Off Panel: A Comics Interview Podcast

In this week's episode of Off Panel, Skybound Entertainment's Senior Vice President of Business Development, Shawn Kirkham, joins the show to discuss their stealth launch of the new comic series from Robert Kirkman, Scott Gimple, Chris Burnham, Nathan Fairbairn and Rus Wooton, Die!Die!Die!, and everything his job includes at Skybound. Kirkham discusses fancy titles, the origins of Die!Die!Die!, why they wanted to release a comic without any advance warning, the upside of doing a comic that way, trying new things in comics, Murder Falcon, The Walking Dead's 15th anniversary blind bags, original art, Wildstorm, balancing collectability with readership, what a day at his job is like, The Megabox, Skybound Games, the secret to being good at cons, and more, before closing with five questions about Shawn Kirkham, the person.

In this week's episode of Off Panel, former writer, artist and Marvel editor joins the show to talk his career, the Transformers, and more. Budiansky discusses having his life dramatized in The Toys That Made Us, the origins of The Transformers (and his part in it), how he ended up at Marvel, whether he viewed comics as a career at the time, what Marvel was like in the 80s, Mark Gruenwald, how he started writing The Transformers, his approach on the book, why he left it, whether his relationship with the property has changed, the Marvel Universe trading cards he was the architect of, the Marvel implosion in the 90s, why he never returned to comics, and more.

In this week's episode of Off Panel, writer Al Ewing joins the show to talk about his new series, the Immortal Hulk. Ewing discusses his background as a comic reader, the strips hew grew up on, his Marvel background and love of the Hulk, Peter David's Hulk, how the idea for the Immortal Hulk came together, the Banner/Hulk dichotomy, Joe Bennett's impact on the book, how they're handling the art on the book, his writing approach, consecutive double page spreads, borrowing from other creators, using your tools correctly, and more.

In this week's episode of Off Panel, writer and DC Comics legend Paul Levitz joins the show to talk his career and latest trade paperback, Brooklyn Blood. Levitz discusses his comics journalism background, what comics were like when he joined DC, comic book pro poker night, Jenette Kahn's impact, his time writing the Legion of Super-Heroes, his self-created position at DC, the development of the modern DC creator contract, the direct market, the development of the trade paperback and its market, Vertigo and its 25th anniversary, how different his role was as president/publisher, Brooklyn Blood, the trickiness of the Dark Horse Presents format, how he approaches writing, collaboration, the current state of comics, and more.

In this week's episode of Off Panel, The AV Club's resident comic critic Oliver Sava returns to the show for a deep dive into the state of the superhero union. We discuss how we feel about superhero comics in general today, Geoff Johns' big move out of DC Entertainment, what he's liking and not liking at DC right now, The Killing Zone, Bendis's start at DC, Young Animal ending, DC's love of imprints, Vertigo's relaunch, where Marvel is at, Ta-Nahisi Coates' work on Black Panther, the titles we're really digging, who we'd want to write a Marvel event today, the upcoming Marvel comic we're most excited for, which publisher has more momentum right now, who is making the best comics, which superhero title has the belt right now, and more.

In this week's episode of Off Panel, cartoonist Vera Brosgol joins the show for the first time to talk her latest graphic novel Be Prepared and her work overall. Brosgol discusses her recent book tour, the experience of visiting schools, solely focusing on being a graphic novelist, the difficulty of writing, how she works, revisiting her past in her work, going the memoir route, the impact working in animation for Laika Studios had on her comic work, working with first second, her approach to layouts, the value of turning your brain off, the growing kids market and more, before diving into five questions about Vera Brosgol, the person.

In this week's episode of Off Panel, it's a special Power Rankings episode with cartoonist John Allison of Giant Days and Bad Machinery fame, who joins the show to rank a few of his favorite things. Allison discusses his favorite characters of his own, why writing is easier for him than art, favorite colloquialisms, his love of television, the MCU, favorite elements of old superhero comics, science fiction stories, Death's Head II, his characters he's most similar to, bizarre, modern things he takes the most joy from, comic strips, Eurovision, superhero artists, and more.

In this week's episode of Off Panel, writer Greg Rucka joins the show to talk Lazarus and its big format and schedule change. Rucka discusses why that change was necessary, the varying ways you can handle delays, how he figured out solutions, how it changes his job, artist Michael Lark's subtle skills, the impact the format change will have, Eric Trautmann's low-key MVP nature on the title, whether today's market is more conducive to atypical comic approaches, balancing workloads, his relationships with characters from his past, the World Cup, and more.

In the second episode of two on Off Panel this week, artist Leslie Hung joins the show to talk Snotgirl and her art. Hung discusses the TCAF experience, art school, the magic of comics, how she and Snotgirl collaborator Bryan Lee O'Malley teamed up and created Snotgirl, fashion bloggers, social media stars, the learning curve on making comics, her art process, the colors in the book, creating the looks of the cast, character acting, her understanding of the cast, her podcast Salt & Honey, and more.

In this week's first episode of two on Off Panel, cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley joins the show to talk his Image Comics series Snotgirl and his career making comics. He discusses what stood out to him about his collaborator on Snotgirl, Leslie Hung, where the idea for the book came from, the impact of Los Angeles had on the book, fashion bloggers and social media curation, whether he feels like part of the online conversation, the Warren Ellis Forums, allergies, the improvisational nature of monthly comics, fine tuning scripts for collaborators, schedule management, the specter of Scott Pilgrim, food in his comics, our relationship with stories today, and more.