Speech Bubble

Hey Fan People,

Aaron's Top 10 Episodes

Chester Brown

Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba

Seth

Cecil Castellucci

Paul Soles - The Voice of '60s Spider-Man

Willow Dawson

Chip Zdarsky Live @ Hairy Tarantula

Ho Che Anderson Live @ The Toronto Cartoon Arts Festival

Kevin Boyd - Comics Coordinator at Fan Expo Canada (Three-Part Series)

Joe Kilmartin - The One that Started It All

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Jim Rugg is the Ignatz and Eisner award-winning cartoonist behind Street Angel, (co-written with friend Brian Maruca) Afrodisiac, Rambo 3.5, SuperMag and The P.L.A.I.N. Janes, which is co-written by past Speech Bubble guest Cecil Castellucci. But these days he is best known as one half of the immensely popular Cartoonist Kayfabe YouTube channel with Ed Piskor (Hip-Hop Family Tree, X-Men Grand Design, and the upcoming Red Room)

Though based in Pittsburgh, prior to COVID-19 and the proximity precautions that come with it, Jim was scheduled to attend The Toronto Cartoon Art Festival in May 2020 in support of Street Angel: Deadliest Girl Alive from Image Comics and The P.L.A.I.N. Janes from Little Brown and Company, but formerly published by DC Comics' now defunct Minx imprint. There, he was going to surprise attendees with his latest project, Octobriana 1976 -- the world's first black light comic book -- with AdHouse Books. In light of the pandemic, Jim has switched gears and he is now funding Octobriana 1976 on Kickstarter from now until June 18, 2020 at 5 p.m. EST.

He comes to Speech Bubble in support of Octobriana where we talk about Octobriana's strange and controversial origin story, why Jim decided to print this comic with fluorescent ink and why rebellious women are characters he keeps coming back to. We also talk about his collaborators: Shelly Bond, Cecil Castellucci and Brian Maruca, while tracing his journey from self-taught comics fan to a professional cartoonist who has taught others at the School of Visual Art.

For all you Cartoonist Kayfabe fans, we talk about the way the channel has suddenly become important to the larger comic book community and some very high-profile creators. We get behind what fans of the channel know as "The Cartoonist Kayfabe Bump" and Jim talks about his strategies for back issue diving and he speculates with Aaron about what the comic industry may look like post-pandemic.

This episode is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula, which has supported us from the beginning. Please buy something from them in their time of need at their online store. Please also support Speech Bubble through our Patreon Page where for $3 a month you can hear audio blogs from Aaron and some process blogs from guests about some of their best comic book issues.

@jimruggart

Jimrugg.com

Octobriana 1976 Kickstarter Page

Cartoonist Kayfabe YouTube Channel

The Making of Octobriana 1976

The books that influenced Octobriana 1976

The story behind Octobriana

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Hairy Tarantula

Support Speech Bubble on Patreon for $1 or $3 a month

This conversation with The Hamilton Spectator's resident editorial cartoonist runs the gamut. Graeme Mackay (as Aaron learns, pronounced Mac-kai) is "The Last of the Mohicans." He has held his position since 1997 and,pre-COVID-19, was actually still been going into a newsroom when many of his editorial cartoonist colleagues either have been working from home for years or their positions have been eliminated entirely as newspapers tighten their belts.

It's actually COVID-19 that forced Graeme to finally work from home and switch to digital drawing (something he would've had to do anyway as The Spectator was set to move offices later this year) and he and Aaron talk about that transition to digital and how Graeme is finding adjusting his technique after years of using traditional pen and ink.

The two also talk about Graeme's serpentine route to working at The Spectator, from his interest in politics and glad-handing those in power to a brief stint in the deli section of Harrod's Department Store in London, England (and that time the late Dodi Fayed landed on the roof in his helicopter because he just had to have his favourite brand of mustard) to finally sending cartoons to various newspapers across Canada and being syndicated in many of them.

