#556 Vanessa Davis

Vanessa Davis

Vanessa Davis is an L.A.-based creator of autobio comics Spaniel Rage, Make Me A Woman and Out of Time. Koom has been an admirer of her work, and this week he talks with her in depth about whether she sees herself as part of a “movement”; the pitfalls of reporting in your comics on what your family members do (like that time with her mom in the museum…); how her parents affected the direction of her art; and much more.

#555 Steve Pugh takes on “The Flintstones”

The Flintstones

One breakout hit comic of the past year is DC’s The Flintstones, by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh. This week, Tim and John Roberson talk with Pugh about the challenges of adapting the 1960s characters to a slightly more serious art style and discuss writer Russell’s decidedly different take on this classic Hanna-Barbera property.

Patrons can hear a bonus review of Flintstones #12 on Patreon!

#554 Ethan Rilly

Pope Hats

After TCAF, Koom sat down with Ethan Rilly, creator of the comic Pope Hats. How did he get started? Where’d the title come from? Why did he focus the story on two women? The interview covers all this and more. (NOTE: Contains a spoiler for issue 5 — we’ll warn you when it’s coming!)

#551 R. Sikoryak


Robert Sikoryak is known for adopting the styles of various famous comics and mashing them up with classic literature, Donald Trump quotes, and even the iTunes user agreement. This week he talks with Koom how he chooses the specific pairings of comics titles and other content, why he didn’t want to do his book on Trump, what Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Schulz’s Peanuts have in common, getting inside the head of the creator whose work he’s parodying, and more.

#550 Four TCAF Interviews

This year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival was held May 13 & 14. Koom was there and brought back interviews with Dave McKean, Jessica Campbell, Rick Geary, and Charlie Adlard!

Continue reading #550 Four TCAF Interviews

#549 Kind of Epic Episode

Vision

This week, Gabrial and David from the Kind of Epic Show podcast join Tim to talk about their show, and various Marvel Comics highlights (and lowlights) from the past 30 years — and in particular, Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s The Vision.

#548 Jaime Hernandez

Jaime Hernandez

Love and Rockets continues to impress, and in this episode Koom asks creator Jaime Hernandez some burning questions. Hernandez talks about writing Maggie and Hopey, the dynamics of working on something with your brother, why he gravitates toward female characters, his influences and art style, and more.

Also, Tim and Mulele discuss the current state of the US comics market and Marvel’s recent problems.

#545 Peter Bagge

FIRE!!

Peter Bagge is known for the manic comic series “Hate”. But his recent work has gone a different direction: profiling women who made a difference in early 20th century America. Why the change in topic and tone? In this interview, recorded with Koom in a spotlight discussion at Toronto Comicon, Bagge discusses what drew him to making comics bios of Margaret Sanger (Woman Rebel) and Zora Neale Hurston (Fire!!).

#544 Gerhard

Dino's Cafe

At last month’s Toronto Comicon, Koom got a chance to sit down with Gerhard, most famous for drawing backgrounds and environments for (and NOT inking!) Dave Sim’s Cerebus. Koom talks with him about working with Dave Sim and navigating some of Sim’s more controversial moments; the ergonomics of comics creation; working with Grant Morrison on “Smile of the Absent Cat” in Heavy Metal; and more.

Continue reading #544 Gerhard

#543 Jeff Smith

Bone cousins

Jeff Smith wanted to do a newspaper comic strip, but he couldn’t sell his idea, so he ended up self-publishing it. Bone eventually caught on, and now it has a color edition from GRAPHIX and it might become a movie!

Jeff Smith joins Tim in this episode to talk about how he got started with self-publishing, why he decided to have Grandma Ben raise cows, why Bone became less funny in the later volumes, and more; plus, answers to some lingering questions from our review of his book RASL!