Panel Borders: Death of the Artist

Starting a month of shows about comics and graphic novels which occupy the middle ground between ‘mainstream’ titles and independent publishing, guest presenter Tim Pilcher talks to artist Karrie Fransman about her latest graphic novel, Death of the Artist published by Jonathan Cape, which depicts a fateful weekend where five university friends’ hedonistic party leads to tragedy. Tim and Karrie also discuss her first graphic novel The House that Groaned, her comic for the Red Cross – ‘Over Under Sideways Down’ – and the nature of the collaborators involved in her most recent work. Recorded and edited by Alex Fitch at Graphic Brighton festival, May 2015.

Excerpts from Death of the Artist by Karrie Fransman / with Tim Pilcher at Graphic Brighton 2015

For more formats to download the podcast, please visit archive.org

Links: Karrie’s website / Tim’s blog
Alex Fitch’s 2011 interview with Karrie Fransman
Interview with Karrie in the Scotland Herald
Info about Death of the Artist on Random House’s website

Panel Borders: Death of the Artist [ 1:08:48 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Takayo Akiyama in various media

Concluding a month of show about creators whose passion for comics sees them create sequential art in different genres and for different media, Alex Fitch talks to cartoonist and illustrator Takayo Akiyama about her multi-media illustration work, which includes web comics, animation, magazines and textile design featuring characters such as Awesome and Possum and Y-Front Mouse. Alex and Takayo discuss the size and materials of the latter’s original artwork, mixing live action and animation in her music videos and take questions from the Cartoon County audience. (Recorded at Cartoon County, Brighton, Spring 2015 / Originally broadcast Thursday 30th April, on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Images from Y-Front Mouse, Awesome and Possum and Solipsistic Pop no. 4 by Takayo Akiyama

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Takayo’s website
Watch Y-Front Mouse on youtube
Article on Takayo’s map illustrations
Awesome and Possum website
Listen to Akiyama’s previous appearance on Panel Borders, translating Alex’s interview with Tomohiko Matsumoto
Cartoon County website

Panel Borders: Takayo Akiyama in various media [ 42:54 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Miss Lasko-Gross – Autobiography and Fantasy

Continuing a month of shows about creators whose passion for comics sees them create sequential art in different genres and for different media, Alex Fitch talks to American cartoonist Miss Lasko-Gross about her two volumes of autobiography – Escape from “Special” and A Mess of Everything, plus her new fantasy graphic novel, Henni. Alex and Miss discuss the latter’s developing art style over her career so far, tackling issues of freedom and intolerance in fantasy worlds, rereleasing early self-published work on comixology.com and contributing to the touring exhibition Graphic Details: Confessional Comics By Jewish Women. (Originally broadcast Thursday 23rd April, on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Promotional art for Graphic Details / exceprts from Henni, A Mess of Everything and Some Short Stories 1994-2014 by Miss Lasko-Gross

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Miss Lasko-Gross’ website
Info about A Mess of Everything, including a 21 page extract on Fantagraphics’ website
Digital versions of Lasko-Gross‘ comics
Listen to Alex’s podcast about Graphic Details: Confessional Comics By Jewish Women

Panel Borders: Miss Lasko-Gross – Autobiography and Fantasy [ 38:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Vellevision – art and comics by Maurice Vellekoop

Continuing a month of show about creators whose passion for comics leads them to do more than just create strips for the medium, Alex Fitch talks to Canadian artist Maurice Vellekoop; Vellekoop is currently the subject of a career retrospective at Space Station 65 gallery in South London and in this interview discusses breaking into the comics industry via strips for Drawn and Quarterly periodical alongside rendering illustrations for Time, GQ and Vogue, and collections of erotic art such as Maurice Vellekoop’s ABC Book: A Homoerotic Primer, and The World of Gloria Badcock. Originally broadcast 16th April 2015 on Resonance 104.4 FM (London)

Comics and book covers by Maurice Vellekoop

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Wikipedia page on Vellekoop
Buy books by Maurice Vellekoop on Amazon
More info about The World of Gloria Badcock from Koyama Press

Panel Borders: Vellevision – art and comics by Maurice Vellekoop [ 32:44 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Neal Adams’ Relevant Comics

Continuing a month of show about creators whose passion for comics leads them to do more than just create strips for the medium, Alex Fitch talks to legendary creator Neal Adams, one of the defining artists of the Superhero ‘Silver Age’. Adams is best known for his work on Batman and Green Lantern / Green Arrow with writer Dennis O’Neil in the 1970s, dragging the Dark Knight Detective out of the camp 1960s era and adding a strand of social realism to the latter comic, addressing issues of racism, drug abuse and civil unrest.

