The TradeWaiters

Special guest Kathleen Jacques joins Jeff, Jam, and JD for a spooky read-through of Emily Carroll’s breakout short story collection "Through the Woods." Emily is a master of the medium, and her book sparks conversations about how to do horror in the comics medium, web versus print comics, fairy tales, picture books, and more.

Music by Sleuth.

Our next episode will be on "Sex Criminals" Vol. 1 & 2 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky.

The TradeWaiters are back from another (probably pandemic-related) hiatus. For this episode, Jam, Jeff, and JD read "Meal" by Blue Delliquanti with Soleil Ho. Have you ever eaten a bug? Like, on purpose? Would you like to? "Meal" is more than just a great case for entomophagy (i.e. bug eating), cuisine with deep cultural roots in many parts of the world. It’s also a great story. It might even be the beginning of a new tradition of food manga made in North America.

Music by Sleuth.

Our next episode will be on "Through the Woods" by Emily Carroll.

This week, or maybe six weeks ago, we read the "Slaughterhouse-Five" graphic novel adaptation by Kurt Vonnegut, Ryan North, and Albert Monteys. This may be the perfect book to read during a pandemic when time seems unstuck. But never mind the sales-pitch, because if you listen to this episode you’ve always listened to this episode. Detours include the firebombing of Dresden, what a Trafalmadorian comic looks like, and being unstuck in the history of manga.

Music by Sleuth

Our next episode will be on "Meal" by Blue Delliquanti and Soleil Ho.

It’s been too long since we last read a book by Mariko Tamaki, so join Jeff, Jam, and JD for "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me" by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell. It’s a high school drama about the multiple endings of a romance, as well as friendship, queerness, and life in general. You won’t be disappointed (except in Laura Dean).

Music by Sleuth

Our next episode will be on "Slaughterhouse Five: Or the Children’s Crusade" by Kurt Vonnegut, Ryan North, and Albert Monteys.

In today’s episode Jeff, Jam, and Jon jump back into the epic world of Landfall and Reef with "Saga" volumes 2 & 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. We go looking for themes, talk about writers writing writers, and learn more about the many characters the story boasts.

Music by Sleuth

Our next episode will be on "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me" by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell.

The wait is over! TradeWaiters Jon, Jeff, and Jam are back with a two-parter on "Saga" by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Stapes. This episode will cover Volume 1 (which is the first six chapters). Listen in as we revisit a tale as old as time, about a horned prisoner of war from a planet of magic and a winged soldier from a vast space empire falling in love over a trashy romance novel.

Music by Sleuth.

Our next episode will cover volumes 2 and 3 of "Saga" by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

We recorded this episode only a few months ago, and yet anything before quarantine began feels like a lifetime ago. Anyways, this is "Drifting Dragons" volumes 1 and 2 by Taku Kuwabara. Faith Erin Hicks joins us again for a deep dive into a manga about hunting, killing, and eating dragons. We also get lost on detours about analogy, cartoonist envy, and what it means to be famous in comics.

Music by Sleuth

Our next episode will be on volume 1 of "Saga" by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples.

VanCAF 2020 was held online, due to the world being in its current state, and so the TradeWaiters panel we pitched them became an online event as well. I present to you "Reading Deeply," on how to get the most out of your comics reading experience.

The audio quality on this one isn't great, sorry. Some of us (me) didn't think to get high quality microphones before a pandemic made new cameras and mics impossible to acquire.

Our primary examples for this episode are:

"Scott Pilgrim" and "Seconds" both by Bryan Lee O'Malley

"V for Vendetta" by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

"Berlin" by Jason Lutes

"Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" by Hayao Miyazaki

and "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi

Music by Sleuth

Our next episode will be the one we recorded with Faith Erin Hicks on the first two volumes of "Drifting Dragons" by Taku Kuwabara.

Have you ever wondered how to eat a suit of armour? Special guest Faith Erin Hicks joins Jam, Jeff, and Jon to find out as we read the first two volumes of "Delicious in Dungeon" by Ryoko Kui. This cross-genre comedy adventure about eating all the monsters in a fantasy campaign dungeon will give you answers to questions you didn’t even know you had.

Music by Sleuth.

Faith will join us again for our next episode, on the first two volumes of "Drifting Dragons" by Taku Kuwabara.

Some might call him a murderer. Some might call him Germany’s greatest doctor. Some might call him a manga “Littlest Hobo.” Doctor Temna returns for Volume 2 of Naoki Urasawa’s "Monster," and so do TradeWaiters Jam, Jon, and special guest Nina Matsumoto. Join us as we continue our deep dive into one of the greatest comics series of all time.

Music by Sleuth.

Our next episode we’ll be joined by special guest Faith Erin Hicks to read "Delicious in Dungeon" by Ryoko Kui.