Sequential Heart

Legendary writer and artist Matt Wagner hops on Sequential Heart to chat about Mage: The Hero Denied, the concluding chapter of a comic epic started in the early '80s. Wagner dives into his modern magic opus as well as his fascination with proto-myths and golden age characters, including his time writing Django/Zorro alongside filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

Cartoonist, archer, gymnast and modern Peter Pan analogue Ben Hatke joins us for our latest episode. We chat about his upcoming graphic novel, Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, a thrilling update to the classic fantasy that also weaves larger pieces of his library together. Hatke also discusses the blurring of genre storytelling, how to properly draw archery and his growing stable of furry family members.

In this new episode, Eric and Sean sit down with artist extraordinaire Cliff Chiang to dissect his take on '80s nostalgia, suburbia and towering monstrosities in Paper Girls, the sci-fi epic written by Brian K. Vaughan and published by Image Comics. Chiang also walks us through his expansive history in comics, going from a Harvard graduate to an editor at Vertigo before tackling classic runs on The Human Target and Wonder Woman.

For this week's Sequential Heart, Chris Pasetto and Lukas Ketner—the creative team behind Kill the Minotaur— call in to chat about their horrific, gory take on Greek mythology and what those tales mean today. Sean and Eric also pay their respects to Adam West, the luminary '60s Batman actor who passed away last weekend.

In this episode of Sequential Heart, Daniel Warren Johnson joins Sean and Eric to discuss Extremity, an unapologetically visceral dissection of violence, vengeance and forgiveness. Johnson chats about shredding limbs and riffs and his life-long adoration of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Wait, what!? A new episode of Sequential Heart? Eric and Sean yank out the defibrillator to pump new life into Paste Magazine's comic book podcast, kicking off its second season. In this very special episode, writer and artist Leila del Duca discusses her new dimension-spanning graphic novel, Afar, as well as wrapping up art duties on Shutter and kicking off new romance projects.

In this episode, Copra writer, artist, colorist, letterer and badass Michel Fiffe discusses the art of being a one-man comic company. His self-published psychedelic black-ops epic just reached its fourth volume (and our Best Comics of 2016 list). To celebrate, Sean and Eric chat with Fiffe about his tireless work ethic, the benefits of independence and the glory of obscure '80s back issues.

This week, Eric and Sean usher in the holidays by going to their local watering hole with Lauren McCallister, the indie cartoonist behind publisher True Life Comix. Creating such brazenly honest works as Bad Sex and Teen Girl Killed, McCallister straddles the line between memoir and drama with distinct line work and unflinching narration. In this episode, the crew reflects on their favorite personal comics as well as the best comics of 2016.

This week, Sean and Eric chat with Benjamin Marra about his graphic novels American Blood and Terror Assaulter. Passionate, bloody, profane and hilarious, Marra mixes exploitation and machoism into high art, concocting tales of vigilantes and government operatives waging holy hell on anyone who crosses their paths. Marra also discusses his fine-arts education, the beauty of exaggeration and baseball in this episode.

Just in time for Halloween, Sean and Eric arise from their crypt of long boxes to stumble upon Raina Telgemeier, a cartoonist so scary good at her job that her latest work made the guys weep with fear and joy. Ghosts is the story of a young girl, Catrina, who moves to a northern California town with her sister who's diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis only to find a hidden, spectral populace. The tale revels in gloriously spooky imagery while addressing the realities of illness and mortality. Raina discusses the book as well as the magical spell she's cast on The New York Times Best Sellers list in this spirited podcast.