Inkstuds

The most attended panel I moderated at Emerald City Comicon last month, was the Comics Influencing Comics panel featuring Brandon Graham, Mike Allred, Nate Powell and Moritat. I had never done anything with so many people watching. It was kind of surreal. Unfortunately, I think half of them were there to see the Jhonen Vasquez panel that was following ours.

One of my favorite moments at Emerald City Comicon 2012, was being able to do a spotlight panel with Bill Sienkiewicz. I have been a massive fan of his for years and was excited for the chance to talk to him. It was a revealing conversation that touched on a number of artistic interests.

One of the most prolific cartoonists of the underground generation, Bill Griffith, joined me to chat about his new collection, Lost and Found. It is an interesting conversation that touches on a number of different topics, ranging from his Zippy the Pinhead work, to discussing his contemporaries like Rory Hayes.

Montreal illustrator and cartoonist, Matt Forsythe  returned to the studs house for a chat about his latest books, Jinchalo and Comics Class. Matt has been doing some great work and seems to always be getting better.

I was lucky enough to moderate a panel of some comics heavy weights.  Adam Warren, Brandon Graham and Bryan Lee O’Malley. Here is a description of the panel. The panels were listed before Bryan was announced, so that’s why he doesn’t appear announced here.

ECCC Spotlight Series: Brandon Graham and Adam Warren in Conversation

The Emerald City Comicon Spotlight Series is designed to give you an intimate look into the minds of some of comics greatest creators. Brandon Graham and Adam Warren join you this hour for a conversation talking about finer points of their work. Their western takes on manga have delighted readers locally and abroad. Expect a vivid and lively discussion.

Canadian artist Gary Taxali joined me for a chat about his new books, art and coins.

Toronto cartoonist, Kagan McLeod, joined me for a discussion of his giant collection Infinite Kung Fu. It’s a massive tome that was many years in the making.

Twisted Sisters co-founder Diane Noomin joined me to discuss her new book, Glitz-2-Go. We had some interference on the line, so the first 10 minutes, has warble in Diane’s voice. It is fine after that. I am really sorry about that. Technology is great and a pain at the same time.

Diane will be appearing on Monday in New York.

Come and get it, indeed! Be one of the very first people to get your hands on a copy of Glitz-2-Go — the long-awaited first-ever comix collection from the legendary Diane Noomin!

This groundbreaking artist will be making a rare appearance to celebrate the release, on Monday, March 5th at the Yeshiva University Museum in New York City.

Starting at 6:00 PM, you can view original panels of “Baby Talk”, one of Noomin’s most controversial cartoons, as part of the Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women exhibit currently running through April. And then at 6:45 PM, join this pioneering cartoonist for a reading and discussion!

The Yeshiva University Museum is located in the Center for Jewish History [ 15 West 16th Street, between 5th and 6th Ave ].

After having such a blast doing my year end review show with some fantastic critics of comics, I decided I want to try and do these more often. This episode serves as a bit of a pilot project, to see how many titles, take how much time. We came up with a relatively small list of work to discuss and ended up talking for nearly 3 hours. I really enjoyed this talk, and will be doing this again in the spring, hopefully with a couple more critics joining in.

Thanks to Joe McCulloch, Matt Seneca and Tucker Stone for all bring their best comics talk game to the table.

Books discussed

Joost Swarte – Is That All There Is?

Milo Manara – Volumes 1 and 2 of new reprint library (Indian Summer, El Gaucho, and more)

Marti – The Cabbie

Extreme Relaunch – Joe Keatinge and Ross Campbell‘s Glory and Brandon Graham and Simon Roy‘s Prophet

Ryan Cecil Smith – SF Supplementary File 2 a,b and c

George Herriman – Krazy Kat

And lastly – an odd discussion of 2000ad

Brooklyn based cartoonist and publisher, Austin English, joined me for a lively talk about his new publishing effort, Domino Books. Austin is also the editor of Windy Corner magazine and his latest work is The Disgusting Room, both out from Sparkplug comic books. Austin is always an interesting person to talk to and one of my favorite thinkers on comics.