In this week's episode of Off Panel, artist Caitlin Yarsky joins to chat about her path to comics and upcoming Image series, Bliss. Yarsky discusses her initial designs on becoming an illustrator, how work in non-comics fields affected her, the inspiration of Sandman, the expansiveness of comics, the value of freedom, her recent Buffy story, why she wanted to work in comics, learning curves, finding your style, photo reference, why she does everything in her work, the origins of Bliss, what she learned during Coyotes, why she inks traditionally, designing Feral City, her teaching experience, and more.
In this week's episode of Off Panel, my pal Brandon Burpee returns for another quarantine question and answer session, at least partially driven by you, the listeners. Topics discussed include our love of collecting, QB equivalents in comics, whether we think sports should come back, the longevity of the New 52 and Rebirth, quarantine binges, Wizard Magazine in 2020, Last Dance-style documentaries, X of Swords, HOXPOXing Marvel's line, the value of creator social media accounts, deep cut Marvel Unlimited reads, the impact of the pandemic, desired time travel trips, DC's divorce from Diamond, the most promising comic markets, what comics we would Grand Design, and more.
In this week's fifth anniversary episode of Off Panel, writer/artist Liana Kangas joins the show to chat about her comic book story. Kangas discusses her early love of fine art, how working in a comic shop affected her, the importance of the people she met coming up, how anthologies helped her, the upside of longer stories, working with Vault, her continuing evolution as an artist, her upcoming TKO project, how it feels to co-write a comic, how her art brain affects her writing, helping the world while working, managing burn out, her upcoming podcasts, and more.
In this week's episode of Off Panel, cartoonist Jeff Smith joins the show to chat about his immensely popular comic series, Bone. Smith discusses how he started on the path towards publishing Bone, fusing comic strips with comic books, the importance of freedom, how much he learned on the job, how the story expanded and contracted, respecting young readers, balancing tones, the value of taking risks, the evolution of comics, how the One Volume Edition of Bone changed things, multi-generational fandom, the Scholastic deal, leading off Graphix, revisiting Bone today, and more.
In this week's episode of Off Panel, writer Brian Michael Bendis makes his debut appearance on the show to discuss...well, really a little of everything from his entire career. Bendis discusses how his background in art affects how he thinks about comics, working with artists who are friends versus those who aren't, learning on the job, where Marvel was when he started, his uncertainty in telling superhero stories, the greatness of the aughts at Marvel, what he learned from Avengers Disassembled, longevity, the power of fear in creation, Miles Morales, the importance of change, the unique challenges of the X-Men, the importance of paying it forward, whether certain art styles fit his work better, openness to new ideas, the roots of Wonder Comics, balancing multiple projects, and more.