We're really honored to feature Craig Thompson. Craig is arguably one of the best cartoonists of his generation. In addition to having sold tons of books, he's also got a beautiful way with words and pictures and has garnered the appreciation of hundreds and thousands of people, including a lot of artists.
So, it's wonderful to sit down with him, and it was really kind of a shock to hear him name me as one of his early inspirations; that's very kind. And Craig also expands the web by mentioning some other people at the end of this interview that we should be contacting.
But more importantly, I want to talk about how that web expanded, because we went to a little, not only out of the way, but sort of secret cafe in Providence, Rhode Island to film this interview. It's surrounded by artist lofts, and we hadn't even started yet, and we're filming outside, and a woman, Claire, came up to us and we had her ask the questions because she was interested in what we were doing.
By the tail end of this interview, and especially after the interview, we realized that Claire was deeply interested in these values. So much so that she was probably living them more than Craig or I. She and her partner, Femi, who also appeared for a few moments in the interview, have an art studio nearby where they host events and have art shows, and Claire, for instance, hates Instagram had some things to say about the soothing scrolling that is hurting her generation.
And way more interestingly., the way you find out about events in their art studio is, you have to call their landline, which is a rotary phone. And so we were really happy to connect with artists almost half our age, who really believed in the value of face-to-face contact and walking across town or walking from town to town, and reaching out the slow way, and the the mindful way and also the cumbersome way.
We were really honored to to be speaking with them. It's in the interest of connecting all these generations that these oral histories have been started and preserved.
So, I want to thank Claire and Femi, and I also want to thank Craig for sitting down with us, and thank what's left of the really interesting parts of Providence, Rhode Island for being there, and the secret cafe and everything else have a listen.
Thanks!
Byron Black is a cartoonist known for his contributions to the National Fantasy Fan Federation, and for his own creation: The Steppenwolf Chronicles.
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Eli Bishop is a writer, illustrator, and actor based in San Francisco. His stories center on regular life, monsters, healthcare, dreams, depression, and dinosaurs. You can find more of Eli at his website and Instagram: http://errorbar.net/ https://www.instagram.com/error.bar
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Liz Prince is an American comics creator, noted for her sketchbook-style autobiographical comics. Prince initially started publishing on her own on the internet and later became a published author with Top Shelf Comics publishing her first graphic novel "Would You Still Love Me if I Wet the Bed?" which earned her an Ignatz Award.
Thanks so much for listening!
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Chetan Patel is a Toronto based creator who started his mini comics in the early 1990’s. And continues to create his own comics today.
Links:www.tictoctom.com
https://www.instagram.com/tictoctom
https://youtube.com/@geekshop.2814?si=y0ok9eU17wz1R64g
Thanks so much for listening!
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Vjeran Pavlaković is a historian and professor in the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Rijeka. He received his doctorate in 2005 at the University of Washington. He lives in Zagreb, Croatia. In the 90s and early 2000s, Vjeran created mini-comics and zines under the name "Verno the Inferno". He is also a contributer to the alternative comics publisher Komikaze. Thanks so much for listening!
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Jessica Abel is cartoonist, author, and creative coach known for her extensive contributions to the comics world. From mini-comics such as Art Babe, to longer format comics such as La Perdida, as well as two textbooks about making comics, Abel has been a notable name in the comics community since the 90s when she began making minis.
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Leela Corman is a painter, educator, and graphic novel creator, working in the realm of diaspora Ashkenazi culture. third-generation restorative work, and New York City history.
Her books include the graphic novels Victory Parade, a story about WWII, women's wrestling, and the astral plane over Buchenwald (Schocken/Pantheon, 2024), Unterzakhn (Schocken/Pantheon, 2012), which was nominated for the Eisner, the L.A. Times Book Award, and Le Prix Artemisia, and won the ROMICS Prize for Best Anglo-American Comic and the MoCCA Award of Excellence, and the short comics collections You Are Not A Guest (Field Mouse Press, 2023) and We All Wish For Deadly Force (Retrofit/Big Planet, 2016). Her short comics have appeared in The Believer Magazine, Nautilus, The Nib, Bandcamp, and other publications. She is a founding instructor at Sequential Artists Workshop, a Yaddo Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and the recipient of the Xeric Grant, the Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant, the Helix Fellowship, the Koyama Provides Grant, and the 2024 New Jewish Culture Fellowship. Raised in New York City, she now lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where she is an assistant professor at Rhode Island School of Design. http://www.leelacorman.com
Bluesky: @leelacorman.bsky.social
Instagram: @leelacorman
Art:
Support Her Work:
Order her books:
https://www.fieldmouse.press/shop/p/you-are-not-a-guest
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/552601/victory-parade-by-leela-corman/
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/32003/unterzakhn-by-leela-corman/
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The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
John Porcellino (born September 18, 1968) is an American cartoonist and creator of minicomics. Porcellino's self-published, photocopied, mostly autobiographical series King-Cat Comics is among the best-known and longest-running minicomics produced today. Porcellino created King-Cat in May 1989, and to date has self-published 79 issues.
