Aidan Koch is a part of that smart crew of cartoonists in Portland, putting out some thoughtful modern work. Her book, The Whale is the inaugural release from Gaze books, as well, she is also a recent addition the group of folks in the Mome anthology from Fantagraphics. Here is the correspondence project that Aidan mentions at the end.

Canadian Comics historian, Blake Bell, popped by the Inkstuds cyber studio to discuss his biography of cartoonist, Bill Everett. We also the archiving work that he and Fantagraphics have been doing, in regards to the legacies of Steve Ditko and Everett.

Quebecois cartoonist, Jimmy Beaulieu came on to chat with me about his collection of translated work, Suddenly Something Happened. Jimmy has a great eye for life and relationships. His comics are strong compelling. Check out his site for some great sketchbook material.

Aaron Renier stopped by Casa Inkstuds for table side chat about his books, Unsinkable Walker Bean and Spiral Bound. Aaron’s work is a lot of fun to read and world to fall in to.

Geof Darrow is coming to Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon next month, March 4-6, and thanks to the kind folks there, i was able ti gave a great chat with Geof.  I have been reading his work for years. I remember how my mind was blown when first seeing Hard Boiled. Shaolin Cowboy and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot are both fantastic reads as well. You can just spend hours focusing on all the details of a single page. The work of Darrow is also an antecedent to crop of fusion comics that Frank Santoro and I like chatting about; mixing comics history with European and Japanese influences sparkling through.

My last interview with Carol Tyler was fantastic, and even ended up in the Inkstuds book. In the previous interview, we ran out of time, before we really go to have a deep discussion about You’ll Never Know. This time, we got super in-depth, and as any interview with Carol goes, it was fantastic.

I first interviewed Al Columbia nearly 4 years ago. Since that time, he has released Pim and Francie: The Golden Bear Days. A collection of work that probably consists of more printed work than all his previous work put together. We get pretty in-depth in this interview, clocking in at 2 hours of conversation. We cover a lot of ground and I feel like we could probably have another dozen conversations like this, and still have lots to talk about. Thanks to Al for allowing such a frank and revealing interview.

Fingerprint’s cartoonist, Will Dinski is crafted some amazing looking comics. I am really loving the work that I have seen by him and blown away by the care he puts into all aspects of his work. Listen carefully for a special giveaway!

I sat down for chicken and donuts with my favorite drawer of gronch, Mr James Stokoe. The interview was a blast and we have all kinds of surprise visitors that show up. Please keep in mind that the interview was done at 1230 in the morning. His Orc Stain collection is getting all kinds of love and is a wonderful read. Be sure to check out his Wonton Soup collections from Oni Press as well.

I met up with Ho Che Anderson in Toronto last year, in the days before TCAF. We had an amazing conversation about his King book, and then when I looked down at the digital recorder, I noticed it wasn’t recording. Major bummer. The interview posted here, was done immediately after. I have never had an interview not be recorded before, and I hope to never have that happen again. My apologies to Ho, he was a great to chat with and I highly recommend reading King.