Tom Scioli is co-writing, drawing, coloring, and lettering the monthly comic book series, Transformers vs. G.I.Joe. His other comics include Godland, American Barbarian, Final Frontier, and Myth of 8-Opus. Ed Piskor is the author/artist of the Hip Hop Family Tree – a weekly comic strip on Boing Boing and an ongoing book series that chronicles the history of hip hop in comics form. He is also the creator of Wizzywig. They share a studio in Pittsburgh. We visited their studio to talk about what it’s like being professional comic book artists, selling their work, nostalgia, research, color theory, anger management, and "skewmorphism!"

Tell Me Something I Don't Know

TMSIDK 030: Tom Scioli and Ed Piskor on being professional comic book artists

Tell Me Something I Don't Know is Boing Boing's podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the practical side of how they do what they do. The animation project Giant Sloth, starring Paul Giamatti, could be described as Night at the Museum meets Eraserhead. In this episode, we discuss the making of this animated short with its creator, Paul Hornschemeier. He tells us how the cast came together, what the transition from comics to filmmaking and television is like, and how social media has helped him draw more. He's currently raising funds to complete Giant Sloth. Paul Hornschemeier is a cartoonist, writer, artist, designer, animator, and filmmaker. His thought-provoking books include Mother, Come Home, Three Paradoxes, Life with Mr. Dangerous, and Artists Authors Thinkers Directors. He animated the opening credits for IFC's Comedy Bang Bang. Keep up with Hornschemeier online at Forlorn Funnies. He posts a new drawing every day on the Daily Forlorn tumblr.

TMSIDK 029 Cartoonist Paul Hornschemeier

TMSIDK 028 Artist Vanessa German's ARThouse

Nicole Georges is a cartoonist, writer, zinemaker, teacher, aerobics instructor (?), and pet portraitist. When she was a child, Georges’ mother and family told her that her father died when she was a baby. When she was 21, a palm reader told her that her biological dad was still alive. She called conservative talk show host Dr. Laura for some advice. She chronicles what happened next in her graphic memoir, Calling Dr. Laura. Based in Portland, Georges has been making comics and zines including “Invincible Summer” for over a decade. She also teaches at the Independent Publishing Resource Center, which provides access to tools and resources for creating independently published media and artwork. Georges tells us about teaching Riot Grrl history and zinemaking to teenagers, and finding value and self-empowerment through self-expression. When we talked to Georges, she was in the middle of a 9-month fellowship at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT.

TMSIDK 027: cartoonist and zinemaker Nicole Georges

Two years ago, we recorded a conversation with 16 year-old high school student. Not someone famous, but someone who is, to you, a random teenager. So that he could feel free to speak candidly about friends, school, and culture, we gave him the pseudonym Teenager X. He told us about being more tech-savvy than his teachers, he described his hectic schedule, he vented frustrations about learning to drive, and shared a funny anecdote about being kicked out of an online Metal Gear game. Two years later, we revisit Teenager X. He's 18 now and mere months away from high school graduation. He talks about high school "busy work", modern jazz, and nerd culture. He tells us about a brief stint reviewing rom-coms for his high school newspaper and ponders his plans for life after high school, work, college, and girls.

TMSIDK 026: Teenager X

 Stephanie Buscema is a painter, illustrator, cover artist, and comic book artist. She studied cartooning and illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In our conversation, she tells us what it was like to grow up with artist role models in her family. We discuss the influence and importance of illustration greats Mary Blair and Marie Severin. Stephanie walks us through her process for creating killer Red Sonja comics covers, and talks about the benefits of working on a variety of projects in different formats, and the sacrifices necessary to be a working artist. Also: We've got a T-shirt bearing TMSIDK's smart aleck logo! Challenge people with your shirt to tell you something you don't know. Everyone loves a know-it-all.

