MakingComics.com Gutter Talk Podcast

We may have said this before and if so, we feel it is definitely worth repeating. Wow, it is so darn educational and amazing to speak with someone who has been in the comics industry for so darn long. This is why every Halloween, Adam looks forward to speaking with one of his favorite Making Comics Gutter Talk guests, Stephen Bissette. For the third year in a row, Stephen dispels humor, knowledge, and all around good times.

When Stephen talks about the history of comics, he’s not just talking about what has happened in the past. That side of the timeline has been well-documented and will forever be. In this episode Stephen does talk about the past but he also is sure to talk about the history of comics as both the present and the future. This also includes when he is teaching young, impressionable minds at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT. And yet when his students challenge him on a topic, Stephen becomes the student in order to return to being a more effective teacher. In the example he gave, a student challenged him on Native American comics and culture. This caused Stephen to do his own homework, a great example that no matter who we speak with, we can never stop learning.

To open the Gutter Talk episode, just as we have done in previous Halloween episodes, we have a reading of an Edgar Allen Poe story. This year’s story was “The Cask of Amontillado” and was read by a horror master in his own right, Vincent Price. Boy, Poe sure does like burying things in his stories, huh?

Happy Halloween!

Stephen’s Links:

Stephen’s website (@SRBissette)

Center for Cartoon Studies

Our Links:

“The Dracula Files” by Storyforge Productions

Intro & Outro Song:

“RetroFuture Clean” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Song Behind Vocals:

“Backed Vibes (clean)” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Transitions:

InceptionBrassHitMedium.wav: Herbert Boland / www.freesound.org

Old Fashion Radio Jingle 2.wav: club sound / www.freesound.org

The world these days is far from easy to understand. Sometimes there’s an answer and sometimes there isn’t. And sometimes, it takes all we have to find a way to even try to comprehend everything. But perhaps that’s where art comes into play. Maybe, just maybe, our sight becomes a little clearer when we break it down into more of an expression than trying to fit a round understanding in a square hole. In the case of The Little Red Fish by Bizhan Khodabandeh and James Moffit, a simple, yet powerful story is told and it’s all inspired by the Iranian revolution in 1979. Nah, that’s not complicated to explain.

In this Making Comics Gutter Talk episode, Adam is joined by Bizhan and James to discuss how this story came about and what makes this story have such an impact. There’s also something to be said about the use of animals as the characters, a la Animal Farm by George Orwell, which is another side of the story Adam and his guests dive into. Following this discussion, Adam and Bizhan are left to their own devices as they discuss another project Bizhan was a part of. It involves violence between civilians and police, and soon the conversation turns to a more personal experience for both Adam and Bizhan. In the end, both host and guest ensure the audience they are far from experts on the subject and only drives home the point that there simply is no easy or right answer to the burning, violent questions we face as humans today. But at least there’s comics!

Bizhan’s Links:

Bizhan’s site (@MendedArrow)

“The Little Black Fish” comic

James’s Links:

Sink/Swim Press (@sinkswimrva)

Our Links:

Intro & Outro Song:

“RetroFuture Clean” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Song Behind Vocals:

“Backed Vibes (clean)” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Transitions:

InceptionBrassHitMedium.wav: Herbert Boland / www.freesound.org

Old Fashion Radio Jingle 2.wav: club sound / www.freesound.org

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”  – Alan Watts

As we walk out into the world we are entering a story. This story defines us and the way that we interact with our beliefs, actions, society, etc. As much as we are always entering into the story that others have defined for us, we are also given the gift of writing our own story in every action we take. This month I sat down with Rachel Beck, founder of Storyforge Productions, and we discussed the nuances of story telling. We looked at our society and how we are working to rectify our long history with marginalizing females – specifically in the comic industry. We also looked at the basic construction of worlds and characters and how those construction create compelling reasons that keep us reading.

Reflecting on the talk I am reminded that complications are what keep us interested in the world around us. As comic artists we create fiction where our character confront and battle those contradictions. Theoretically that gives us the inspiration to fight our own demons. That’s what the #ComicFuel show is all about right? For us to join together to turn away from just consuming art and to bring us into the battle – the battle to create art.

So get out your pens and papers. Sit down. Join us as Rachel and I provide the fuel you are going to need for the coming battle.

One of the great things about attending comic conventions of all sizes is meeting people from all over. Because of its sheer size and international draw, it’s actually pretty hard to not meet someone new from far off places while at San Diego Comic Con. At least far off from where you are. If you want to get all Inception on the topic, you are far off to those people you find far off. But we digress.

