This time we're blessed to have a cartoonist laureate on the show. Fom Burlington, Vermont best known for his daily autobiographical strips between 1998-2012 called American Elf. He also publishes the superhero frathouse comedy Super F*ckers which was adapted into a cartoon on the online channel Cartoon Hangover. He has also created Monkey vs. Robot and a number of other comic series for kids, including Dragon Puncher and the Johnny Boo series. He's also a darling of college radio fronting his own alternative punk band James Kochalka Superstar. Aaron caught up to him at The Toronto Cartoon Art Festival TCAF where he debuted the latest Johnny Boo, Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer and Mechaboys - a NSFW comic featuring two teenage boys who plot to kill everyone in their school with a mechsuit.

In an extremely candid interview, Kochalka reveals that as teens, he and his friends used to be those kids, fantasizing about killing everyone in the sleepy, dead-end town they grew up in. James also talks about how his childhood anxiety meant only rediscovering superhero comics in his 40s and throws down the gauntlet to any kid who thinks they can make up a better kids comic than he can. Plus, if Ben and Jerry are listening to this, we want to know which one of you gave James a hug.

@the_kochalka

Mechaboys

Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer:

Jame's Music

YouTube Channel:

James supports Zeno Mountain Farm - a summer camp for aspiring filmmakers with disabilities

Eddie Campbell's Alec series of quasi-autobiographical comics has been called "one of the most important graphic novels of the 20th century" While his fictionalized comic memoirs Alec and later, Fate of the Artist, have become his trademark style where he interrogates his own life through an avatar, he is best known as the artist behind From Hell with legendary comic scribe Alan Moore. Set during the

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Kyle is a member of Toronto's RAID Studio along with past Speech Bubble guests Ramon Perez, (Jane, Nova) Scott Hepburn, (Spider-man/Deadpool) Marcus To (Justice League: No Justice) and Gibson Quarter (Undertow). Kyle's past credits include Scare Tales with friend and fellow RAID member Gabe Sapienza and RAID.One, an anthology with contributions from each RAID member. He comes to the podcast to promote his latest project, BlackMouth – a coming of age, horror webcomic featuring a man named Eric investigating his mother's death after she was banished by their village to a forest that is alleged to hold all kinds of witches and other black magic denizens. On the show, Aaron gets the low down on what really goes on at the annual RAID Retreat Weekend, finds out how and why Kyle joined with such a critically-acclaimed pack of miscreants and what went in to constructing the extensive lore and world building behind the innovative BlackMouth.

@kjswithabeard

BlackMouth Webcomic

Scare Tales (with Gabe Sapienza)

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Sometimes when an Aussie and a Canadian who has a hardcore love for Aussies get together, magic happens. That's what happened when Caitlin Major immigrated from Australia with her boyfriend for better comic-making opportunity in Canada and met Canadian Kelly Bastow at a Drink & Draw. Kelly is an artist on the rise, having done variant covers for titles like Lumberjanes and Adventure Time and having been nominated twice for an Ignatz Award (honouring small press comic creators) including for her graphic memoir Year Long Summer. Caitlin is no slouch either, already having two published graphic novels under her belt, including Space Pyrates with partner Matthew Hoddy and Seeds of

Amidst the talk of the near-parallel genesis of this latest project and Kelly and Caitlin's friendship, Aaron overshares his his love for his own cat and the lengths certain relatives of his will go to have one. We also learn about the comic scene in Australia and stay tuned until the end for an exclusive

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Willow Dawson is a critically-acclaimed illustrator for comics, graphic novels and picture books for kids and adults. She was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award in 2016 for her picture book about the way wolves and ravens hunt together called The Wolf-Birds. She was also nominated for a 2008 Joe Shuster award for No Girls Allowed, a graphic novel chronicling women who had to pose as men throughout history.

Willow comes to Speech Bubble to promote her newest effort White as Milk,Red as Blood an evocative illustrated collection of uncensored, adult fairy tales translated from the original German written by Franz Xaver Schonwerth, a contemporary of The Brothers Grimm. Together Willow and Aaron spool out the incredible discovery of this collection 150 years after it was first locked away in a German archive. They parse out how Willow flipped literary tradition on its head by using her amazingly layered, sometimes sinister, sometimes whimsical illustrations to give context and meaning to these raw, unfiltered fairy tales where often there was none. Plus, they discuss how fairy tale plagiarism is possible in the time of the oral storytelling tradition.

You'll also hear how the dichotomies in Willow's life: a lover of nature with deathly allergies and a figure skater with serious asthma -- along with a sometimes scary upbringing in an overgrown city full of stranger danger -- came to inform why she took on this project as a mother herself and why she believes the media kids consume has a responsibility to scare them from time to time. This podcast is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula Join us for Sketches for Pledges to benefit cancer research April 21, 2018 at Paradise Comics. Get 10% off geeky t-shirts when you go to riptapparel.com and type NEVERSLEEPS at checkout

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Andrew is a comic book writer, podcast host and former Eisner award-winning comic industry journalist who came to Toronto by way of Hastings, England. He was the last editor-in-chief of Comics Alliance, shepherding it towards its 2015 Eisner win for “Best Comics Journalism.” As part of the LGBTQ community, Andrew has always championed representation for all minorities in all of his comics work, starting with Another Castle from Oni Press and continuing with his current work on Freelance from Chapterhouse Comics. Formerly co-written with Jim Zub, (Wayward, Avengers: No Surrender) Freelance re-imagines Canada's oldest superhero swashbuckler as a same-sex love triangle. In studio, Andrew talks about why attracting a diverse readership is integral to the health of the comic book industry as a whole, what creative considerations need to be made when writing a same-sex relationship, as opposed to a hetero one and later he breaks down some of his favourite 2017 Oscar nominees telling listeners what worked narratively-speaking, just like his podcast Story Beater, which he hosts with fellow comic scribe and past Speech Bubble guest Anthony Falcone. This podcast is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula Also, please join Speech Bubble host Aaron Broverman at Sketches for Pledges in support of cancer research at Paradise Comics on April 21, 2018 from 10am-6pm.

