Letterer Clayton Cowles joins the show for a conversation about his career and approach to lettering titles like Batman, Immortal X-Men, Daredevil, and more. Cowles discusses managing his expansive workload, where his love of comics started, going to The Kubert School, working with Virtual Calligraphy, his process to starting a project, how the lettering space has evolved, for-hire versus creator-owned, where challenges lie, the impact of repeat collaborators, pushing yourself, impact projects from his career, revisiting old work, and more.
Polygon's Entertainment Editor Susana Polo returns to the show for a free-flowing chat about the wider world of comics. Polo discusses Polygon's content development process, how much of the focus is on what works, whether that impacts her view of comics, the Eternals as a Tumblr fave, Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic's run, downstream impacts of downturns at Netflix and HBO Max, She-Hulk and Jack of Hearts, the comics conversation, the X-Men line, favored D-list characters, superheroes as copaganda, the greatness of Friday, Sandman's fandom, Defenders Beyond, 2022's electric year in bio and autobio comics, the impact of editors, and more.
Writer/artist Rob Guillory guests this week, as we chat about his shifting approach and newly launched BOOM! series Mosely. Guillory discusses his many hats as a creator, what he's learned from recent projects, how he's pushing his career, adding writing to the mix, Farmhand's evolution, how autobiographical his work has become, Mosely's origins, the visuals of the book, tech commentary, the importance of family in his stories, his publishing partners, how his view of his work and career has shifted, and more.
Retailer Patrick Brower joins the show to chat about the year at his comic shop, Challengers Comics + Conversation, and the state of the direct market. Brower discusses the year at Challengers, the flip side of success, the weird vibes today, time costs, the difficulty of handselling, what moved the needle this year, the impact of economic uncertainty, what isn't working, the retailer conversation, variant covers, what he wants more from publishers, where single issue comics are headed, the medium versus the business, what he's excited for in 2023, and more.
Artist Liana Kangas returns to the show to discuss their busy past few years and their new BOOM! series, Know Your Station. Kangas discusses how they manage their extreme levels of busy, what goes into being a creator, balancing today and tomorrow, cover work, the Zestworld experience, the state of social media, returning to conventions, Trve Kvlt at IDW, whether that series was their baby, the story behind Know Your Station, its collaborative process, their growth as an artist, this time for comic creators, and more.