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Robert Kirby is an American cartoonist, known for his long-running syndicated comic Curbside – which ran in the gay and alternative presses from 1991 to 2008 – and other works focusing on queer characters and community, including Strange Looking Exile, Boy Trouble, THREE, and QU33R.
He has worked alongside critically acclaimed queer artists including Diane DiMassa and Alison Bechdel.
Thanks for listening!
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
David Lee Ingersoll is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Seattle, United States. Born in Anchorage, Alaska soon after the 1964 earthquake, he spent most of his childhood and young adult years in northern California, specifically the then small town of Sebastopol. He started drawing at an early age, preferring to concentrate on dinosaurs and other monsters. He has primarily been active in small press publications, contributing illustrations to Factsheet Five and a variety of horror and sci-fi zines in the late eighties and early nineties, creating the comic series Misspent Youths in 1991, and contributing comics to GLYPH Magazine in the late nineties. He is currently contributing to The Black Seal, Worlds of Cthulhu, various RPG publications and illustrating the comic Oz Squad. He is an illustrator for the publisher Chaosium including a cover for the novel The Spiraling Worm. Thanks for listening!
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Peter Kuper (born September 22, 1958) is an American alternative comics artist and illustrator, best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations. Besides his contributions to the political anthology World War 3 Illustrated, which he co-founded in 1979 with Seth Tobocman, Kuper is best known for taking over Spy vs. Spy for Mad magazine, which he both wrote and drew from 1997 to 2022. Kuper has produced numerous graphic novels which have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Slovenian and Greek, including award-winning adaptations of Franz Kafka's Give It Up! and the Metamorphosis. Thanks for listening!
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Larned Justin is a cartoonist who has produced numerous mini comics and small press comics throughout the decades. Steve Keeter is the founder and chairman of the revived United Fanzine Organization (or UFO). Both Justin and Keeter contribute to the Youtube Channel "Talking Small Press Comics" an archive that promotes small press comics. We are thrilled to have them participate in our archive! Please enjoy their interview!
[continued]
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Andrew Coltrin is a writer, comics artist, and disabilities advocate when not at the day job as a paraeducator for a large urban school district. For decades Andrew thought he was just weird, anxious and unexplainably broken until the DSM finally had an update that caught up with lived experience. Andrew was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 37, and informally diagnosed with ADHD by his brother in 2023 (“your DHD is Advanced”). Andrew’s previous work include the glossary zine A is for Autistic, and the zine Ability: Emerging from the Social Constraints on Neurodivergence and Disability. Andrew has also led staff trainings about neurodiversity and has spoken on panels at the Interdisciplinary Autism Research Festival (2021) and the Tucson Zine Fest (2023).
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Donna Barr (born August 13, 1952) is an American comic book author and cartoonist. A Washington state native with a bachelor's degree in German and experience serving in the United States Army, Barr uses her background and wealth of experience to create works with a unique and compelling perspective as seen in her most well-known publications: The Desert Peach and Stinz. From self-publishing to small press publications, Barr is a well-rounded titan of the alternative comics scene and has plenty of wisdom to share. We were so thankful for the opportunity to hear from this titan and get to share her perspectives on the comics production world, and we hope you enjoy listening!
The 90s Mini Comics Oral History aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.)
Sam Henderson (born October 18, 1969) is an American cartoonist, writer, and expert on American comedy history. He is best known for his ongoing comic book series Magic Whistle. He was a contributor to the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants and Camp Lazlo. He has been making mini-comics since the mid-80s, and was the person who introduced mini-comics to me, host Tom Hart. Thanks for listening!