As well as being credited with creating ‘relevant comics’ within the hero genre, Adams also has championed creators rights in the industry and in recent years returned to Batman and the X-Men for celebrated mini-series as writer and artist. (Originally broadcast Thursday 9th April, on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Excerpts from Green Lantern / Green Arrow, Batman: Odyssey and The First X-Men by Neal Adams

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org (Recorded at London Super Comic Con, March 2015)

Links: Neal Adams’ website
LSCC website
Article on relevant comics at prawnworks.net
Listen to Alex’s interview with another celebrated Green Arrow artist Mike Grell and fellow Bucky O’Hare artist, Michael Golden

Panel Borders: Neal Adams’ Relevant Comics [ 43:54 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders 400: Understanding Scott McCloud

Starting a month of show about creators whose passion for comics leads them to do more than just create strips for the medium, on the 400th episode of Panel Borders, Alex Fitch talks to Scott McCloud, one of the masters of modern comic books, about his career so far.
The artist is probably best known for his guides about the medium of sequential art such as Understanding Comics (1993), which led to The New York Times describing the creator as “a sort of Marshall McLuhan of comics”. However McCloud is also a great comic book creator in his own right, returning to the medium of fiction with an epic 500 page magical realist graphic novel The Sculptor, recently released by SelfMadeHero, and penning the beloved superhero series Zot! in the 1980s. (Originally broadcast Thursday 2nd April 2015, on Resonance 104.4 FM)

Excerpts from Zot!, The Sculptor and Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Info about The Sculptor at Scott McCloud’s website
SelfMadeHero website

Panel Borders 400: Understanding Scott McCloud [ 41:36 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Seth and the City

Concluding a month of shows about architecture and landscape in comics, Alex Fitch talks to the award winning Canadian cartoonist and designer Seth about his work, from debut graphic novel It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken to the latest issues of his hardcover anthology Palookaville, published by Drawn and Quarterly. Alex and Seth discuss the latter’s increasing use of graphic design in his titles, his recent spate of reprinting diary comics, and depicting the reoccurring fictional city Dominion in The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists and other titles. Recorded at the East London Comic Arts Festival, Summer 2014.
Originally broadcast Thursday 26th March on Resonance 104.4 FM (London)

Extract from The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists by Seth

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Drawn and Quarterly author page on Seth
Wikipedia page on Seth
More info about ELCAF

Panel Borders: Seth and the City [ 31:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Richard McGuire, Here

Continuing a month of shows about architecture and landscape in comics, Alex Fitch talks to cartoonist Richard McGuire about his epic 300 page graphic novel Here, published by Hamish Hamilton / Pantheon Books. Here is told entirely in double page spreads, with the view of the reader never moving from a fixed gaze at the corner of one room, however the narrative moves back and forth in time from the creation of the Earth to the 25th Century, with various eras overlapping through different panels on the page. Alex and Richard discuss the genesis of the project with its origin as a 6 page strip in Raw magazine, how the plotting of the book is influenced by his love of music and how the print version differs from the interactive ebook.
Originally broadcast Thursday 19th March, on Resonance 104.4 FM (London)

Pages from Here by Richard McGuire

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Buy Here by Richard McGuire from amazon.co.uk
Info about Here at penguin.co.uk
McGuire’s website
Chris Ware reviews Here in The Guardian
Download the interactive version of Here on iTunes for Apple devices
Listen to Virginie Selavy’s interview with Charles Burns about working on the animated film Fear(s) of the Dark with Richard McGuire

Panel Borders: Richard McGuire, Here [ 34:10 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Countryside Comics

Continuing a month of shows about architecture and landscape in comics, guest presenter Lizzie Boyle (Disconnected Press) talks to writer Owen Michael Johnson about the experience of being a comic book creator in the countryside. Lizzie and Owen also discuss finding the difficulties of comic book communities in rural locations and using the landscape for inspiration. Recorded at The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Kendal. Originally broadcast Thursday 12th March 2015, on Resonance 104.4 FM (London)

Owen Michael Johnson and Lizzie Boyle in discussion at LICAF (photo by Alex Fitch)

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: Owen Michael Johnson’s website
Disconnected Press website
More information about The Lakes International Comic Art Festival
Listen to Alex Fitch’s 2014 interview with Johnson and his co-creators who form the Ghosts comic book collective
Info about Johnson’s current exhibition Beast Wagon on display at Orbital Comics, London

Panel Borders: Countryside Comics [ 1:02:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Panel Borders: Sequential City

Starting a month of shows about architecture and landscape in comics, Alex Fitch talks to co-curators Heather Gray and Owen D. Powery, and featured artist Alison Sampson about the exhibition Sequential City, currently on display at Anise Gallery, London. Alex discusses with Heather the challenges of displaying comic book art in a gallery devoted to the aesthetics of architecture, to Owen about his comic Between the Billboards and choice of artists on display, and to Alison about her graphic novella Genesis and the website Think of a City, which invites comic book artists to depict a fictional metropolis. Originally broadcast 5th March 2015 on Resonance 104.4 FM (London).

The exhibition Sequential City – The psychology of architecture in contemporary graphic novels runs until 15th March 2015.

Comic art on display in the exhibition Sequential City at Anise Gallery

For more info and a variety of different formats you can stream or download, please visit the home of this podcast at www.archive.org

Links: More information about the exhibition Sequential City at Anise Gallery
Heather Gray’s website
Owen D. Pomery’s website
Alison Sampson’s tumblr, ‘Space in Text’ and ‘Think of a City’ sites
Info about Genesis and Between the Billboards

Panel Borders: Sequential City [ 46:23 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download