Comics Are Great!

To make good comics and graphic novels, all you have to do is draw really well and write pretty well, then mix them together, right? Then why is it so challenging to make comics that connect with audiences? How do you describe that unnameable quality that makes certain art and stories arresting? After a long […]

Talking about composition, context, and color on CAG! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=e96lFpKwTS4 Photographers got it easy, right? All they have to do to tell their stories is point their magic box at their subject and hit click. Cartoonists, on the other hand, have to create the reality of their work from scratch. Surely photographers have zero insights to […]

El Deafo! Hilda and the Midnight Giant! Roz Chast, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvY3-YoKV5k We’re continuing our tradition of closing out the year with Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier of The Comics Bakery. Join us for a rapid round of book talks on some of our favorite comics, which you can use as your last-minute holiday gift guide! And […]

Talking about the special communicative power of the cartoon on Comics Are Great! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8PsQi99nok Anthropomorphic comics characters have enjoyed a wide appeal almost since the invention of the comic. Who doesn’t love Snoopy? Characters like Garfield have inspired an entire generation of professional cartoonists. Even the critically-acclaimed Maus featured talking animal characters. So what is […]

Broxo! Ewoks! Shakespeare! Banjo music, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuLb6XdoQzs It’s time to unbox the age-old question of Talent vs. Effort on Comics Are Great! How does your comics work change when you shift your focus from “expressing yourself” to “putting in the effort?” Are these terms mutually exclusive, or does the focus oscillate between those poles […]

Challenged Comics! Censorship! Dave Carter, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5TpS-rpSnI Join us for a discussion on Banned Books Week with David Carter, Librarian at the University of Michigan’s Comics and Video Game Archive. Together we explore censorship in comics and ways we can better advocate for our medium. Links mentioned in this episode (thanks to Eric Klooster […]

Gregg Schigiel! Laura Given! Erin Helmrich! Finding new audiences for your work, and more! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAAzJsOrAys It’s the 100th episode of the Comics Are Great show, recorded live before a studio audience at the 2014 Kids Read Comics Celebration! I’m joined by guest co-host Gregg Schigiel of the Stuff Said Show, librarian Laura Given, and librarian […]

Talking about walking the line between eerie and cute on CAG! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNhieWXymL4 In this special unscheduled episode of the Comics Are Great! show I’ll be joined by Eric Orchard, cartoonist behind Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch, published by Top Shelf. Maddy Kettle is a plucky young girl who faces witches, vampire bats, and […]

Talking about the role of fandom on CAG! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=-of8-cBDmHc Whatever your stance on cosplay, one can’t deny that it’s an active arena in fan participation with media. Is it simply a distracting branch that interferes with the “pure” transactions between fans and creators? Or is it a means for fans to enrich their participation with […]

Comics Are Great! returns with a battle between kid and adult authors! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BmkddnAWE We grown-up cartoonists think we know what kids are and aren’t picking up on in our work. After all, we were kids once! But memory can be fickle testimony, so in the next Comics Are Great! I’ll be joined by 12-year-old cartoonist […]

Muppets Most Wanted, Perils of Retreading, and more! It’s another special audio-only “therapy session” of Comics Are Great! I’m joined by Dave Roman for a discussion on Muppets Most Wanted. Together we explore how this film scratched many of the itches we were left with after The Muppets movie, how revisiting a franchise almost demands […]

Talking about independent publishing on the Comics Are Great! show! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpX5d1IRI2Y This time I’m joined by Jamie Gambell, writer of The Hero Code, for a discussion on the various channels available to us when publishing our comics independently. With so many options like Kickstarter, Comixology, IndyPlanet, Patreon, and publishing on the web, how do you […]

Talking about getting out from behind the desk and reaching out to new fans on the Comics Are Great! show! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2bTGpTg1FU We all know that making the work is only half of the battle facing an author or cartoonist these days. Once the work is done you have to market the work, and for many […]

Talking about everyone’s favorite Dark Knight on CAG 97! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_f7EasqzHo You may have heard that 2014 is the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Batman. So for this episode of the Comics Are Great! show we had a roundtable discussion on why the Caped Crusader remains such an enduring character. I’m joined by Dean Trippe, author […]

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=940vG8Mr7DI Talking about independent animation, working with what you got, and keeping on! In CAG 92 I talked with Ben Hatke about the importance of giving our heroes a reason to quit. Why? Because it’s so, so satisfying to see them not quit when all evidence suggests that quitting is the sensible solution. Why is […]

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UcBl3mDthw Find a publisher, POD, Webcomic, or all three? Figuring out your comic’s destiny! Whether your hope to get your comic published in the Direct Market or by one of the major book publishers, or self-publish through a Kickstarter or print-on-demand service like Ka-Blam, or publish directly to the web (as either a webcomic or […]

Talking about what cartoonists can learn from filmmakers on Comics Are Great! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olua0Ls4JiU Comics and film share a lot of DNA, though their strengths and weaknesses greatly differ. In the end they’re trying to do the same thing–convey ideas and explore narratives visually. So what might cartoonists learn about their own craft by studying the […]

Talking Doctor Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Masters of the Universe with Kevin Coppa of The Puppetbenders! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSiN_GupCSs What’s the appeal of action heroes who use violence as a last resort? I’m joined by Kevin Coppa of The Puppetbenders for a discussion on how our hearts can sometimes be captured by an action hero […]

The ultimate comics gift guide on this episode of Comics Are Great! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOx_Erz4ZzM The final CAG of 2013! I’m joined by Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier, and Sharon Iverson for a list of our favorite comics and graphic novels of 2013 and which ones would make a great gift for that loved one who doesn’t consider […]

Talking about how to get your work seen on the Comics Are Great! show! //www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7lHY0oQBBU There are more ways than ever to share our work with our intended audience. Some solutions are as simple as pushing a button, while others may require a little bit of technical know-how. But how do you find the hosting/publishing/social […]