This week, an interview with Matt Emery, a comics creator from New Zealand who lives in Melbourne and has started his own publishing house, Pikitia Press. He’ll be talking with Kumar about the Melbourne comics scene, why he started publishing and how he got started in it.
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So what’s it like to be an American comics retailer in 2013? Is the digital market your friend, or a sworn enemy? What kind of hassles are presented by the weekly shipments of new comics? Is there any reason to stock back issues these days? In this episode, Tim explores these issues and more with James Sime, co-owner of Isotope Comics in San Francisco!
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Waaay back in episode 250, Tim talked to Thomas Negovan about the Kickstarter project for a comic called Cursed Pirate Girl. Negovan was the publisher of the single issues of the series, and was handling media inquiries while the comic’s creator, Jeremy Bastian, put all his time into the comic’s insanely detailed art.
The first three issues are now out in a fancy hardcover from Archaia, and this time Jeremy himself comes on the show to talk to Tim about what’s happened since the successful 2010 Kickstarter project, and what to expect from here.
Plus, Tim and Brandon review the book!
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Sales of digital comics have grown by leaps and bounds the past couple of years. Interestingly, this hasn’t hurt sales of paper comics, and may even have helped it. But is buying these comics really “buying” them? What considerations go into the pricing of them? What other issues, such as digital rights, still remain to be sorted out? Tim talks with cartoonist and writer Shaenon Garrity about all this and more.
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Comics that you buy in comics shops or bookstores are facing enough business challenges, but how about newspaper comics? Their traditional delivery system is dying out, with many printed papers ceasing publication. The comic strip faces a number of challenges, but there are positive trends as well. How are Web comics and other new technology changing the game? This week, Tim talks newspaper(-style) strips with Tom Racine, host of the Tall Tale Radio podcast!
Stephan Pastis interview (gigaom.com)
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On my recent trip to Beijing, I talked to Liu Jing for the podcast. I had hoped to also speak with China Daily editorial cartoonist Luo Jie, but unfortunately he was out of town when I was there. As it happened, his preference was to do the interview in written form, anyway, so here’s my conversation with him:
—Did you grow up reading comics? Making comics?
Like the vast majority of Chinese children, my growth process was accompanied by reading comics. I was born in 1978; in that era, there were few decent comic book publications. It was very common that many children would have to share one comic book. Relative to the shortage of comic books, I preferred watching cartoons on television. There were a lot of animated cartoons, whether Chinese or foreign. I was very willing to copy some favorite cartoon characters in “Saint Seiya” and “Transformers”. That was the greatest pleasure of my childhood.
—What were/are your favorites?
US editorial cartoons are my favorite. I like funny comics too, especially nonsensical comics, just like those drawn by Japanese cartoonist Rumiko Takahashi.
Continue reading Editorial Cartoonist in Beijing: An interview with Luo Jie
Electronic publishing has made it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world, to make their work available to millions of people. Chinese graphic designer and sometime comic creator Liu Jing is one of them. He’s using modern technology to put out his comics history of one of the world’s oldest civilizations: Understanding China through Comics
(Thanks to MandMX.com for their help in getting in touch with Jing!)
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Many classics have been presented as comics, but Frank Wedekind’s “Lulu” plays have, as far as we know, not made it to the page until now; occasional Deconstructing Comics contributor John Roberson has recently released Book One of his adaptation. He talks to Tim about including the level of sexual frankness Wedekind may have intended, censorship, self-publishing, and more.
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English-speaking manga fans are probably familiar with the name Deb Aoki. She covers Japanese comics for about.com, and is deeply into manga and anything remotely related to it. Deb made a manga geek pilgrimage to Japan recently, and Tim had a chance to sit down and talk with her about Japan, the changing manga culture in the US, and much more.
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The Boston Comics Roundtable is a thriving group of creators who have weekly meetings and put out anthology books of their work, including Show & Tell; a Collection of Comics about Teaching & Learning; and The Greatest of All Time. This week Tim talks to anthology co-editor (and comics creator) Dan Mazur, who publishes the books through his own imprint, Ninth Art Press; Norwegian artist Line Olsson; and first-time comics writer (and former English teacher here in Japan) Ben DiMaggio.
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