Helen Maier and Fil Barlow are longtime partners and collaborators who have turned out a number of comics, available mainly in their native Australia, and worked on animation and character design on a number of cartoons that millennials watched as kids, such as Extreme Ghostbusters and Tutenstein.
Since returning to Australia in 2010, they’ve gone all in on comics, and the first two chapters of their story “Yorris” appeared in issues 4 and 5 of Image’s rather mysterious 8House anthology series.
This week, a talk with Helen about Czech comics and the view from the animation trenches becomes a talk with both Helen and Fil about the meaning of (and Easter eggs in) “Yorris”, their attempts to turn some conventions of comics storytelling on their heads, and the pluses and minuses of the crowdfunding model.
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If you’re listening to this podcast, you’ve probably at some point encountered (if not read) a history of DC or Marvel. But how about Harvey Comics? or Cracked Magazine? And if you’re into animation, perhaps you’d like a history of DePatie-Freling or Total Television Productions?
Tim talks with the members of 
Doug TenNapel’s name is known in a wide variety of media in the U.S., from video games to animation to, of course, comics. His Neverhood game is worshiped by, among many others, our own Kumar. His graphic novels have won acclaim but also some controversy, in part because of the statements on spirituality that are made in some of them, such as Black Cherry, the most spiritual book that you’ll never see in a Christian bookstore. (Could it be the nudity and F-bombs?)
FLASHBACK! Children’s book writer Mo Willems has been found out: he’s actually a comics creator! He talks to Tim about the state of American comics for kids, the effect of his animation background on his approach to creating books, and… just why does that pigeon want to drive a bus, anyway?! (Originally published Feb 2, 2009)
Canadian cartoonist Adrian Raeside is a veteran of editorial cartoons, the comics page (The Other Coast), animation, and children’s books. He talks about all of these and his newest book, Return to Antarctica, in a wide-ranging interview.