Victoria based cartoonist, Lisa Maas, joined me to talk about her debut graphic novel, Forward. It’s a really effective look at recovering from loss and how to move on and make connections. it’s a very personal work that holds a lot of heart.

Today I interviewed Sloane Leong. Sloane is no stranger to the Inkstuds, helping out with many excellent guest interviews in the past. Sloane’s latest work is Prism Stalker which comes out in the first collection from Image comics next month. Sloane is a really interested and thoughtful creator, making work that challenges and subverts genre tropes.

I had the pleasure of talking with Paul Kirchner about his work. It’s a really great conversation that covers a lot of breadth. His most recent release is collection of a range of his comics work called Awaiting the Collapse. French publisher, Tanibis, released it both in French and English. You can also find editions collecting his great the bus comic strip that was featured in the powerful early days of Heavy Metal Magazine. Probably the oddest entry in series of breakthrough work during that time in Heavy Metal, the bus has a great surreal quietness to it. Fantastic work. Paul’s work sits in a unique place in comics, bridging underground and overground traditions with an undercurrent of the greats like Wally Wood. You can buy Paul’s work directly from him on ebay.

Nate Powell joined me to talk about his new book, Come Again. His first personal/solo work after the extremely powerful March series with John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, Come Again is a really fantastic book that continues his tradition of thoughtful important work.

Fiona Smyth has been making great important comics for the past 30 plus years and most of them can be found in the recent collection from Koyama Press, Somnambulance. It’s an amazing way to get a deep understanding of one of Canada’s important pioneering small press cartoonists. Her work is radical, engaging and vibrant. I am really happy to have had the time to talk to Fiona about her comics appreciative to have this book in my hands.

Tommi Parish joined me to talk about their latest book from Fantagraphics, The Lie and How We Told It. It’s a really fantastic book about people, relationships and finding our place. I really loved this book, same with their previous work, Perfect Hair from 2D Cloud.

After many years of reading and enjoying his mini-comics, I finally sat down with Max Clotfelter to talk about his wide ranging of works. Max’s main series of odd shaped minis is Snake Meat Comics. Max has an amazing style of Southern post underground dystopia. The best place to buy Max’s work is here through John Porcellino’s great distro site.

Chris Reynolds joined me to talk about his book, The New World, from New York Review Books. It’s an amazing collection of work that he had done from about 1985 – 1992. Edited and designed by Seth, Reynolds work holds a really unique place that fits well on the shelf sitting next to Beto’s more introspective works. I really enjoyed this collection, like pretty much every other comic that NYRB puts out.

Eric Reynolds has spent his entire adult life at Fantagraphics, starting as an intern and returning to work as an ace reporter, news editor, Hate inker, marketing muckamuck, and even, occasionally, cartoonist. These days his jack-of-all-tradesness has seen him clamber to the broad title of Associate Publisher, and he’s currently editing his third major anthology series for the company. Dirty Stories ran from 1997 to 2002 on the Eros imprint, featuring filth, fannies and fingering. Mome brought the more highbrow side of Fanta’s nature to bookstore audiences and alt-comix readers from 2005 to 2011. NOW is a dense full-colour bundle of new work largely from artists under-represented in the direct market, publishing three times a year in a comic-book format.

The second issue of NOW is out as of this week in comic shops, and substitute ‘stud Kit Brash spoke to him before its release.

NOW can be purchased in print and digital via Fantagraphics. If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon

Last Fall, I moderated a panel at FanExpo in Vancouver featuring Ken Steacy, Paul Chadwick and Gerhard. The theme was legends of indie comics. I just used that as an excuse to have a fun conversation with some memorable voices in comics. Paul Chadwick is probably most known for his work on creator owned series Concrete and his latest book, Best Wishes, a collaboration with publisher Mike Richardson. Gerhard from his years of work his the laborious draftsman on Dave Sim’s Cerebus and lastly, Ken Steacy, an active figure in the west coast Canadian comics scene, running his own post secondary comics school program and a career of solid work. These guys were a blast to talk to.

If you like this podcast and want to hear more, please consider supporting Inkstuds on Patreon.