They also talk about his earliest influences in cartooning, including the drawings of Richard Scary, and Graeme's uncanny ability to draw city skylines at just three years old. They talk about his earliest cartoons in the pages of Carelton University's student newspaper, the genius of Gary Larson's Farside and of course, Mad Magazine. The recent passing of Mort Drucker of The Usual Gang of Idiots there comes up as well.

Meanwhile, both Aaron and Graeme share the fact that they were raised by television in common, which was another heavy influence on Graeme's career both in comedy with SCTV and in watching the news at a very early age.

The two also discuss Graeme's favourite cartoons from his own work and the possibility of doing anthology or a "Best Of" somewhere down the line. Graeme talks about how supportive his editors have ever been and also those rare times his cartoons were spiked from publication. They discuss the fact that despite the fact he fears that the other shoe may one day drop and he may lose his job, he is a well respected cartoonist, having been featured in the "This Is Serious: Canadian Indie Comics" exhibit in early 2020 alongside Canadian comic book legends like Chester Brown, Seth and Fiona Smyth.

Finally, not only do they talk about the way COVID-19 and the way the stay at home order is affecting Graeme's work, but also his part in "The Cartoonists Against COVID-19" social media exhibit spearheaded by The Association of Canadian Cartoonists to show solidarity with front line workers and to promote the work of the famous Canadian editorial cartoonists who may have lost work due to the pandemic. Then, the two wonder about whether maybe this pandemic will shake up the capitalist system in a good way. This episode is once again sponsored by Hairy Tarantula.

Graeme Mackay's Website

Graeme Mackay on Facebook

Graeme Mackay's YouTube Channel

Graeme Mackay, Wes Tyrell, Matt Weurker and Cartoonists Against COVID-19 on Politico

#cartoonistsagainstcovid

The Association of Canadian Cartoonists

Our conversation with Graeme's friend and fellow editorial cartoonist Wes Tyrell

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If you recently watched the mailbag episode of Cartoonist Kayfabe spotlighting Group of 7 off the top or you listened to our episode with Group of 7 artist Jason Lapidus, this is the episode that will complete the Group of 7 trifecta because Chris Sanagan is the writer of Group of 7.

Chris lives in Guelph, Ontario but spent many of his younger years as a Bay Street broker in Toronto before persuing a career as a historical achivist. You'll learn from this episode that Chris came up with the idea for Group of 7 after realizing that seven legendary Caadians were all fighting in Europe during WWI at the same time. With those Canadians as chess pieces, a sensibility taken from works like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the artistry of one of his best friends in the world, he's able to put together a pretty compelling package for any comic fan who also digs Canadian history.

In the coversation, Chris highlights how all those elements came together – in particular, how he and artist Jason Lapidus first met – and their plans for the next Group of 7 storyline after the first six issues, which have recently been collected into graphic novel form as, Group of 7: A Most Secret Tale. It's available for purchase in May 2020. This episode of Speech Bubble is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula – check out their online store Speech Bubble is on Patreon Donate and support us now

@chrissangan

@groupof7comics

@ChrisSangan

@groupof7comics on Twitter

Group of 7 Online

Buy the Graphic Novel

Group of 7 on Facebook

Where Chris Sanagan Works – Archives Ontario

Group of 7 artist Jason Lapidus on Speech Bubble

Group of 7 on Cartoonist Kayfabe with Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor

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Al Ewing is best known as the writer behind the critically-acclaimed comic series Immortal Hulk. It's a comic nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 2019. In the time before proximity precautions and the COVID-19 pandemic, Al Ewing was booked to appear at the Toronto Comicon. The convention was eventually postponed – along with every other public gathering – but before it was, Aaron had this conversation with Al in promotion of his con appearance.

