Aatmaja Pandya is the guest! We talk about her work on the visual novel Rose of Winter, as well as her webcomic Travelogue. Also, we discuss webcomics in general, and the way we've learned to tell stories through comics.

Aatmaja's website

Rose of Winter on Steam

Travelogue

Gawain's Girlfriend and the Green Knight by Polly Guo

Connor Brown, author of The Grrls Are All Right - that comic Kevin got at CALA

Mystery Flavor Podcast - Hosted by Kristine Thune and Eric Kubli

Amuse Bouche Podcast - Hosted by Lauren Jordan

All music for Tight Pencils is by The Past is Another Planet

This episode's guest is Kevin Czap, cartoonist and publisher. Kevin's imprint, Czap Books, is one of the growing forces for good in the alternative comics community.

The tone of this episode is a little somber. It's very hard to see good in the world right now, but the only way through it is by surrounding yourselves with people you love and admire.

Czap Books website

Kevin's Website

Kevin is joined by Cartoonist, Editor, and Comics Journalist Whitney Taylor

In this episode we talk about the benefits of picking up other tools, learning from your peers, and imbuing your work with a sense that you care about the subject.

Whit's Website

Subscribe to Tight Pencils on iTunes

Daryl Seitchik's new book Exits just debuted from Koyama Press.

Kevin and Daryl sit down to talk about focusing outward in order to develop their work and the thoughts they direct inward.

Exits on the Koyama website

Daryl's Website

Keiler Roberts is an Ignatz Award winning cartoonist whose autobiographical comics series, Powdered Milk, focuses on her family, her daughter Xia and husband Scott, and her childhood memories.

I talked to Keiler about how she started Powdered Milk, now a 15-volume, seven year series. We discuss comics and mental health, and the way the latter effects our processes.

Keiler Roberts Website

Buy Miseryland on Amazon

Issues of Powdered Milk are available through Spit and Half

Other links:

Tight Pencils on Twitter

Kevin on Twitter

This episode is sponsored by Basecamp

Tight Pencils is a proud member of the Chicago Podcast Cooperative

Kevin and Casey talk about The Small Press Expo and The Ignatz Awards (in which they're nominated against eachother!)

Other topics covered in this episode include the vary nature of awards, the romanticized notion of working oneself to death, and the timeless work of Tillie Walden.

Casey's recent comic, Diana's Electric Tongue, is included in the second bespoke comics-subscription Short Box - There are a few on sale now.

Casey is also a co-host of the wonderful comics roundtable podcast We Should Be Friends

Casey's website

Tillie Walden

The 2016 Ignatz nominees

some other links:

Follow Tight Pencils on Soundcloud

Follow Tight Pencils on Twitter

Follow Kevin on Twitter

Kevin talks with Matt Cummings and Lauren Jordan about working lifestyles and freelancing. There's a lot of good cat-noise in this one.

Matt's website

Follow Matt on Twitter

Support Matt on Patreon

Lauren's website

Follow Lauren on Twitter

Lauren's new show - Amuse Bouche Podcast

Lauren's Shop

The Small Press Expo

This episode is sponsored by Basecamp, and the Chicago Podcast Cooperative

Follow Tight Pencils on twitter @tight_pencils

Follow Kevin on twitter @knittedsweater

Kevin interviews Jessi Zabarsky about her artistic influences including plant-life and creating ecosystems surrounding characters. Jessi’s comics focus on small stories that may seem inconsequential to the grand scheme of the world, but have a distinct emotional significance to the characters involved.

Witchlight is Jessi Zabarsky’s lushly illustrated shoujo-adventure comic that introduces Lelek the witch as she blows through town one day, kidnapping the peasant girl Sanja. The unlikely pair grow more entangled as they travel together, looking for the missing half of Lelek’s soul – the source of her true magical abilities. Both women are seeking to learn, in their own ways, how to be whole again. – Czap Books

Jessi’s Tumblr

Donate to the Czap Books Kickstarter

Balderdash by Victoria Grace Elliot

Sage Coffey joins Kevin to talk about finding a place in comics. In this episode, Sage and Kevin discuss what it's like to read and write comics from a very personal place. Sage is a fantastic cartoonist whose recent diary comics portray nervousness and daily life with remarkable sincerity.

Sage is the co-editor of the upcoming Sweaty Palms anthology, a collection of comics about coping with extreme anxiety.

Show notes:

Sweaty Palms!

Sage's website

Follow Sage on Twitter

Dirty Diamonds

Zinetendo

Sweaty Palms Co-Editor Liz Enright

Bosc Pears

This episode is sponsored by Jackbox Games

Tight Pencils is a proud member of the Chicago Podcast Cooperative

Follow Kevin on Twitter @knittedsweater

Follow the show on Twitter @tight_pencils

Jon Marchione makes comics and prints with a bold graphic style. Influenced heavily by a rural upbringing, many of his images contain simple and clean scenes of nature. Jon sat down with me to talk about where he draws influence and guidance, and how single-image illustration drove him to pursue different avenues of art

In this episode Jon and Kevin talk small-batches, comics as art objects, and how collecting brings us closer to our friends

Jon's website : http://jonmarchione.com/

Follow the show on twitter @tight_pencils

Follow Kevin on twitter @knittedsweater

Tight Pencils is a proud member of the Chicago Podcast Cooperative