When Penguins arrived late last year, it was the latest in a long line of projects from a seemingly restless artist. The Fantagraphics book found Nick Thorburn taking the plunge into comics for the first time, amid a long career as a critically acclaimed indie musician. His first published work is a remarkably adept one, showcasing a keen knowledge of the subtle art of wordless story telling. It’s an examination of the human existence through the seeming tragedy of flightless birds. For Thorburn, it’s also an opportunity to indulge in a new creative pursuit after a laundry list of beloved bands, including Islands, the Unicorns, Mister Heavenly and Human Highway (along with composing the music for Serial), as he wonders aloud whether there’s a continued place for him in the cutthroat music industry. I met up with the artist on a crowded Los Angeles street one sunny Southern California day to discuss his work in a new medium and what his creative future might hold. 

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A move to Los Angeles may have mellowed Matthew Murphy out a bit. The warm weather and sunshine has tends to have the effect on people, and the results have certainly begun to manifest themselves on The Wombats’ fourth album. But as the title Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, clearly indicates, for all the talk of slowing down, the biting sarcasm that has come to define the Liverpool group’s output is still clearly in tact.  Murph certainly won’t go so far as calling himself “happy,” but at the very least, he appears to be doing a valiant job keeping those demons at bay.  The frontman joins us to talk about the trio’s 15 year journey and the importance of playing well with others.

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In 2014, Drawn & Quarterly published Over Easy. It was a story that had been percolating for decades in cartoonist Mimi Pond’s mind, but life, family and the daunting task of actually sitting down to write it got in the way. By the time the cartoonist was ready to pitch the story, the publisher insisted on breaking it up into two volumes. In 2017, the second part, The Customer is Always Wrong, arrived, wrapping up the tale of her time as a waitress in her 20s. These days, Pond is in the midst of researching a new book, having been liberated by the act of actually getting a massive two-volume graphic memoir into the world. This time, however, she’s sought inspiration outside of herself, in spite of her own fascinating history that involves writing the pilot episode of The Simpsons, penning a best-selling book on Valley Girls and writing for the 80s children’s classic Pee-Wee’s Playhouse alongside her puppeteer husband Wayne White.

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Relentless optimism may well be Michael Franti’s defining characteristic. It’s a rare trait, especially in these days of ideologically-driven, social media-fostered detachment. But for all the positivity of a record like Stay Human Vol. II, Franti and Spearhead never avoid the harsh light of reality. In fact, the album doubles as a soundtrack to the Franti-directed documentary that finds the musician traveling the world, in search of humbling stories. The Oakland-born singer has seen plenty in his own right. In an extremely frank and candid conversation, Franti discusses growing up as an outsider with an adopted family, coping with with parental substance abuse and the darkness of his own depressive moments. In a moment that feels historical dark for many, he’s a testament to the healing power of music and human stories.

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Prior to Shades, music had never been a full-time pursuit for Vera Sola (Danielle Aykroyd). Splitting time between New York and Los Angeles, voice acting was her primary gig, until things went pear-shaped. Sick family members, the ends of relationships and myriad other issues knocked her flat. But encourage from peers helped instill confidence, first as a touring musician with indie folk singer Elvis Perkins and eventually under her current monitor. A well-received Slayer cover and an EP of Misfits songs followed, filtered through a smoky, folk sound. With 2018’s Shades, however, Sola both figuratively and literally found her sound.

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It’s never quite clear where the memoir ends and the fairy tale begins in Passing for Human, and for Liana Finck, the distinction is incidental at best. Growing up, her home life was spent in a fantastical house built by her architect mother, provide a warm escape from the sometimes harsh realities of school life. These days, the artist is far more social, with a pool of friends in New York City and a growing army of admires amassed through Instagram comics and then the New Yorker. Her pen and ink work bares the influence of older cartoonists like Jules Feiffer, but the storytelling is uniquely her own. Fresh off the press push for her latest work, Finck sat down with us in Manhattan to discuss the ups and downs of socializing, the genius of Nabokov and the difficulty of telling one’s own story on the page.

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