As a result, it's a little different than the typical conversations Speech Bubble fans have become accustomed to. Since Al lives across the pond in the UK, this chat is the first this podcast had recorded over the phone and Aaron was given a tight 20 minutes to speak with him. (obviously, Al Ewing is a very busy man)

Never the less, when you get an opportunity to speak with Al Ewing, writer of, in Aaron's opinion, the best comic book Marvel is publishing right now and, as he told Chip Zdarsky, one of the top three writers working at Marvel – you don't say, no.

So here we are. Though his accent can make him difficult to understand at times, you're in for a great and rare conversation. Obviously, the two talk about Immortal Hulk, and how the decision to make the big green monster immortal came to be, but they also dive into Ewing's earliest relationship with comics and his transition from fan to professional. You'll also hear what he actually thinks about the comparisons between Immortal Hulk and Alan Moore's classic, Saga of the Swamp thing?

Plus, get a little taste of what it's like writing the next big Marvel Event – Avengers/Fantastic Four Empyre – with Dan Slott. (Iron Man, Fantastic Four)

This episode is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula and Project I.M.P.A.C.T. – a new Canadian superhero comic with issues #1 and #2 available on Comixology.

Speech Bubble is also now on Patreon

@Al_Ewing

Al Ewing on Marvel

Al Ewing on Wikipedia

The interview with Jim Zub referenced on this episode

Sponsors

Hairy Tarantula

Project I.M.P.A.C.T.

In the first Speech Bubble podcast episode during the COVID_19 Pandemic, (complete with social distancing essentials like Zoom) Becka Kinzie joins our show. Becka is directly connected to our last guest Chip Zdarsky and his friend, previous Speech Bubble guest Kagan McLeod, since she was the colour flatter on Kaptara.

Becka explains what a colour flatter does on this podcast, but that's not her only gig. She hails from Kitchener-Waterloo where she shepherds the web comic turned graphic novel Gehenna. The first, of what she reveals on this episode is a planned series of Gehenna comics, is called Death Valley. Think Scooby Do and the mystery gang with actual horror and violence thrown in. (at least, that's how Becka describes it)

Her fascination with, and love of, horror comes from being raised in a conservative household and not being able to watch anything that was deemed too scary or too violent and then going hog wild on that stuff in her adulthood. In her teens, she was heavily influenced by things like Lenore: The Cute Little Dead Girl by Roman Dirge and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez and those influences definitely seeped into her work, along with a splash of anime, manga and Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Along with talking about Gehenna: Death Valley, Becka gives us a sneak preview of her upcoming project co-written with Speech Bubble “almost” guest Bob Salley. It's called The Beholden and will be published by Source Point Press, an independent publisher out of Detroit, Michigan. This episode of Speech Bubble is sponsored as always by Hairy Tarantula and Bam Coffee Co..

Speech Bubble is also now on Patreon where you can get audio blogs from host Aaron Broverman and a breakdown of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #310 by Chip Zdarsky for just $3 per month at www.patreon.com/speechbubblepod.

@the_becka on Instagram

@the_becka on Twitter

Becka Kinzie's website

Becka Kinzie on the True North Country Comics Podcast

An Elegant Weapon Podcast (Mentioned on this episode)

Sponsors

Bam Coffee Co.

Find us on Patreon

Chip Zdarsky Returns to Speech Bubble! Last time host Aaron Broverman and writer/artist Chip Zdarsky got together on the podcast it was for a live episode celebrating podcast sponsor Hairy Tarantula's 25th anniversary in 2017. Let's just say...he's done a lot since then. When last we left Zdarsky, he was just about to release the first issue of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man in two months. Since then, Peter Parker: Spider-Man has concluded, (and Zdarsky won an Eisner for his trouble) Sex Criminals is about to end its seven year, 32 issue run with a final, seven issue arc and Zdarsky is writing Daredevil and X-Men/Fantastic Four, as of this recording.

