Speech Bubble

With 2016 upon us, we’re ringing in the New Year with a “lost episode” from our archives, back when sound quality wasn’t our strong suit (Sorry). This one features Alice Quinn — Toronto’s homegrown comics journalist who started covering the local scene before anyone else thought of it. These days she’s writing articles and doing video interviews for Comix Asylum Magazine, but back in the day she interviewed industry heavyweights like Bill Willingham, (Fables) Jim Zub (Wayward) and Chris Hardwick (@Midnight) on her own Quinntessential Comix Youtube channel. She also live streams a monthly graphic novel book club and, for a few years, Toronto fans could keep up with events through her T.Dot Comics website.

Kalman Andrasofszky isn’t only a high-profile fan of this podcast, he joined RAID Studio in the same month as our last guest Scott Hepburn. Before he was the driving force behind the modern relaunch of Captain Canuck, he had drawn everything from early clipart packages, role-playing games and loads of covers for Marvel and DC. He chats about the genesis of his love for comics and career as an artist, what it’s like transitioning from an artist to now primarily a writer and why Canadian media (including Captain Canuck) is no longer anything to be ashamed of or self-conscious about.

At the time of this release, Scott Hepburn is drawing Drax the Destroyer for Marvel with former WWE Superstar C.M. Punk. But back when Aaron talked to him, he’d just finished a collaboration with Rage Against the Machine frontman Tom Morello on a comic called Orchid for Dark Horse. They talk about what it was like working on a comic with a celebrity and how Scott ended up breaking in at DC where he worked on Forever Evil: Rogue’s Rebellion. They also touch on the establishment of RAID Studios – a bastion of high-profile comic book talent living and working in Toronto.

James Edward Clark is the Gene Day award-winning creator of Evil – a grindhouse, independent exploitation comic inspired by the films of Mexican wrestler El Santo. James was just a mild-mannered art student at Sheridan College when almost being burned alive in a house fire inspired him to say, “F– it” and bring Evil to life. He also talks about the influence of Robert Crumb (Zap Comix) and Greg Capullo (Batman, Spawn) in shaping his art style. Also for the first time ever, we go through a bag of comics our guest bought and review them. Oh, and our host is surprised with a birthday gift live on air.

Joseph Ianni (pronounced Yee-anni) is the illustrious audio editor for Speech Bubble, but he’s also a huge comic book fan. On this episode, he comes out from behind the editing suite to talk about his new self-published web comic, The Iamgrim. Not your typical zombie story, it touches on Joe’s love of video games and other aspects of geek culture, while simultaneously providing a creative outlet to help him process his long history with mental illness both personally, among his loved ones and in society.

The co-creator of Northguard – Canada’s first post-modern superhero – sits down for a chat on Fan Expo weekend. We talk about his place in Canadian comic history, the mentorship he received from the creator of Captain Canuck, his Orion scifi fanzine and what it was like to meet Johnny Canuck creator Les Barker.

Two members of the popular six-man From A Hat artist collective talk about its formation.

Hope Nicholson is a comic book writer, editor, publisher and historian. She discusses her restoration of The Canadian Whites of the 1940s and more.

Artist Jason Loo talks The Pitiful Human Lizard — his hit independent comic featuring Toronto’s not-so-super hero.

The editors of The Toronto Comics Anthology — multiple collections of comic stories taking place in Toronto.