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 (From 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...
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Samuel Teer on the Road to BROWNSTONE
Robots From Tomorrow!
Returning to the show today after a nearly eight-year absence is comics writer Samuel Teer. His new book, Brownstone, about a teenage girl connecting with her Latin heritage and her estranged father without speaking a word of each other’s language as they renovate the title structure, hits shelves on June 11th. The road from his last OGN, 2015’s Veda: Assembly Required and this one is the topic for today’s conversation. Samuel & Greg talk about collaboration, the differences between the two different markets for this thing we call comix, the importance of context, breakout panels,...
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The Greatest Bronze Age Batman Stories, Part 1
Robots From Tomorrow!
Having finished with the Man of Steel, today’s episode is the first of three looking at the best Caped Crusader stories of the Seventies to the mid-Eighties with the DC3Cast’s very own Vince Ostrowski! Come for the Neal Adams, stay to find out more about double-threat Frank Robbins, the mad genius of Bob Haney, Ra’s Al Ghul, Bruce Wayne and Sgt. Rock teaming up to fight Nazis, Batman’s Congressional career, and much more. All that, and just what the hell a hellgrammite is! [This is episode 810 in a series.] __________ The specific comics referred to in this episode are: The Brave and...
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A Few Words About Team-Ups
Robots From Tomorrow!
Today’s show is not a joke, not a hoax, not an imaginary story! Greg gives his take on the upcoming Marvel & DC crossover omnibi coming later this year, and then dives into the larger waters of comic book team-ups that absolutely totally happened . . . Find out all kinds of things about the crossovers you know about and the crossovers you had no idea actually existed! [This is episode 809 in a series.] ****************************** Go to the episode page at: https://robotsfromtomorrow.net/a-few-words-about-team-ups/
info_outline"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 it for himself. And thankfully, Comics fans around the globe.
He’s written at least seven books, including Mangasia: The Definitive Guide to Asian Comics, which has been transformed and translated into reality as the touring exhibition: ASIAN COMICS: EVOLUTION OF AN ART FORM.
The Barbican website describes the exhibit at The Bowers Museum in Los Angeles, CA as "with a team of more than 20 international advisors, ASIAN COMICS features over 500 works, the largest selection of artworks from the continent, including Japanese woodblock prints, Hindu scroll paintings, digital media, printed comics, and contemporary illustrations. This unique exhibition is a gateway to an unexplored world of graphic storytelling and its artistic value."
He’s also an accomplished editor and anthology curator. Among the books he’s assembled have been 2011’s 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die, which is a fantastic title, and The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics. He’s contributed to countless periodicals and documentaries about comics.
He’s published one of the best comics magazines of the 1980s, Escape, with partner Peter Stanbury, giving a platform to such creators as James Robinson, Dave McKean, and Neil Gaiman.
He started Comica, the London International Comics Festival with John Harris Dunning in 2003.
He gives lectures, he hosts panels, and he continues to be one of the most respected comics patrons of his generation. Frankly, it’s been exhausting just narrowing down his endeavors to a reasonable summary for this blog post.
He's Paul Gravett and he joins Greg today to talk about comics in all their wonderful forms and many varied locations.
[This episode is number 815 in a series.]
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CHAPTERS
00:00 - Preamble
02:50 - Intro
05:40 - “I want to know about everything…”
06:17 - What was the first thing you learned that gave you your paradigm shift of what comics could be?
08:28 - Shonen Magazine / Fishing Crazy Senpai
10:32 - “No nostalgia, no loyalties, no limits”
12 36 - How do you keep all these perpendicular lines of comics in your head?
17:52 - "An unlimited multiversity to comics"
19:53 - Photo comics & Gregory Crewdson
22:11 - Jayme Cortez
24:18 - Comics 1964-2024
27:20 - Sawwaf Collection
29:31 - Lusanne / Taiwan
32:27 - Lodz Poland
33:19 - Posy Simmonds
35:40 - ASIAN COMICS
37:10 - Talk about your growing understanding of Asian comics as you were working on the books and the exhibition.
41:38 - Is the diversity of Asian comics and inspiration to you about the future of comics?
44:05 - Comics preservation in the Philippines and Mexico
50:41 - How important is humility (or lack thereof) when putting together an anthology or exhibition?
57:25 - Talk about your working relationship with your partner Peter Stanbury.
1:02:25 - Comica
1:06:00 - Outro
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Go to the episode page at: https://robotsfromtomorrow.net/paul-gravett-at-comicas-crossroads/