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Those who think comic book geeks and computer nerds are two mutually exclusive groups have never met Ryan North. The Toronto resident and writer behind The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Adventure Time and Dinosaur Comics also holds a masters in computer science with a focus on Computational Linguistics — teaching artificial intelligence how to speak more naturally. His love of computer science also bleeds into the pages of the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, aiding in its progressive picture of what makes a female heroine. Even his effort to bring back the choose your own adventure genre – Romeo and/or Juliet – refuses to define society along gender lines. Not bad for a guy who can’t draw, but still left what his parents called, “a respectable profession” to create comics. @ryanqnorth www.ryannorth.ca Episode Sponsor: Hairy Tarantula

The first guest on our experimental Comics on Comics series, Comedian Ben Miner is the host of Comic Stripped, an interview show with comedy’s biggest names, on Canada Laughs – Sirius XM’s uncensored comedy satellite radio station. In addition to being a stand-up comic since he was 14, he’s also come in the top 16 of Master Chef Canada and absolutely loves comic books. He gives us an inside look at life as road comic, tells us why he hates Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, explains why diversity in comics has its limits and then pitches any listening artists on the best creator-owned comic book idea ever – The 10 Minute Man. @BenMiner Canada Laughs

Ad Astra Comix is a Canadian comics publisher specializing in comics with social justice themes. It was a mission first ignited in founder Nicole Marie Burton while reading the pulitzer-prize winning holocaust graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman way back in elementary school and hasn’t really stopped since. The latest books in her slate include a republishing of War in the Neighbourhood by Seth Tobocman and the anthology Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back! She comes to us while on a roadtrip across Canada meeting with shop owners about how they can better engage their customers towards comics dealing with social justice issues. To that end, we talk about diversity in comics, the power of comics journalism and how comics fandom is very much a political microcosm of our own society.

Yaron Betan is the director of a new documentary premiering on Oct. 14, 2016 at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto called Heroes Manufactured. It features many former guests of this podcast like Mark Shainblum, Shane Kirshenblatt and Meaghan Carter and follows them as they make a living on Canada’s comic convention circuit. Yaron talks about how reading comics taught him how to tell a story and what it is about the Canadian convention scene that makes it distinctly different from the convention circuit in the U.S. Plus, he reveals how the U.S. film market has many similarities to a comic convention itself.

Brampton, Ontario’s own Ricky Lima went from comic retailer to comic writer after being exposed to many seminal works in the medium. It was quickly evident that writing comics was his true calling after creating graphic novel Deep Sea with D.A. Bishop and ongoing series Black Hole Hunters Club with Shane Heron. But even though his latest effort, Happily Ever Aftr, was funded in only six days on Kickstarter, he suffers from an inferiority complex – struggling with the confidence to take popular projects to larger publishers. He opens up in studio about his successes, his anxieties and the debt he put himself in to get his latest project off the ground.

Kitchener, Ontario native A. Shay Hahn spent his childhood buying comics from the late legendary retailer Harry Kremer – namesake of the Harry Kremer Retailer Award presented to Canada’s best comic retailer by the Joe Shuster Awards. He would eventually grow up to produce his own comic books: Cryptozombic, Battle Rally and the local indie hit, Homeless G-Men. Before that he was a fine artist exhibiting his paintings in galleries and doing background set painting for the period TV productions of Kevin Sullivan (Road to Avonlea, Pit Pony, Anne of Green Gables) and soon discovered that there was no crossover whatsoever when came to the comic book audience. What could make a man with a relatively successful fine art career transition to comics? Is he mad? Tune in to find out.

Meaghan Carter’s love of manga and anime informs all of the webcomics she does. Take Off features fantastical creatures working together with their human partners like Digimon or Pokemon. In a way, Godslave is the same, but the relationship is a master-student dynamic, like the ninja schools of Naruto, with a lot of Egyptian history informing the narrative. It’s no wonder the strips have garnered her enough of a cult following to earn her a gig as the new colourist on The Pitiful Human-Lizard. She breaks down the role of a colourist, why you need an insane work ethic to even make it into comics and why her belief in ghosts and the afterlife will probably be a major component of her next project.

