A CRISIS of Infinite Options
Robots From Tomorrow!
Greg welcomes DC3Cast’s Brian Salvatore back to the show to help out with this Shelf Bound look at DC’s 1985 blockbuster event CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. After catching up on Brian’s busy post-Multiversity life, balancing different passions including music, baseball, and family, and various podcasts, it’s time for some CRISIS management to figure out the optimal way to tackle the monumental and sprawling story Marv Wolfman and George Perez unleashed. Do you stick to JUST the 12-issue maxiseries? Do you throw caution to the wind and read EVERY red sky tie-in? Do you...
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Ricky Miller on AVERY HILL PUBLISHING
Robots From Tomorrow!
There’s an ecosystem to comics publishing, like everything else. You’ve got your Marvel & DC/Big Two on one end of things, your single cartoonist stapling their first minizines that they ran 20 copies off of the printer at their day jobs at the other, and many points in-between. And it’s one of those intermediate options, Avery Hill Publishing out of South London, England, that is the focus of today’s show. Going back to the earlier example, Avery Hill is probably much closer to the cartoonist than the corporations. And this makes sense when you look at their output. On their...
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Rick Parker on DRAFTED
Robots From Tomorrow!
In his latest graphic novel DRAFTED, readers can see how math did cartoonist Rick Parker absolutely no favors in trying to stay out of the military during the height of the Vietnam War. The 256-page book, which is the first of Parker's career that he has written AND illustrated, covers that three year period of his time in the U.S. Army in autobiographical detail both funny and heartbreaking. After being honorably discharged, the cartoonist would eventually get a job at Marvel Comics as a letterer for such titles as G.I. Joe and the Spider-Man line for most of the 1980's. In 1994...
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Andrew Aydin and GOOD TROUBLE COMICS
Robots From Tomorrow!
We live in troubling times. Turn on the news or your phone and that seems to be all there is: trouble. But according to John Lewis, the late U.S. Congressman from Georgia’s 5th District, trouble… doesn’t always HAVE to be bad. In fact, there can be GOOD trouble that helps you deal with all the bad. Carrying the Congressman’s message of GOOD trouble into these times we find ourselves in, is the Congressman’s former staffer, writing partner, and steadfast ally Andrew Aydin. Andrew’s publishing venture Good Trouble Productions is built on the foundation of that message of...
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Spotlight on Colleen Doran @ HeroesCon 2024
Robots From Tomorrow!
Today’s episode comes directly from this year’s HeroesCon in lovely Charlotte, NC. Greg had the opportunity to host a few panels this year; the first of which was this spotlight on cartoonist/illustrator Colleen Doran. As described in the show programing guide: Her work has garnered more nominations and awards than we have space to list here, but trust us, it’s a looong list. Eisners, Bram Stokers, Harveys, Hugos, inclusion in the Best American Comics series… when discussing COLLEEN DORAN’s career as a cartoonist and illustrator, there are so many highlights only the bravest of souls...
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Paul Gravett: At Comica's Crossroads
Robots From Tomorrow!
"The cycle of renewal in art is peddled by the periodic influx of stuff from somewhere else. That’s why you need a man at the crossroads… He will be the purest, most fresh faced wee fellow you have ever met. His ingenuous enthusiasm will beam from his cheery countenance." -- Eddie Campbell on Paul Gravett, Alec: How To Be An Artist Today’s guest is Campbell’s Man at the Crossroads, and he has been observing, studying, and directing comics traffic for over 40 years. As this fellow’s understanding of its ebbs and flows has grown over that time, so has his endeavors in making sense of...
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Joseph Illidge on THE SHADOW CABINET
Robots From Tomorrow!
Today's guest is making his SIXTH appearance on the show, which means he's the most returned non-Multiversity guest in the history of the show. Previous episodes have had us talk about various aspects of his almost-30-year career in comics, from intern to editor at such publishers as Valiant, Humanoids, Heavy Metal, A Wave Blue World, and of course, DC Comics. But Joseph Illidge is here now as the writer of that company's Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet #1, a four-issue limited series bringing him back to Milestone Comics, where his professional journey began. Issue #1 debuts on...
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Michel Fiffe on the Life and DEATH OF COPRA
Robots From Tomorrow!
Today we're talking about Copra, the indie comics darling that fuses 80s mainstream comic sensibilities with modern execution to give us an adventure story that looks familiar... up until it doesn't. In the 12 years since its inception, Copra has taken readers on a journey both on the page and off. This year saw the publication of Creating Copra, the definitive guide to making and self publishing comics. A 64-page reference guide to... well, you know. But all things must come to an end, and Copra is no exception. The four-issue limited series titled Death of Copra starts on January 8th of next...
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November 2024 Update
Robots From Tomorrow!
Neither your eyes nor your ears are deceiving you -- we're back! Rested, reconfigured, and ready to return to ongoing Robot-ing! Listen to this byte-sized bonus episode to find out where we were and where we're headed!
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Mar Julia + Samuel Teer on Building BROWNSTONE
Robots From Tomorrow!
The topic of today's episode is Brownstone, the new YA graphic novel from writer Samuel Teer and artist Mar Julia, about a 14-year-old girl spending the summer with a father she's never known as they fix up the titular dilapidated brownstone. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Samuel was just on the show last episode talking about the trials and tribulations of bringing this story from his head to our bookshelves. Now we get to hear from the other side of the Brownstone creation equation. Mar's work is absolutely in the wheelhouse of the type of comicbooking we love to see...
info_outlineThere are many days working in the show that Greg is grateful to be an observer of comix rather than a creator of them, because the level of craft and skill his hypothetical output would have to measure up against already gives him the willies. That being said, today’s guest has already put together such a formidable resume and body of work (all before the age of 30) it makes even this comix-adjacent host wonder what the hell he's been doing with his life.
With nearly 10 published works to her credit, Tillie Walden has already won 2 Eisner Awards, 2 Ignatz Awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, AND a Hugo Award nomination. She remains a faculty member at her alma mater, the Center for Cartoon Studies, and is currently in her first of three years as Vermont's Cartoonist Laureate. This episode has Greg peppering the cartoonist with a myriad of questions about her new book, the second volume in her Walking Dead trilogy about fan-favorite queer teen survivor Clementine, the boundaries of YA horror, how nothing brings out generation gaps like an apocalypse, just what it is in Vermont's water that makes it a cartoonist mecca, and much more!