Andrew's About.me

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Another Castle

Andrew's Story in Osgoode as Gold is called Cenotaph

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Sam Beck is certainly a comic artist to watch for these days, as her career coalesces to its first major apex. At the time of this episode, Songs for the Dead – the comic she draws for writers and past Speech Bubble guests Andrea Fort and Michael Christopher Heron – has just been picked up by publisher Vault Comics and is now available at comic shops everywhere. Her work is also featured in the 2018 edition of the Toronto Comics Anthology, Osgoode as Gold, she also contributed a story to the upcoming Wayward Sisters Anthology and that's just for starters. She also writes and draws her own fantasy webcomic called Verse and another project based on Greek mythology called Cadmus from Antarctic Press. On this episode, she talks about how role-playing games influence her comics work, what draws her to fantasy narratives in the first place and how Neopets – a place where users can own and raise virtual pets – fostered her creativity and storytelling abilities. This episode sponsored by Hairy Tarantula. Get 10% off geeky t-shirts at riptapprel.com by ordering using this link.

Sam Beck's website

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Songs for the Dead

Verse Webcomic

Toronto Comics Anthology Kickstarter (Contribute until March 31, 2018)

Wayward Sisters Anthology

Cadmus

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Matthew is the former long-running artist of the Mr.Monitor comic strip in Broken Pencil Magazine – Canada's national magazine for D.I.Y. Arts and zine culture. He and his long-time collaborator Cory McCallum (known collectively as Pier Pants Productions) won a Joe Shuster award in 2013. called the Gene Day award, denoting their Mr. Monitor short comic, The Pig Sleep, the best independent comic of that year. They've also collaborated on a number of other comics, including Errol Dynamic – a scifi space adventure with a theme song you can hear as part of this episode. Speaking of music, in this episode Daley reveals how he and McCallum made mini comics breaking down different styles of music – effectively blowing Aaron's mind. Daley also talks about how he found his surrealist geometric drawing style and how teen angst and resentment of Batman bandwagon jumpers in 1989 led him to move away from being influenced by Superhero comics into being influenced by indie work like Chester Brown's Yummy Fur and Mike Kaluta's Metropolis. This episode sponsored by Hairy Tarantula. For 10% off geeky pop culture t-shirts visit www.riptapparel.com and enter code NEVERSLEEPS at checkout.

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The Errol Dynamic Theme Song (heard in this episode)

Broken Pencil presents Mr. Monitor

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Diana is one half of the duo behind From Superheroes – the brand that brought you Texts from Superheroes (funny text conversations between your favourite superheroes and supervillains) and the superhero media review podcast, Talk from Superheroes. She founded the site in 2012 with her boyfriend, Comedian Andrew Ivimey and now they have millions of fans around the world. Diana also occasionally writes comics. She's currently featured in the Secret Loves of Geeks graphic anthology, the much anticipated sequel to The Secret Loves of Geek Girls edited by past Speech Bubble guest Hope Nicholson and published by Dark Horse Comics. Along with Diana, the sequel features contributions from Margaret Atwood and Gerard Way with a cover from Becky Cloonan. On the podcast, Aaron and Diana geek out on their mutual love of Batman, (and hatred of Damian Wayne) reveal how Texts from Superheroes began, define the term “Jedi Stick” and discuss those times Diana got “geek credded,” and she thought her testers were just making conversation. This episode is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula. Buy geektastic t-shirts at riptapparel.com and receive 10% OFF when you enter code NEVERSLEEPS at checkout.

@WordsofDiana

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From Superheroes

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Timmins, Ontario native Brendan Montgomery was a Queen's University student who thought for sure that a campus with over 200 student groups would certainly have a club for comic book fans. When it turned out that wasn't the case, he started a club himself. The Queen's Comic Book Legion meets every week on campus to discuss the latest issues coming out that week, they sell comics at an on-campus comic shop and they've even published their own graphic novel featuring Queen's very own superhero team. Gael Force is a fully Kickstarter backed graphic novel featuring a superhero team of the same name that protects the student body and reflects the diversity among them. In promotion of the book, Brendan started going to comic conventions and discovered there were a ton of self-published Canadian comic books out there, but no central resource to learn more about them, so he started the Canadian Independent Comic Book Wiki where anyone can contribute information about Canadian independent comics past and present. This episode sponsored by Hairy Tarantula

@cancomicswiki

Canadian Independent Comic Book Wiki Homepage

@cancomicswiki (Instagram)

@Mongomerydigital

Brendan Montgomery's Art

Gael Force Kickstarter

Queen's Comic Book Legion Homepage

Queen's Comic Book Legion Facebook Group

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