TMSIDK 025: Stephanie Buscema

Bill Boichel is the owner and proprietor of Copacetic Comics, one of the greatest comic books stores ever. They are located in Pittsburgh, PA, and specialize in independent comics, music, film and literature. Bill has worked in comics retail for over 35 years, and has seen comic books go from disposable entertainment found on newsstands to an art form that is now accepted in galleries, museums and universities. In this episode, Bill discusses the significance of Carl Barks and his impact on the American comics community. We talk about Barks' challenges with creator's rights, and similar struggles faced by artists like Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Jack Kirby. Bill ponders today's comics landscape and history. We survey Copacetic Comics' extensive inventory of small press comics and find out how Bill manages to keep up with such a dynamic and diverse art form. You can experience an online version of his store at copaceticcomics.com, where Boichel posts extensive reviews and promotes the books he carries. But the best way to experience it, and it's worth the trip wherever you are, is to find your way to Pittsburgh and visit in person. This episode of TMSIDK is sponsored by Warby Parker. Try out 5 pairs of prescription eyeglasses for free and get three-day shipping with the offer code TELLMESOMETHING.

TMSIDK 024: Bill Boichel, owner of Copacetic Comics

Elana Schlenker is an independent graphic designer and art director based in Brooklyn. Print magazine honored her on their 2013 New Visual Artist list - a prestigious annual distinction that recognizes the industry’s top 20 creative talents under the age of 30. Schlenker is the publisher and creator of Gratuitous Type, a pamphlet of typographic smut. This episode, we ponder the phrase “unspecialized practice” and try to decide if it’s a positive description for one’s work. We consider the differences between zines and magazines, the contemporary state of magazine publishing, Helvetica vs. Comic Sans, and the virtues of collaboration compared to DIY. Elana Schlenker tells us about studying marketing and studio art, rather than graphic design and walks us through the process of designing It’s Time to Move – writer/cartoonist Peter Wieben’s and photographer Dominic Nahr’s harrowing first-hand account of the Egyptian revolution through their text, drawings, and photos. This episode is brought to you by Audible, the leading provider of audiobooks. Download a free ebook, on us, and get an extended free trial of the service by using this link.

TMSIDK 023: Elana Schlenker

This episode is brought to you by Audible, the leading provider of audiobooks. Download a free ebook, on us, and get an extended free trial of the service by using this link. Tell Me Something I Don’t Know is Boing Boing's podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the practical side of how they do what they do. In episode 22, we speak to Eric Shiner, Director of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. "To Give Voice to Those That Don't Have It" and "Making the Anomalies of Society Into the Paradigms of Society" are among his responsibilities as the museum's director. Over the past twenty years, Andy Warhol's popularity has soared. Shiner talks with us about Warhol's legacy, about exhibiting the museum's collection in the Middle East, China, and Japan, and about engaging fans of the legendary pop artist through social media and interactive technology (on-site at the museum, and online). In 2013, Shiner curated the Armory Focus portion of the Armory Show. He spoke with us about the commercial side of the art world. He explains, "Warhol himself saw absolutely no separation between art and business." Finally, Shiner discusses the impact of the internet on the art world and how he finds new and exciting artists. (The opening music in this episode is by Artificial Human.)

TMSIDK 022: Eric Shiner, director of Andy Warhol Museum

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know is Boing Boing's podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the practical side of how they do what they do. In episode 21, we speak to multi-disciplinary artist John Peña. Each day for the last five years, he has made a drawing about some aspect of his day. He calls this project Daily Geology, and presents it online in a form that resembles a webcomic. We talk with John about how he makes a living as an artist, comic artist Julia Wertz’s artist statement, faking happiness until you are actually happy, teaching, and the business of art education.

TMSIDK 021: John Peña

In this episode of Tell Me something I Don't Know, we speak with Joseph Lupo, a printmaker and professor at West Virginia University. His work focuses on how writers and artists communicate through comics. For more than a decade, he has deconstructed and examined a single volume of The Invincible Iron Man comic book: Volume 01, Issue 178, published in 1984. "It is a different kind of superhero issue for a few reasons," says Lupo. "For one, never in this story does the superhero Iron Man ever directly appear. Also, this issue is split into two different story lines." Using that single issue as source material, he invited 23 nationally-recognized artists to create new work inspired by that original comic. The result: a curated group exhibition, "Shame of the City: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Comic Book Narratives," which opens at Future Tenant in Pittsburgh on December 13, 2013. We speak with Lupo about the show, and what we can learn about communication from studying comics.