In this Making Comics Gutter Talk episode, Adam is joined by Australian artist and creator Cristian Roux, whom he met while peddling a book of poetry at easily one of the largest comic conventions in the world. Cristian was drawn to the table by the amazing work of Ted Washington and began conversations with both Ted and Adam, both of which were equally impressed with Cristian’s work. By the time Cristian left the table, Ted pretty much made up his mind that he was taking Puna Press to Australia for their comic and zine conventions and Adam made up his mind to ensure Cristian was added to the long list of stellar guests on the Gutter Talk podcast.

We also would be remiss in pointing out this episode is our 100th episode. From the bottom of our ink-filled hearts, we want to thank not only the talented guests we’ve had on the podcast and panels over the last two-plus years but we also want to thank you, the listener. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or this is your very first Gutter Talk episode, thank you for being a part of this creative endeavor. We do this for you. The website, the podcast, the Daily Challenge, all of it. A world without art and the knowledge it takes to create art is not a world any of the Making Comics Worldwide staff wants to be a part of. This is why educating the masses is so darn important to us. Thank you for being a part of our world.

Cristian’s Links:

Cristian’s site (@woohooroo)

Our Links:

Intro & Outro Song:

“RetroFuture Clean” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Outro Song Behind Vocals:

“Backed Vibes (clean)” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Transitions:

InceptionBrassHitMedium.wav: Herbert Boland / www.freesound.org

Old Fashion Radio Jingle 2.wav: club sound / www.freesound.org

“…it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” 

Rocky Balboa’s inspirational speech to his son in the 2006 installment into the Rocky franchise is definitely the inspiration for this show. There’re a lot of projects I work on right. Art, design, and educational experiences I am currently slaving away over. I spend a lot of time, and incur a good deal of mental anguish, trying to figure out what the “right” thing to do is as a day job. When Rocky talks about taking hits, in my context that is all about my own personal demons regarding my design process. My own shadow/devil on my shoulder telling me I’m wasting my time.

Last month, I’ll be honest, I almost considered #ComicFuel a waste of my time. Three episodes in and I was ready to give up.

I almost didn’t finish episode 3. Even during the process of doing it, I didn’t want to finish it. I did finish, barely, and then I swore to myself that I wasn’t going to do another episode the same way again (if I did another episode). So I called Adam and asked him to record a quick episode where we powered through a ton of questions. It turned into a longer episode.

As I sat down with Adam Greenfield this week to record the fourth episode of #ComicFuel I was reminded why I do this. Sure, this episode is WAY too long ( cough-2hoursand14minutes-cough ), but who cares? I got to sit down with my friend and answer some student questions and talk about how to practice art. In my ideal retirement scenario I would spend every day doing this.

I was reminded that MakingComics.com is the purely “good” thing that I have in my life. For me this is the one sacred space in this whole universe where everything we do is just good. We aren’t always active, or on time with our products, and they aren’t always produced with the kind of quality I’d like – but at their core they are good. We’ve made decision after decision to not turn this into a project that will go anywhere (i.e we are staying here for good). It isn’t a startup business – it is a public service. That is what makes it “good”. It hasn’t been tainted by the threats of being economically unviable – because it isn’t.

I thought I was done after my 2 hour session with Adam. Then…

…I said to myself – I’m not going to do Audio Fuel this month. Monday I mixed the two hour long episode and then I saw a tweet to me that I missed:

@patrickyurick haven’t listened yet to #ComicFuel 3 but can I just say thank you in advance?

— Heavy Load Comic (@HeavyLoadStory) July 13, 2016

So I responded:

@HeavyLoadStory Did you listen to it? Ep4 drops Friday 🙂

— Patrick Yurick (@patrickyurick) August 9, 2016

@patrickyurick I did. Best so far! It was mostly useful and inspiring. I’d keep the intro a bit shorter! Looking forward to the new one

— Heavy Load Comic (@HeavyLoadStory) August 9, 2016

@patrickyurick that’s probably the best bit of the podcast. So many times we get lost into technicalities and forget about the why’s

— Heavy Load Comic (@HeavyLoadStory) August 9, 2016

So now I have a reason to get back up, despite the obstacles, fight Apollo for the champion belt, and follow through on making an awesome episode of #ComicFuel. So thanks for being my “Paulie” Marco (Adam is my “Mick”).

I got back up.

I did more work.

I may not feel like I took the belt – but I did get a reward. I did something good. Good for myself and, hopefully, good for some others as well.

This month’s episode features answers to questions on creating depth, writing, visual comic vocabulary, drawing for exposure, story vs art, and what to do when art isn’t fun anymore. AudioFuel this week comes from Sylvester Stallone, Martha Wainwright, and the late Joseph Campbell. As always, I encourage you to jump to the section in the show that you fancy the most (times indicated below) and be sure to check out the show notes at comicfuel.wikidot.com/wiki:episode-4.