Shan Murphy is an illustrator, cartoonist, and recent graduate from the New Hampshire Institute of Art. Shan makes poignant comics about loneliness and personal growth. In this episode, Shan and Kevin talk about the universal feelings of insecurity and trying to find a place in comics.

Shan's Website

Sara Lautman sits down to talk about how she started drawing cartoons

Sara Lautman is an artist living in Baltimore. Her cartoons are published with The New Yorker, Mad, Playboy, Jezebel and on her own blog. Her most recent collection, Black and White Diary Comics, February-December 2017, is available from Birdcage Bottom Books.

http://saralautman.com/

Eric Kubli is a graphic designer and illustrator from Ohio. Now living in Oakland California, Eric has been working on a comic series called Northlake Magic. Issue three of Northlake was just released digitally, and in this episode Eric talks to us about how he began the series.

We also talk about video games and communicating with your friends over the internet, two things that provide inspiration and support for Eric in his work

Eric' Website

Visit Eric's Gumroad shop to download Northlake Magic 3, and a ton of other good stuff

Hannah Templer is a cartoonist based in Seattle. She is the author of the webcomic Cosmoknights and is currently coloring Coady and the Creepies, for Boom! In this episode Hannah joins Kevin to talk about nerdy genre comics and giving agency to female characters.

Hannah's Website

Read Cosmoknights

Kelsey Wroten is a freelance illustrator and comics artist from Kansas City, MO, now living in Brooklyn, NY.

We talk about the grand philosophy of storytelling through comics, and a little peek at Kelsey's book with Uncivilized Books slated to come out in 2018

Also, a beer and some cat noises

find more of Kelsey's work at kelseywroten.com

In this episode, I talk to my Dad about how it felt raising a child who wants to pursue a career in art

Amanda Scurti is a Queens, NY based illustrator and cartoonist.

She has worked as a colorist for Fresh Romance, and We Can Never Go Home. She is currently drawing FABIOLA & YLINI, a YA graphic novel, for Oni Press.

In this episode, Amanda tells us about her experience freelancing as well as working on a team. Also, Kevin clumsily editorializes about art school and the future of illustration.

Find more of Amanda's work on here website: http://www.amandascurti.com/

Follow Amanda on twitter @amandascurti

Follow Kevin on twitter @knittedsweater

Tight Pencils is also on twitter @tight_pencils, but tweets are very infrequent.

Thanks to the Chicago Podcast Cooperative

Music for Tight Pencils by The Past is Another Planet

Carta Monir makes intimate comics about identity and technology. She self-published "Meet n' Fuck," a comic about sex-sim games, in 2016. Her new work, "Secure Connect" will be available soon from 2d cloud.

Carta is also the co-host of We Should Be Friends, a sincere and positive podcast about comics

In this episode Carta reflects on her experiences writing about trans identity, sexuality on the internet, and struggling with the question of whether or not her comics could or should alienate the people they're about.

Oh, hey. It's episode 50.

Meredith Park is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Hamilton, Ontario. Her diary comics capture dream-like sequences of anxiety, love, and depression. She uses impressionistic color to convey moods and feelings that and depth to her fragile words and lines.

In this episode, Kevin and Meredith compare and contrast their philosophies on journal comics

Meredith's website

Rob Kirby is an accomplished cartoonist, and an editor of several anthologies including QU33R (Ignatz winner 2014, best anthology), What's Your Sign, Girl?, and The Shirley Jackson Project.

We talk about Rob's origins in the alternative comics community. Through the culture of queer zines and journal comics, Rob found a place and a voice that marries the two worlds.

Rob's Website

QU33R, available from Northwest Press

What's Your Sign, Girl? and The Shirley Jackson Project, available from Ninth Art Press

Rob's Favorite Comics of 2016 can be found here: http://robkirbycomics.com/RobKirbyComics/Blog/Entries/2016/12/12_Robs_6th_Annual_Top_20_Comics_List__the_2016_Edition.html

Kevin's Favorite Comics of 2016 can be found in this twitter thread: https://twitter.com/knittedsweater/status/808413137934450692