John Workman & Aditya Bidikar on The (in)Visible Art of Lettering, Part 2
Robots From Tomorrow!
(From the original episode description from April 21, 2022.) Now you can hear the second half of the two-part chat Greg had with letterers extraordinaire Aditya Bidikar and John Workman! The shop talk continues, as well as thoughts on more recent work like John’s take on the HBOMax Doom Patrol series (after lettering almost the entire Morrison run back in the day) and Aditya’s review of Barry Windsor-Smith’s Monsters! [This episode is a remastered version of number 776 in a series.] CHAPTERS 00:00 – Intro 02:32 –...
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John Workman & Aditya Bidikar on The (In)Visible Art of Lettering, Part 1
Robots From Tomorrow!
(From the original episode description from April 14, 2022.) Today's show has two of the best letterers in comics on for a two-part chat about their craft: Multiversity Comics's 2021 Favorite Letterer winner Aditya Bidikar and legendary letterer/cartoonist John Workman! The generation gap evaporates immediately as the two fellows start talking about digital vs analog approaches, collaboration amongst a creative team, visible vs invisible lettering, being the responsible one in the group, artist integration, and much more! [This episode is a remastered version of number 775 in a series.] ...
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Steve Bissette on TABOO and Publishing Horror
Robots From Tomorrow!
In part two of their discussion, Steve Bissette lays out the late-1980s self-publishing moment after his run on Swamp Thing, tracing how Dave Sim’s Mid-Ohio Con outreach and critique of corporate profit flows led Bissette and John Totleben to launching the horror anthology Taboo and all points in-between: the Cerebus/Diamond Distribution "phone book" controversy, the Puma Blues fallout, the Creator Summits and the Bill of Rights that came from them. From there to topic focuses on Taboo itself and the creative pitfalls he had to navigate to get out even the short run that eventually saw...
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Joana Mosi on PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Robots From Tomorrow!
Joana Mosi is an award-winning Portuguese cartoonist whose work is only recently becoming available in English. And that timing matters — because until Pow Pow Press started publishing her books, The Mongoose and now Physical Education, internationally, there was basically no way for English-language readers to come across it unless they happened to be at the right European festival at the right time. She is part of the growing Lisbon comics scene in Portugal. Paul Gravett called her previous book, The Mongoose, a “formally experimental yet powerful affecting narrative” She draws,...
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Henry Barajas on DEATH TO PACHUCO
Robots From Tomorrow!
Reading today's guest's interviews, listening to his podcasts, and looking at his resume, already packed with highlights at a relatively young age, it becomes clear that he does not shy away from conflict or controversial opinions because he does the research to back up his words. He leans into the smart side of smart-ass and we're all much better for it. This Tucson-native has already been a banker, bill collector, marketing manager, jazz festival co-organizer, pizza delivery guy, radio DJ, stand-up comedian, and Director of Operations at Top Cow Productions. But it's the jobs of...
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Steve Bissette on TYRANT and Comics in Vermont
Robots From Tomorrow!
Cartoonist / writer / scholar / educator (and now Comics Laureate) Stephen R. Bissette joins Greg for the first part of their two-part talk about all things Tyrant and more as the Kickstarter campaign to bring his long out-of-print series back to life has roared past its funding goal and continues to smash any stretch goal in its path! Bissette goes into why Vermont is such a good place to be a cartoonist, what his plans are for his tenure as the state's sixth Comics Laureate, why repressive eras seem to spur on transcendent works of horror, and how Zap Comix #0 changed his life. He dives...
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Jim Rugg on VEEFRIENDS, TYRANT, WEAPON X, & More!
Robots From Tomorrow!
Greg welcomes cartoonist/designer Jim Rugg back to the show for the first recorded conversation since 2014! Last time, Jim talked with Greg AND Mike about the return of Street Angel through AdHouse Books, among other things. But for 2026, Jim brings a whole slew of new projects to the discussion: Becoming a Creative Producer at VeeFriends Writing VeeFriends #11 + #12 Writing AND drawing VeeFriends #13 Joining the creator-owned distribution co-op Power Pulp Designing new collections of Stephen Bissette's long-out-of-print Tyrant Writing a monograph for Bloomsbury Publishing on Barry...
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Jim Rugg Talks STREET ANGEL (2014)
Robots From Tomorrow!
(This interview was originally published in an earlier form on July 21, 2014) From the original episode description: We usually follow up a spotlight episode with either a Previews exploration or a free-for-all. But this week is different because Jim Rugg himself stopped by our center-of-the-earth recording studio to drop some truth about Street Angel and his career. Jim is one of the most flat-out creative talents working in comics and design today, and we couldn't be more thrilled to bring you this wide-ranging conversation. His latest book is a re-release of his first published work: Street...
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Kit Anderson on SECOND SHIFT
Robots From Tomorrow!
Cartoonist Kit Anderson’s first graphic novel Second Shift was first mentioned on the back back in episode 817, where Avery Hill co-publisher Ricky Miller talked about working with her and bringing the book to his London-based company. But today’s episode dives into the book with the author herself, which is good news for Greg because he read the book multiple times getting ready for this interview and…he has questions. Second Shift was preceded by a number of short stories and mini-comics, including the Ignatz-nominated “Weeds”. “Weeds” and that other work has been collected in...
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Wes Eastin on SHOPPING FOR SUPERMAN
Robots From Tomorrow!
Today's guest is on the show to pick up a conversation we started last October when he screened his first feature film, SHOPPING FOR SUPERMAN, at Baltimore Comicon. He is a filmmaker - director / writer / editor / showman / dreamer / and many other things. His nearly 20 years in the film business has produced a CV too extensive to list here, so just take my word for it, this man knows his way around getting things out of the ether and on to the screen. SHOPPING FOR SUPERMAN, a documentary that took almost a decade to see to fruition, is a love letter to the friendly neighborhood comic...
info_outlineJoana Mosi is an award-winning Portuguese cartoonist whose work is only recently becoming available in English. And that timing matters — because until Pow Pow Press started publishing her books, The Mongoose and now Physical Education, internationally, there was basically no way for English-language readers to come across it unless they happened to be at the right European festival at the right time.
She is part of the growing Lisbon comics scene in Portugal. Paul Gravett called her previous book, The Mongoose, a “formally experimental yet powerful affecting narrative” She draws, she writes, she teaches. Physical Education has already been published in Portugal and was the first-ever graphic novel to be a National Illustration Award of Portugal Highlight Book, but is getting its English language release through Pow Pow Press on May 5th. The work is fictional yet emotionally true, centered on detachment, expressed through sparse characterization, missing facial features, and flexible page design.
[This episode is number 831 in a series.]
CHAPTERS
00:00 – Intro
01:54 – Portugal’s Comics Scene
04:38 – Found in Translation
07:17 – Revisiting Finished Books
10:50 – Finding Pow Pow Press
12:42 – Going Global via Festivals
18:35 – Style Shift and Critiques
25:32 – Comics Lessons
31:16 – Teaching With Empathy
32:43 – Letting Students Fail
33:55 – Reaching Out To Mentors
35:34 – Fiction vs Autobiography
39:20 – Drawing Detachment
44:41 – Color Choices
45:40 – Motifs And Mundanity
48:20 – Page Layout Decisions
53:21 – Process
55:57 – Getting Feedback
01:01:58 – Outro