TMSIDK 020: Joe Lupo and the The Invincible Iron Man

Cartoonist Ed Piskor's latest book, The Hip Hop Family Tree (Fantagraphic Books) collects his non-fiction comic strip history of Hip Hop, serialized weekly here on Boing Boing. The Hip Hop Family Tree follows the success of his debut graphic novel last year, Wizzywig (Top Shelf Comics), the tale of a computer hacker. Piskor has a special knack for creating comics that appeal to audiences beyond those of us who frequent comic book shops and bookmark webcomics for daily reading. We caught up with him after a busy month of promotional activity for the new book, including stops at Miami Book Fair, Chicago Ideas Week, Brooklyn Book Fair, and the Small Press Expo.

TMSIDK 019: Ed Piskor and The Hip Hop Family Tree

Jacq Cohen is the publicist of Fantagraphics Books. Before that, she was an assistant publicist at Dark Horse Comics and interned at Top Shelf Comix. Fantagraphics Books has been a proponent of comics as a legitimate form of art and literature since they started publishing the Comics Journal in 1976. Since then, they’ve published some of the greatest cartoonists in history including George Herriman, Charles Schulz, Carl Barks, the Hernandez Brothers, Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Peter Bagge, and many, MANY more (including TMSIDK's own Ed Piskor). This year, Kim Thompson, the co-publisher of Fantagraphics Books and one of the most significant figures in comics history, passed away. As a result, 2013 has been a difficult year for the company. Besides the emotional impact of his loss, there have been financial losses due to his active role at the company. In order to overcome this shortfall, Fantagraphics Books has organized a Kickstarter campaign to help finance next season’s book publishing. Although Cohen no-doubt deserves her own episode of Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, she graciously took time to talk about this fundraiser (don’t worry, dear listeners, we get to hear a bit about her and what she does at her dream job!). Please consider helping Fantagraphics Books by supporting this Kickstarter and share this episode with your friends who love comics. Thank you. 

TMSIDK 018: Jacq Cohen of Fantagraphics

Cartoonist Farel Dalrymple began his comics career as part of the Meathaus gang - a loose collective of artists from the School of Visual Arts around the end of the 20th century (Brandon Graham and James Jean know the secret handshake). His work includes Pop Gun War, illustrating Jonathan Letham's Omega the Unknown, the webcomic It Will All Hurt on SG12, and the newly released Delusional from Adhouse Books. He has been nominated for Eisner Awards, received a Xeric Grant, and earned a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators.

TMSIDK 017: Cartoonist Farel Dalrymple

 Bill Shannon is a multidisciplinary artist based in Pittsburgh. In 1992, Shannon attended the The Art Institute of Chicago, earning a BFA in 1995. In 1996 Shannon moved to NYC and immersed himself in the art, dance and skate cultures of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Over the past two decades, Shannon's installations, performances, choreography and video work have been presented nationally and internationally at numerous venues, festivals and events including the Sydney Opera House, Tate Liverpool Museum, NYC Town Hall, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, The Holland Festival, Amsterdam, Temple Bar Dublin, Kiasma Museum Finland, the Hirshhorn Museum, and many more. Shannon also completed a project with Cirque du Soleil: he choreographed an aerial duet and a solo on crutches for their 2002 production "Varekai," which continues to tour. Shannon has been honored with a Newhouse Foundation Award, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Foundation for Contemporary Art Award, among others. He has also received support for his work from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, Jerome Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and others. [soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/114934856" params="" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /] GET TMSIDK: RSS | On iTunes | Download episode | Listen on Stitcher Follow TMSIDK on Twitter Tell Me Something I Don't Know is produced and hosted by three cartoonists and illustrators: Jim Rugg is a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel. His latest project is SUPERMAG. Jasen Lex is a designer and illustrator from Pittsburgh. He is currently working on a graphic novel called Washington Unbound. All of his art and comics can be found at jasenlex.com. Cartoonist Ed Piskor (that's me) draws the Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books and available for pre-order now. Interested in sponsoring one of Boing Boing's podcasts? Visit Podlexing!

TMSIDK 016: multimedia artist Bill Shannon

Tell Me Something I Don't Know is an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative guests discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do. https://twitter.com/tmsidks

hubhopper

Tell Me Something I Don't Know

hubhopper