We're (most of us) at Thought Bubble, and we're joined by cartoonist Lucy Bellwood as we run down the best of the show. Fewer dick jokes than usual, but not none.
Podcast Episode 18 - TCAF
Dave's been in The Canada, attending TCAF, so we talk about comics and comics shows and Canada. We also talk quite a lot about everything that is wrong with society, and some things that are wrong with Star Trek.
- Beautiful Darkness: Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët
- Hip Hop Family Tree: Ed Piskor
- The Undertaking of Lily Chen: Danica Novgorodoff
- Andre The Giant - Life and Legend: Box Brown
- Celeste: I.N.J. Culbard
- Pregnant Butch: A.K. Summers (and here's Roger's review / critique)
- The Spectral Engine: Ray Fawkes
- Trees: Warren Ellis and Jason Howard
- The Strumpet: Various
- Silly Kingdom: Katie Shanahan and Steven Shanahan (and their podcast which I cannot pronounce, but is very good, Shanahanigans).
We also mentioned Lucy Bellwood's Oh Joy Sex Toy strip, and the Kickstarter for the book of the first year's strips - get on that.
Podcast Episode 9 - Kickstarter
It's a bumper episode this week. More comics! More jokes! More interviews! More inexplicable digressions about cauliflower. These people got mad brassica love, yo. This week we look at Kickstarter, and all the good and bad that comes out of it, as well as interviewing cartoonist Lucy Bellwood with her experiences with 2 Kickstarter campaigns. Mentioned in this week's show:
- True Believer
- Cartozia Tales
- The Black Beetle: No Way Out
- Supermag
- The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
- Thor: Godbomb
- Marshall Law
- Mind MGMT
- Molly Danger
- Reich
- Jezebel
- Blue is the Warmest Colour
- Anything That Loves
- Sex Criminals
- Afterlife Inc.
- Oh Joy Sex Toy
- Dresden Codak
- The Authority
- Beyond (queer sci-fi anthology)
- Smut Peddler
Cartozia Tales: A Great Kids Comic
As I was just recently bemoaning the state of kids’ comics, it would be remiss of me not to draw your eye to this Kickstarter for Cartozia Tales, a new compendium comic featuring a raft of new artists and writers, as well as guest indie superstars like Dylan Horrocks and James Kochalka each month.
Each artist has a section of the map of Cartozia to cover, and Editor Isaac Cates rotates artists through each section month by moth like a sort of comics exquisite corpse, with artists continuing previous stories or starting new ones. In this way the world gets filled out; built as its written from a set of shared stories. There are also activities skewed at kids, like map drawing and paper dolls. My copy came with a luchador sticker on the envelope. This pleased me more than perhaps it should.
As with any anthology, some things will be more to your taste than others. I particularly enjoyed Shawn Cheng’s, as well as Lucy Bellwood’s and Dylan Horrocks’ (a neat little tale about a girl and a robot that will almost certainly appeal to Studio Ghibli fans).
If you want comics for your kids’, to read something all-ages, or just to be introduced to a bunch of great artists each month for not too much cash, consider investing. The Kickstarter should guarantee the first ten issues, and it will be interesting for kids and adults alike to see how this world gets built. There are some samples up at the Cartozia Tales site if you need convincing.
Podcast Episode 5 - Non-Fiction Comics
This week we pile into non-fiction comics, looking at the huge range of high-quality biographical, journalistic or otherwise not-made-up comics on the shelves. Covering books on topics ranging from the invention of the Pot Noodle to life as a tall ship sailor via the battle of Crecy and prostitution and sickness in the 80s New York art scene, there's going to be something to interest everyone, as they say on the Shopping Channel.
We also have some cross-generational strife about Kenickie and talk about why mimes are awful. This episode features a musical interlude from the pan pipe stylings of Lucy Boyes.
A quick reminder: if you like our theme music, electronic music, or supporting good causes, the Music By Programmers album has more tracks from the composer of our theme, Chris Whitworth. It supports various projects at Bletchley Park.
Comics we talked about this week:
- Young Avengers
- Adamtine
- Boulet comics (especially The Long Journey)
- Eustace
- Project X: Cup Noodle
- 7 Miles a Second
- We Won't See Auschwitz
- Lucy Knisley - French Milk | Relish
- Lucy Bellwood - Baggywrinkles | True Believer
- Guy Delisle - Pyongyang | Jerusalem | Shenzhen
- Symbolia
- Carnet de Voyage
- Alison Bechdel - Fun Home | Are You My Mother?
- Art Spiegelman - Maus | In the Shadow of No Towers
- Ed Piskor - Wizzywig | Hip-Hop Family Tree
- Osprey Comics
- Crécy
- Understanding Comics
- Joe Sacco - Palestine | Safe Area Gorazde
- Kate Beaton
And not a comic, but worth a read - We'll Get 'Em in Sequins.