The Strange Romance Anthology is a series of short romance comics with a genre fiction twist. Whether a fantasy, western, science fiction or something else entirely, love is always at the centre of these stories from a wide array of international collaborators. It’s a modern tribute to the Weird Love comics of the 1950s without entirely being a pastiche. Editor Adam Prosser stops by in the midst of the Kickstarter to produce a print version of Vol. 1 (ending Aug. 13, 2016) to explain the book’s genesis and why Strange Romance fits so well with his love of pulp magazines and soap opera strips (Rex Morgan M.D., anyone?)

As one of the founders of the Space Channel and a producer on the homegrown genre fiction culture show Innerspace,  Mark Askwith has more than made his mark in the long history of comic book fandom in Canada. (Although, he” far too humble to agree on that fact.) He has personal ties to the likes of Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore and Frank Miller. He is also a staple in the history of Canadian comic book television with the seminal “Prisoners of Gravity,” and was a pioneering manager of The Silver Snail comic store in the 1980s. Aaron delves into Mark’s personal and professional history, and learns Mark’s simple but effective philosophy of creating, sharing and promoting content based on nothing but his genuine passion for genre fiction  

Chris is the owner, founder and curator for The Sidekick, (www.thesidekickcomics.com) a Toronto East End coffee and comic book spot. Chris wanted to have a combined shop since her high school days, long before the two cultures were mutually engaged the way they are in a few comic shops across Toronto. Chris opens up about how comics helped her through her difficult formative years and how growing up in Windsor was particularly difficult for a budding comic fan. Her challenges had far from relented when she entered art school as she -and many of her fellow students- butted heads with the school’s ideas on how to run something as subjective as art education. Aaron also takes some time to discuss their mutual fondness for French-Pressed Coffee.

Comic artist Marcus To (Red Robin, New Warriors, Batwing, Soulfire and Hacktivist) stops by to discuss Joyride, his first creator-owned project, published by Boom Studios. He reveals how the story of a girl who steals a spaceship to escape an oppressive earth was informed by his mother’s escape from China during the Cultural Revolution and his own friendly rivalry with his brother. He also drops knowledge on what it takes to break into mainstream comics, tells us what influences the youthful drawing style he’s known for and why actress Alyssa Milano (Who’s the Boss?) is one of his admired collaborators. Follow him @marcusto

After opening the show with a tribute to Darwyn Cooke, (1962-2016) local Toronto indie comic talent David “D.A.” Bishop (@Renerd) drops by to talk about his ongoing fantasy title, Of Stone (available digitally from Comixology). The series follows Gan, the ogre king, as he wrestles with a secret that can change the fate of his people. We also talk Alan Moore’s now classic run on Swamp Thing and how that, and The Walking Dead, reawakened a long dormant artistic talent within him. Bishop is a classically trained painter who loved comics as a child and tried to bury his former life as an artist. But after years languishing in various jobs and careers, he finally threw himself into what ended up being the fraught compulsion of making his own comics. Other comics of his include Squirrels, Stranger and “Curly Plays the Rex” in The Toronto Comics Anthology Vol. 3. renerd.com

Aaron tries mealworms live on air, which fits with the politics of consumption brought up by The Salesman — an original graphic novel from our guests John Little and Jon Sufrin. Little takes us through the long, hard road to publication: the book was released online, he hated it, so he recruited food journalist Jon Sufrin to help him re-write it. The result is a morally absolutist fable that pulls no punches and will leave many uncomfortable. Both men say, ‘That’s the point.’

Aaron was introduced to Jay Clark after claiming that past guest Alice Quinn was the only comics journalist in Toronto – Jay is proof to the contrary. He is the host of An Elegant Weapon, a podcast that interviews voiceover artists, actors and comic book creators from all over the geek media sphere. Jay tells us what goes into many of his interviews, how he lands big name guests like John Ostrander, (Grim Jack, Suicide Squad, Star Wars) Ryan Stegman (Superior Spider-Man) and Jim Cummings (The voice of Winnie the Pooh) and who is on the rise in the Toronto and Michigan indie comic book scenes. We also get into why he’s excited for Batman V. Superman and why he’s a big proponent of Zach Snyder.

