In this week's episode of Off Panel, writer/artist Declan Shalvey returns to the show to chat about his upcoming graphic novel, Bog Bodies, and his upcoming mini-series, The Punisher vs. Barracuda. Shalvey discussed the big moments of his career to date, Moon Knight's lasting nature, why he wanted to do The Punisher vs. Barracuda, his covers on the book, taking different approaches to covers, getting back into interiors, his increased writing workload, how that reframed how people perceive him, the origins of Bog Bodies, flipping expectations, what he learned while making his first graphic novel, and more.
Cartoonist Gene Luen Yang joins Off Panel to chat about his work and his upcoming graphic novel, Dragon Hoops. Yang discusses what made him fall in love with comics, his love of telling stories, the development of Dragon Hoops, whether he resisted making a basketball book considering his (previous) distaste of the sport, telling a story set in the real world, the secret identities of athletes, figuring out the structure of the book, the inclusion of basketball history, handling real people in real time, how his relationship with basketball changed, what he learned about himself and storytelling over the experience, and more.
In this week's episode of Off Panel, writer and filmmaker Darcy Van Poelgeest joins the show to share the story behind the making of his Image Comics series, Little Bird. Van Poelgeest discusses why he wanted to make a comic, why Little Bird was a natural fit as a comic, its long gestation period, partnering with artist Ian Bertram, the book's creative team, the comic book creative process, how lettering affects pace, the title's origins, its path to Image, why it became a hardcover first, the importance of design, the crash course of his first comics experience, and more.
In this week's episode of Off Panel, the co-owner of Chicago's Challengers Comics + Conversation comic shops, Patrick Brower, joins to chat about 2019 in comics retail. Brower discusses their opening of a second shop, what goes into opening a store, the state of comics retail relative to when Challengers first opened, the rise of the mini-series, what's working for them, differentiating titles today, how the year was for them, risk aversion, figuring out what customers want, second issues, how BOOM! Studios is handling things, whether he'd like more experimentation from comic publishers, the in-store comics conversation, whether he still loves comics, and more.
In this week's episode of Off Panel, comics marketer David Hyde from Superfan Promotions joins the show. Hyde discusses his background with comics, the things that make us love them, what he learned from working in book stores and at book publishers, the learning curve of promoting comics, his time at DC, the New 52 experience, why he decided to start Superfan promotions (which arrives at 29:50 and begins the marketing talk), paying attention to marketing outside of comics, connecting viewers of comics media to the comics themselves, the important parts of comics marketing, the news cycle, whether the old standards of comics marketing still work, the comics marketing playbook, what can be learned from House of X and Powers of X, whether comics marketing is limited by the distribution model, and more.
In this week's episode of Off Panel, cartoonist Jen Wang joins the podcast to chat about her career, craft and latest graphic novel, Stargazing. Wang discusses her Twitter handle, what her webcomics experience taught her about making comics, her art process, the importance of community, how her work has evolved, the origins of Stargazing, the universality of stories, working on a middle grade book, putting herself in the story, not coloring herself on Stargazing, giving herself breaks, keeping momentum going, Comic Arts LA, Alaska Robotics Mini-Con, and more.