He and Aaron talk about it all and literally everything in between (Invaders, Namor: The Best Defense, Marvel 2-in-1 and Spider-Man: Life Story). Listeners will learn how the pitch meeting for Daredevil at the Marvel Summit actually went, why Spider-Man: Life Story wasn't Marvel Universe: Life Story and what he thinks of people saying he should write the ongoing Fantastic Four title currently being written by Dan Slott. Plus, find out why Daredevil made it to the top of his “Character I'd Most Like to Write” list, how he feels about Sex Criminals ending (and what he and Matt Fraction might do when it does) and what lead to J. Jonah Jameison learning Spider-Man's secret idenity on his watch. Oh, and find out whether Kaptara with Kagan Mcleod will ever come back.

SPEECH BUBBLE IS NOW ON PATREON - Sign-up to hear Chip Zdarsky break down the Eisner award-winning Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #310 (#21), which he wrote and drew. www.patreon.com/speechbubblepod

@zdarsky on Twitter

@zdarsky on Instagram

ZDARSCO INC. -- What Do You Want™

Subscribe to It's a Chip Zdarsky Newsletter, Okay?

Chip's Tips

Chip Zdarsky wants you to buy Daredevil

Chip Zdarsky on CBC

Chip's first appearance on Speech Bubble

Sponsors

Bam Coffee Co.

Born in Kingston, raised in Ottawa and living in Toronto, Michael DeForge is a multi-Ignatz and Doug Wright award winning and Eisner nominated alternative cartoonist. His body of work numbers many web comics, zines, mini comics, graphic novels, anthologies and gallery shows. He's also a prolific commercial illustrator, having done many gig posters, media illustrations, film screening announcements and album covers. He is so prolific that he's often publishing at least two comic works a year either with Koyama Press or Drawn and Quarterly, including the award-winning series Lose, as well as graphic novels Ant Colony, Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero, Brat and more recent works like Stunt, Leaving Richard's Valley and his latest work, coming out the day after this Speech Bubble episode's release, from Drawn and Quarterly – Familiar Face.

Michael sits down with Aaron to talk about the issues brought up by Familiar Face, including its inspiration – the simple fact that much of our lives are at the mercy of technology whether we want it to be or not. DeForge also takes Aaron inside his early work drawing gig posters for the Ottawa punk scene for free concert tickets and tells him how he illustrated the music he heard. You'll learn what and who influences his signature art style, from pencils to inks, colours and panel construction. You'll hear his thoughts on the impending closure of Koyama Press and the story of how he first met its namesake publisher “Saint” Annie Koyama. Oh and how could we forget, his work as a designer on the Adventure Time cartoon. Michael tells the story of how he got the job and what he actually designed for each episode and he lets us know that his last work for the series will be found on the mini series, Adventure Time: Distant Lands. This episode of Speech Bubble is brought to you by Hairy Tarantula at 3456 Yonge St. for all your comic and role-playing needs and Bam Coffee Co. where you can get a Bam Box full of freshly roasted coffee and geek swag like prints and mini comics for 15% off by entering SB15 at checkout.

@michael_deforge

@michael.deforge

MichaelDeforge.com

Buy Michael DeForge's latest, Familiar Face

Join Michael DeForge on tour March 2020

Familiar Face Publisher, Drawn and Quarterly

Stunt, Publisher Koyama Press

Buy the Seripop gig posters that influenced Michael DeForge

Michael DeForge on IMDB

Michael DeForge on Chapters.Indigo.ca

Michael DeForge's All Dogs Are Dogs at Saw Gallery 2015

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Te'Shawn Dwyer is the co-founder of the From a Hat Studio artist collective with former Speech Bubble guest Paris Alleyne. Te'Shawn details the origins of the group, which was inspired by R.A.I.D. Studio -- another group of Toronto artists who pooled their resources to great success. On this episode, Te'Shawn talks about how the group was started by he and Paris as they were graduting from Max the Mutt College of Art and Design as a way to stay in touch and keep drawing on a regular basis. Soon they were joined by Matt Simas, Dylan Burnett (Interceptor, Ant-Man, Cosmic Ghost Rider, X-Force) and former Speech Bubble guests Jahnoy Lindsay (Luke Cage; Everyman, She-Hulk) and Jamal Campbell. (Naomi, Far Sector)

