Inkstuds

Brandon and I sat down for a chat about cartoons and comics with Rebecca Sugar. Rebecca is probably best known for her creation, Steven Universe as well as her work on Adventure Time. It was really great to get a chance to talk to her and seeing how she views animation. Really interesting deep thoughts on the artform.

This episode was sponsored by House of ORR, Roll20, and Colonial Souls.

Twelve Gems cartoonist, Lane Milburn, joined me to talk about his excellent new book from Fantagraphics. I really loved. It has all the right elements from 1980’s BW and Heavy Metal magazine, while still a fun and current book. I was really happy to chat with Lane about it and hope you get a chance to check it out.

This episode was sponsored by House of ORR, Roll20, and Colonial Souls.

Jesse Moynihan was our first guest on a day of interviewing folks in the back of a restaurant in Burbank California. Jesse’s book Forming, the second volume of which just came out from NoBrow books. His work explores a lot of really interesting ideas, utilizing a plethora of literary traditions both classical and contemporary. And it also has some great spaced out conceptual madness.

Jesse is also a story boarder on hit series Adventure Time. Brandon and Jesse were working together on an episode at the time and this was also their first time meeting in person.

This episode was sponsored by House of ORR, Roll20, and Colonial Souls.

Our last interview on the first day in Los Angeles was with John Pham. We stopped by workplace, the animation studio for ADHD. John had a nice office to himself where his staff would place foul drawings of him on his door. It was pretty great. John main series are Sublife from Fantagraphics and his self-published series, Epoxy. The fourth issue came out last year and is pretty amazing.

Derek Kirk Kim was also there. I had no idea he worked with John. If I knew, I would of set up an interview.

This episode was sponsored by House of ORR, Roll20, and Colonial Souls.

Our second interview in Los Angeles, was with Ron Rege Jr. His Cartoon Utopia book is a personal favorite of mine, exploring a lot of ideas and ways of telling stories. I have wanted to talk with Ron about this work since it first start appearing as mini comics and snippets in various anthologies. The book is a meditation of exploring different idea’s around esoteric and magickal concepts.

Our timing was excellent, as Ron had just released his Diana mini-comic, which had been getting a fair amount for online buzz. Ron continues to be a cartoonist I have a strong fondness for, creating new, challenging and stimulating work.

Promotional consideration for this interview courtesy of Cousin Harold Comics. Thanks for the support on the kickstarter!

Our first interview in Los Angeles found us making our way to the home of Jordan Crane. I’ve talked to Jordan a couple of times in the past and always enjoy the enthusiasm and energy he brings to the conversation. The anthology that he edited in the late 90/early 2000’s, Non, was a groundbreaking and important work, with the 5 book being a touchstone of things to come in comics. His current series for fantagraphics, Uptight continues his excellent comics stories. It’s been a number of years since his last issue, but he will have a new one out in the fall. Jordan also runs the excellent comics site, What Things Do, featuring many of my favorite cartoonists.

Promotional consideration for this interview courtesy of Cousin Harold Comics. Thanks for the support on the kickstarter!

Our trip to Los Angeles, included a stop in San Francisco. While there, we are were able to meet up with Junko Mizuno. Her work has always excited me. from the early roughness in Pure Trance, to her brutal fairy tale retellings to her recent work, Pelu. Junko has shown to have an amazing style and unique voice in comics. Originally from Japan, she now resides in San Francisco, continuing to do comics as well as rock posters for bands like the Melvins and Faith No More.

Special thanks to Ryan Sands for playing host to us. He’s a good friend and I was happy to have him join me and Brandon for the interview.

Promotional consideration for this interview courtesy of Cousin Harold Comics. Thanks for the support on the kickstarter!

The First Leg of our road trip journey started in the most perfect way possible. Michael Allred was someone I have wanted to talk to for a while. I was supposed to interview him a couple of years ago when we did a roundtable talk with Craig Thompson and Brandon Graham, but ran out of time, since the the conversation went for 2 hours. This time, we went to have our interview. As with all interviews on the Inkstuds Roadtrip, I am joined by the very talented wingman, Brandon Graham.

The interview covers a lot of ground, passing the hour and a half mark. It was a very personal and revealing conversation. I really appreciate both Laura and Michael for inviting us into their home and joining us. It was really great to have Laura join us, not only to hear about the process work and get to know more about her, but also her own insight into Michael’s work. We left the interview super-jazzed and ready continue our journey after having a personal highpoint in interviews I have done. After doing more than 500 interviews, this one felt like one of my favorites, take a listen and you will see why.

Promotional consideration for this interview courtesy of Cousin Harold Comics. Thanks for the support on the kickstarter!

Phase 7 mastermind, Alec Longstreth joined me to about his recently released work, Basewood, a comic 10 years in the making. There is an amazing amount of free comic work to check out on Alec’s site.

I intended to have this posted a lot sooner. Apologies to Alec for my slowness!

Sequential Artists Workshop Co-founder, Tom Hart, joined me to talk about the school, his comics and more. Tom’s a great thinker and talker on comics. His recent work, Rosalie Lightning, is a power comic of Tom’s, processing the sudden passing of his young daughter. He is currently posting process work as he puts the complete book together.