TCJ Talkies

In his final episode, Mike Dawson interviews The Pain cartoonist and essayist Tim Kreider

This time around, Mike talks to the creator of Habibi and Blankets.

Mike talks to the cartoonist behind such disturbing works as The Ticking and Marbles in My Underpants about style, what's acceptable (and not) in today's comics world, and her second career as a children's book creator.

The cartoonist and publisher behind Retrofit.

An interview with the creator of Hicksville and The Magic Pen.

Mike talks to Zak Sally, creator of Sammy the Mouse and publisher of La Mano.

Sarah Glidden joins me in the Talkie Hutt for a chat. Sarah is perhaps best known for her 2010 debut memoir, How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, which was published by Vertigo. Since writing that book, Sarah has become more interested in comics journalism, and roughly a year ago successfully Kickstarted the funds to travel to Syria and northern Iraq tailing a group of journalists to write about the work they were doing.

Recorded live at the Minneapolis Indie Xpo, a conversation with the cartoonists behind Kiss & Tell and Blammo.

Julia Wertz is my guest in the Talkie Hutt this week. Julia is the author of The Fart Party, volumes 1 and 2, published by Atomic Books, and Drinking at the Movies, published by Random House. We talk about her early minicomics and webcomics, her feelings about interacting with an online audience, and the creation of Drinking at the Movies, as well as the subsequent ambivalence she feels towards that book for a number of different reasons.

Kurt Wolfgang is my guest this week in the TCJ Talkies "Talkie Hutt." Kurt is most recently known for his serialized graphic novel, Nothing Eve, which appeared in the now-defunct MOME, an anthology that Wolfgang appeared in from its inception. Earlier in his career, he self-published the No-Fie and Lowjinx minicomic series. His silent graphic novella, Where Hats Go, won the Xeric grant and appeared in NON #5, an anthology edited by Jordan Crane. Kurt has also been hard at work on Pinokio, an original graphic novel for Top Shelf Productions.

This conversation with Alex Robinson was recorded at this past weekend’s Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland. The title of the panel was "Ten Years of Box Office Poison", so the conversation focuses on the creation of that series and its eventual collection, and the place the book (which is the one Alex is most known for) has occupied in Alex’s creative life. We had an interesting chat about Alex’s different approaches to his different projects and some of the struggles and successes that have come from those. For those who don’t know, I’m very good friends with Alex, and host another podcast with him called The Ink Panthers Show!, which we also speak about a little bit in the conversation. Later in the chat we discuss how Alex’s aversion to collaboration might be part of what pushed him down the path toward creator-owned auteur-style alternative comics, and further, how the collaboration of podcasting is different from writing.

Tom Kaczynski is my guest in the TCJ Talkie Hutt this week. Tom is well known for the excellent run of short stories he created for the MOME anthology, while that was still a going concern. I hear he has a story in issue 22, which I’ve yet to see, so I am looking forward to that. Tom’s comics have also appeared in The Drama and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009.

Lisa Hanawalt joins me in the Talkie Hutt for a lively chat about her comics, writing humorous pieces, performing, being in a relationship with another creator, and being the shy person at a party sitting on a couch drawing in a sketchbook. Lisa is the creator of the comic series I Want You #1 and 2, published by Buenaventura/Pigeon Press. She recently finished work on a children's book to be published by McSweeneys and has lately been taking the internet by storm with her hilarious movie reviews.

Recent British expatriate, and Alien of Extraordinary Ability, Nick Abadzis is the guest in the Talkie Hutt this week. Nick is the author of the very popular First Second graphic novel LAIKA, as well as the comic Hugo Tate which ran in Deadline magazine in the early 1990s. Following LAIKA, he serialized a graphic novel, The Trial of the Sober Dog, in the London Times.

The author of Berlin and Jar of Fools enters the studio.