https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/90s-oral-history-project ------------------ 90’S Mini-comics oral history project Imagine… waiting two weeks to know if you got a LIKE. Imagine taking an all nighter, a bunch of stapling and two trip to the copy store and post office in the cold to make a POST. In the decade before the internet, people made comics, and reached out to each other. They shared, they liked and loved. They connected through the mail, and through meet-ups and festivals. This project aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.) These audio/video archives will exist at the University of Florida’s Digital Repository as well as the Sequential Artists Workshop’s Youtube channel and podcast links. In partnership with the University of Florida Samuel Proctor Oral History Project,The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum,and Spit and a Half Distribution. Project Head: Tom Hart, Sequential Artists Workshop Assistant Director: Emma Jensen, Sequential Artists Workshop Consultants: Megan Kelso, Tom Devlin, Matt Madden, Jessica Abel, Caitlin McGurk, Rob Clough https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop... 💬 Find SAW on Instagram - / comicsworkshop Twitter/X - / comicsworkshop Facebook - / sequentialartistsworkshop Substack - https://sawcomics.substack.com/ 💬 DONATIONS SAW Comics is a 501C-3 non-profit and we thrive on your support and donations! You can support us on Patreon at / sawcomics Or become a sustaining donor at https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/s... Or become a sustaining donor: ➡️➡️ https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/s... Thank you! ----------
https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/90s-oral-history-project
Saša Rakezić (born 1963 in Pančevo, Serbia), better known by his pen name Aleksandar Zograf, is a Serbian cartoonist, who was working in the former Yugoslavia in the 80s and 90s. His was the main -and sometimes only- cartooning voice that many in the United States knew of from that region, and was very active in American mini-comics and underground publishing. Chris Lanier, on Zograf's website, writes, "Zograf's email dispatches (later collected in a book titled "Bulletins from Serbia," published by Slab-O-Concrete), ... talked about the images on Serbian TV, which mixed together old Yugoslavian war movies, Disney films, and news footage of gypsies taking scrap metal from a downed F-117 NATO plane. He mentioned the email battle of insults which took place after some Italians got hold of the email addresses of American bomber pilots, and forwarded them to Serbian friends living in towns that were slated for attack. He told how a refinery near his home was bombed, and released a cloud of steam that engulfed the area. He and his wife looked out the window of their flat, and "we saw just white fog, as if the whole world had disappeared..."
His many works include books about this time, Life Under Sanctions and Bulletins from Serbia, but he also created many dream comics, notably Psychonaut, and Dream Watcher.
His website is http://www.aleksandarzograf.com/http://www.aleksandarzograf.com/
We're very honored he spoke with us. Thanks for listening! ------------------ 90’S Mini-comics oral history project Imagine… waiting two weeks to know if you got a LIKE. Imagine taking an all nighter, a bunch of stapling and two trip to the copy store and post office in the cold to make a POST. In the decade before the internet, people made comics, and reached out to each other. They shared, they liked and loved. They connected through the mail, and through meet-ups and festivals. This project aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.) These audio/video archives will exist at the University of Florida’s Digital Repository as well as the Sequential Artists Workshop’s Youtube channel and podcast links. In partnership with the University of Florida Samuel Proctor Oral History Project,The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum,and Spit and a Half Distribution. Project Head: Tom Hart, Sequential Artists Workshop Assistant Director: Emma Jensen, Sequential Artists Workshop Consultants: Megan Kelso, Tom Devlin, Matt Madden, Jessica Abel, Caitlin McGurk, Rob Clough https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop... 💬 Find SAW on Instagram - / comicsworkshop Twitter/X - / comicsworkshop Facebook - / sequentialartistsworkshop Substack - https://sawcomics.substack.com/ 💬 DONATIONS SAW Comics is a 501C-3 non-profit and we thrive on your support and donations! You can support us on Patreon at / sawcomics Or become a sustaining donor at https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/s... Or become a sustaining donor: ➡️➡️ https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/s... Thank you! ----------
Enjoy this interview with Tom Motley who treated us to page by page review of an issue of the Fandom House catalog from the early 90s and showing us so many of the things that were available in the catalog. This is a very visual episode, but you'll also hear grat stories, giving us context and a few really interesting cultural threads in there too. I'm really happy Tom could come on and share with us. Tom is a kind soul and a really interesting creative thinker-- someone who's going to be experimenting and looking for how the medium works, but also celebrating the stranger more marginal ways in which people have made comics, and celebrating the stranger and more marginal creators. It's great to have him as our guide, through this, walk through 80s and 90s mini-comics. Enjoy. Thanks for listening!
