Special guests Frank Santoro and Brandon Graham help me bring in the 500th episode of inkstuds. 8 and a half years of podcasting and still going strong. I had those two gents on because both of them have been on several times in the past and I always enjoy talking to them.

During the show, Brandon and I announce our upcoming kickstarter campaign for an inkstuds tour/roadtrip. expect that to be launching in the next week.

We were also joined by David Brothers, who has a special Inkstuds project to announce. I am really excited to have David joining in. He’s an important writer on comics.

Underground cartoonist and currently a  children’s book writer, Jay Lynch joined me to talk about his work in comics. Ranging from the breakthrough underground series, Bijou Funnies, the Nard and Pat comics and more recently, Jay can be found writing for Toon Books. He has also been producing paintings which he has been posting on ebay. The opening song is by the Boogers, taken from a comic strip he did for Bijou back in the 60s.

Nick Bantock, creator behind the Griffin and Sabine series of books joined me to talk about his latest work, The Trickster Hat. It’s a collection of 49 different creative exercises to get brain going.

Jesse Reklaw joined me to talk about his latest book, Couch Tag. It’s a really interesting autobio work covering some really difficult points in time in Jesse’s childhood and adolescence. You can also see his latest work, published by Paper Rocket comics, here.

Tugboat Press publisher, Greg Means, joined me to talk about his new book, a collaboration with MK Reed and Joe Flood, The Cute Girl Network. We also cover Papercutter the great anthology that Greg edited/published. Greg also did Clutch series of mini comics for quite some time in the 2000’s under the name Clutch McBastard which ran for 25 issues.

I have been a big fan of Hellen Jo‘s work since first coming across her amazing Jin and Jam comic that Sparkplug published. Since then, her work has focused producing paintings that capture a variety of subjects in a really compelling way. I am super happy to have a copy of her new book, Frontier 2, the second in a series of small art books published by http://www.youthindecline.com/product/frontier-2-hellen-jo. Enjoy this interview I did with her. It’s been a long time coming and I was happy we were able to talk.

Joann Sfar; cartoonist, film maker, novelist and much more, joined me to talk about his work. His latest film, an adaptation of his book series, The Rabbi’s Cat, can be found on Netflix for those inclined. His other film is a biography of Serge Gainsbourg, Vie Heroique. Other books by Sfar available in english include The Professors Daughter, The Dungeon series of books, Vampire Loves and the Little Vampire series and Klezmer. Be sure to also check out his amazing instagram feed.

Thanks to Joann for taking the time out of his busy schedule to join me.

Ryan Cecil Smith joined me to talk about his new book from Koyama Press, SF 3. Ryan’s SF work has really list a creative fire under a lot of cartoonists. His SF Supplemental File 2 A,B and C are high points in the current wave of Risograph printed comics. Well worth checking out.

Katherine Collins joined me to talk about her history in comics. She might be better known as Arn Saba before her transition to a woman in the 1990s. Neil the Horse was the main creation which is currently running an indiegogo campaign to raise funds to collect the complete series published throughout the 80’s. As Arn, there is also an amazing history of comics journalism, doing radio interviews with some of the greatest names in classical comic strips for CBC radio in Canada during the 70’s and 80’s. I strongly suggest supporting the campaign to bring back this important comics work.

Jim Woodring joined me to talk about his work including most recent books, Fran and Congress of Animals. Jim’s work is full of life and imagination and highly respected among his cartoonist peers.