Shane Kirshenblatt is the former proprietor of the now shuttered Temple of Toys – a retro toy store which had its retail location inside The Comic Book Lounge and Gallery in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood. As a result, he was once the business partner of our last guest Kevin Boyd. Shane is also a custom action figure and Pop Vinyl maker, art teacher and comic book artist (The Jewish Comic Anthology, Anything Ghost, Dorothy Gale: Journey to Oz). Here, he schools us on the finer points of custom figure-making and toy collecting, tells us how judaism has been a cultural point of pride as he pursued work in the comic industry, how he has met his childhood heroes through his art and how he accidentally landed his own creator-owned series without ever having a drawn a comic book panel. Also, get an advance look of his new western webcomic series Tailbone, which he created with past Speech Bubble guest Aaron Feldman.

Kevin Boyd is an integral builder of Toronto’s comic book community. He’s now the Comics Programming Coordinator for Fan Expo Canada and the Toronto Comicon, as well as the director of The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Awards. He was also the owner of the now closed Comic Book Lounge and Gallery and was the co-founder of the now defunct Paradise Comicon. In the final part of our interview, Kevin talks about what brought him back to working for his one-time bitter rival and former employer, Fan Expo Canada and the plans he has for Toronto Comicon 2016. We chat about the issues affecting comic conventions around the world, what he thinks of them and how Fan Expo sees these issues.

Kevin Boyd is an integral builder of Toronto’s comic book community. He is now the Comics Programming Coordinator for Fan Expo Canada and the Toronto Comicon, as well as the director of The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Awards. He was also the owner of the now closed Comic Book Lounge and Gallery and was the co-founder of the now defunct Paradise Comicon. In part two, Kevin tells us why he founded The Shusters – Canada’s national comic book awards. He also talks about opening The Comic Book Lounge and Gallery as an attempt to continue the legacy of Dragon Lady Comics. The shop became a beloved social epicentre and was at the forefront at the new “lounge” trend in comic shops. It wasn’t all good though, a tragedy in his personal life and various circumstances beyond his control would seal the fate of his business.

Kevin Boyd is an integral builder of Toronto’s comic book community. He’s now the Comics Programming Coordinator for Fan Expo Canada and the Toronto Comiccon, as well as the director of The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Awards. He was also the owner of the now closed Comic Book Lounge and Gallery and was the co-founder of the now defunct Paradise Comicon. In part one of our interview, he discusses how he got into comics and why he went from creating comics to selling his collection at conventions. He also goes into how he ended up co-founding one of the most beloved Toronto comic conventions of all time and accidentally become embroiled in Toronto’s biggest comic con civil war.

The editors of volume three of The Toronto Comics Anthology stop by to preview the new book, promote the Kickstarter campaign and detail their own careers writing and editing comics. Allison talks about her story in the collection — “Ghosts Over Garlic Mashed Potatoes” — with art by Meaghan Carter, while Aaron details “The Dark” — a story that takes place in Toronto’s O.Noir restaurant – with art by Josh Rosen. Aaron has written for various independent comic collections like this, while Allison is also the editor of The Pitiful Human-Lizard ongoing series from Chapterhouse Comics. Toronto Comics Anthology Vol. 3 Kickstarter

We open another podcast from our archives in January 2014, just a few days after losing someone integral to Toronto’s comic book community. Debra Jane Shelly didn’t work in comics, but the mark she left on the scene was just as indelible. I look back on her impact with indie comic book creator and animator Brian Evinou. Brian self-publishes his own comics, (Fight Song, Lucy Legacy) has animated some of the most innovative cartoons, (Ugly Americans, Moon Beam City) and is the co-editor of a grand horror comic anthology (Monstrostity Vol. 1 and 2). After pouring one out for Debra, we talk about his time in the trenches of Artist’s Alley, how he got the editing job on Monstrosity, why making comics is better than making cartoons and that time he had a front row seat when Aaron pissed off Neil Gaiman (Sandman, American Gods)