https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/90s-oral-history-project ------------------ 90’S Mini-comics oral history project Imagine… waiting two weeks to know if you got a LIKE. Imagine taking an all nighter, a bunch of stapling and two trip to the copy store and post office in the cold to make a POST. In the decade before the internet, people made comics, and reached out to each other. They shared, they liked and loved. They connected through the mail, and through meet-ups and festivals. This project aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.) These audio/video archives will exist at the University of Florida’s Digital Repository as well as the Sequential Artists Workshop’s Youtube channel and podcast links. In partnership with the University of Florida Samuel Proctor Oral History Project,The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum,and Spit and a Half Distribution. Project Head: Tom Hart, Sequential Artists Workshop Assistant Director: Emma Jensen, Sequential Artists Workshop Consultants: Megan Kelso, Tom Devlin, Matt Madden, Jessica Abel, Caitlin McGurk, Rob Clough https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop... 💬 Find SAW on Instagram - / comicsworkshop Twitter/X - / comicsworkshop Facebook - / sequentialartistsworkshop Substack - https://sawcomics.substack.com/ 💬 DONATIONS SAW Comics is a 501C-3 non-profit and we thrive on your support and donations! You can support us on Patreon at / sawcomics Or become a sustaining donor at https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/s... Or become a sustaining donor: ➡️➡️ https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/s... Thank you! ----------
https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/90s-oral-history-project Joe Chiappetta is the creator of the much loved comic series, Silly Daddy. From his Wikipedia: Chiappetta began publishing Silly Daddy in 1991. A graphic novel collection of his work came out in 1994, featuring a decade of art. Chiappetta began posting Silly Daddy as a webcomic in 2004, and moved it to Blogger in early 2007.Born out of the American Independent Comics Movement, the comic started shortly after the birth of his first child in 1991, artist Joe Chiappetta began his career as "Silly Daddy", a mostly autobiographical comic series centered on his experience (and lack thereof) as a father. Major themes in this eclectic series include parenting, family relationships, goofing off, the search for joy and meaning in life, and redemption. The print comic version and the webcomic have elements of humor, surrealism, and slice-of-life observations. Thanks for listening! ------------------ 90’S Mini-comics oral history project Imagine… waiting two weeks to know if you got a LIKE. Imagine taking an all nighter, a bunch of stapling and two trip to the copy store and post office in the cold to make a POST. In the decade before the internet, people made comics, and reached out to each other. They shared, they liked and loved. They connected through the mail, and through meet-ups and festivals. This project aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.) These audio/video archives will exist at the University of Florida’s Digital Repository as well as the Sequential Artists Workshop’s Youtube channel and podcast links. In partnership with the University of Florida Samuel Proctor Oral History Project,The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum,and Spit and a Half Distribution. Project Head: Tom Hart, Sequential Artists Workshop Assistant Director: Emma Jensen, Sequential Artists Workshop Consultants: Megan Kelso, Tom Devlin, Matt Madden, Jessica Abel, Caitlin McGurk, Rob Clough https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop... 💬 Find SAW on Instagram - / comicsworkshop Twitter/X - / comicsworkshop Facebook - / sequentialartistsworkshop Substack - https://sawcomics.substack.com/ 💬 DONATIONS SAW Comics is a 501C-3 non-profit and we thrive on your support and donations! You can support us on Patreon at / sawcomics Or become a sustaining donor at https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/s... Or become a sustaining donor: ➡️➡️ https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/s... Thank you! ----------
Peter S. Conrad is a cartoonist best known for Attempted Not Known, Vidrio Cafe, and This Was 2020. He has been making comics from the San Jose, California area for decades. You can find his online work at https://attemptednotknown.com/ and http://www.vidriocafe.com/
https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/90s-oral-history-project
90’S Mini-comics oral history project
Imagine… waiting two weeks to know if you got a LIKE.
Imagine taking an all nighter, a bunch of stapling and two trip to the copy store and post office in the cold to make a POST. In the decade before the internet, people made comics, and reached out to each other. They shared, they liked and loved. They connected through the mail, and through meet-ups and festivals.
This project aims to collect the stories of ANYONE who made self-published mini-comics in the roughly 10 years before the broad acceptance of the internet (the 90’s, give or take.) These audio/video archives will exist at the University of Florida’s Digital Repository as well as the Sequential Artists Workshop’s Youtube channel and podcast links. In partnership with the University of Florida Samuel Proctor Oral History Project,The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum,and Spit and a Half Distribution. Project Head: Tom Hart, Sequential Artists Workshop Assistant Director: Emma Jensen, Sequential Artists Workshop Consultants: Megan Kelso, Tom Devlin, Matt Madden, Jessica Abel, Caitlin McGurk, Rob Clough https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop...
💬 Find SAW on Instagram - / comicsworkshop
Twitter/X - / comicsworkshop
Facebook - / sequentialartistsworkshop
Substack - https://sawcomics.substack.com/
💬 DONATIONS SAW Comics is a 501C-3 non-profit and we thrive on your support and donations!
You can support us on Patreon at / sawcomics
Or become a sustaining donor: ➡️➡️ https://learn.sawcomics.org/courses/saw-sustaining-member-donation
Thank you!