From a Hat had them pick a character “From a Hat” and each draw it in their own style. These pieces became super popular online and on the comic convention circuit. Soon they were pushing each other to go up to have portfolio reviews from “The Big Two”: Marvel and DC. On the podcast, Te'Shawn details how the portfolio review process works and how eventually showing his portfolio and pitching creator-owned comic series concepts to independent publishers like Image Comics became discouraging enough that he eventually decided to stop waiting around for someone to give him an opportunity and instead created his own. What that became was his current self-published comic series Desert Messiah. Hear about how it's very much inspired by Te'Shawn's childhood love of anime and manga, including the seminal work, Lone Wolf and Cub. Te'Shawn gives a sneak preview of his plans for the series on this episode and explains why after two single issues (out now) he decided to work towards a full graphic novel, rather than put out issue three right away. This episode of Speech Bubble is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula and Bam Coffee Co. where you can get 15% off your first Bam Box of fresh roasted coffee and geek swag like prints and a limited edition mug when you type SB15 at checkout. This episode of Speech Bubble is also dedicated to the memory of Toronto artist and friend Lamin Martin.

@TeShawnDwyer

@teshawndwyer

Te'Shawn's Website

Buy Desert Messiah #1 and #2

Buy the Black Comix Returns Anthology

Sponsors

Hairy Tarantula

Bam Coffee Co.

Kat Verhoeven grew up in Canada's original capital of Kingston, Ontario in a single-parent household that encouraged artistic talents.Thanks to this, both she and her sister Mary Verhoeven grew to push each other in a friendly competition to see who between them was the better cartoonist – a jockeying that Kat says continues to this day -- with each taking a turn in the spotlight.

For Kat's part, she put her drawing talents towards an innovative food blog called Drawn and Devoured, which came out along with her initial sensual food poetry zine, The Artichoke that she published in her final year at the Ontario College of Art and Design. But for as much as she loved food and exploring all the culinary culture that Toronto has to offer, Kat reveals on the podcast that her relationship with food and her own body image was a destructive one for a time and through that struggle came her life's work so far, Meat and Bone from Conundrum Press.

We explore what's truth, what's fiction and what's somewhere in between in Meat and Bone, as Kat confronts her own struggles and polyamourous leanings in a fictional reality with an ensemble of fully realized and diverse characters that has never been seen to this degree in comics before and will stick with you. We talk about why both Barbarella and Toronto play such important roles in Meat and Bone and we dive deep on Kat's technique, tools and purposeful decision making that lead her to convey emotion using a different tonal colour palet for every strip and slight alterations to the look of each character. Fan People, this is when not drawing “on model” can pay dividends. If you listen to the episode, you'll understand why. We also don't forget discussing Kat's pre-Meat and Bone project, the Doug Wright and Ignatz nominated TowerKind, which exposes the fallacy of racially-profiling neighbourhoods in a post-apocalyptic Toronto seen through the eyes of children. Plus, we preview the upcoming Friendship Edition Anthology. (launching at TCAF 2020)

This episode of Speech Bubble is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula where a state-of-the-art coffee shop is about to be unveiled and Bam Coffee where you can get 15% off your first Bam Box of coffee, comics, prints and a limited edition mug when you type SB15 at checkout.

@verwho

@VERWHO

Verwho.com

Meatandbonecomic.com

Conundrum Press – Kat's publisher

Drawn and Devoured – Kat's old critically-acclaimed food blog

Towerkind

Kat's equally talented cartoonist sister

Frienship Edition

Sponsors

Hairy Tarantula

Bam Coffee