks is up there as one of my favorite cartoonists and thinker on comics. He has run the mile in comics, from his grown breaking Hicksville to working deep in the mainstream, Dylan has since returned to his roots. His latest book, Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen, feels like a natural follow up to Hicksville, exploring different facets of comics in a more decompressed experiential work. We had last talked about 5 or so years ago and Dylan is always a welcome presence.

It’s the end of the great Inkstuds Roadtrip. To end my time in London, I sat down with Alison Sampson, Jamie Mckelvie and Darryl Cunningham about all things comics. We recorded it at Gosh comics. A really great comic store that I went to a couple of times that week for various interesting comics events. They were great hosts and I was happy to be there.

Brandon and I sat down with Scott McCloud in the midst of his publicity blitz for his new book, The Sculptor. With academic and institutionalized success of Understanding Comics, Scott is one of the most visible ambassadors of comics and always has something interesting to say. Scott was also guest editor on the latest Best American comics, which we also discussed.