This week we talked all about creative collaboration!

Comics can often be a solitary endeavor, but you'll find lots of ways to collaborate with other people—be it editors, writers, artists, colorists, copy editors, designers, publishers or co-creators!

Collaboration in any art form can be a great way to breathe new life into the creative process. They can be scary or uncomfortable if you're used to having total control over your creative projects, or this shared control might feel liberating.

Either way, there's lots to gain from working with others on a shared project, from morale boosts and accountability systems, to practical knowledge sharing and the creative alchemy of multiple minds coming together.

But how do collaborations happen? How do you make them successful? How can you maximize fun and minimize pain in the process?

There's lots of advice in this episode, but the core of it is to establish clear communication and boundaries and to have a shared goal with your collaborators.

Tommi Parrish Invites You to Join Them for 4 Weeks of Creative Play

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. Giving us stories, giving us context and finding 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!

This week on The Terrible Anvil, we talked about BACKGROUNDS!

We talked about the link between last week's topic, EXPECTATIONS and backgrounds—what we THINK backgrounds should look like, as well as what readers might expect…

This week we got rather philosophical here at the Terrible Anvil podcast!

We tackled lots of big ideas, but circled back again and again to finding joy in the hard parts of comics (and within the confines of capitalist markets).

We also discussed drawing inspiration from the world around us—zooming out can get us out of our heads and give our work room to breathe.

But our power to tell stories comes from within us too!

We go over ways to tap into our own creative energy, even when we've reached a state of burnout. Finding ways to reignite the joy of our creative process can lead us to more sustainable art practices—especially when we're working on dark, heavy topics.

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.

https://joechiappetta.blogspot.com/p/books.html

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/

Roberta Gregory is the legendary, groundbreaking cartoonist, the first woman to self-publish a full length solo comic, Dynamite Damsels in 1976 and she has continued to be involved in mini-comics and self-publishing through the 2000s. She's contributed to Gay Comix, Wimmen's Comix, Tits & Clits and is the solo author of Bitchy Bitch, Winging It, Sheila and the Unicorn and many more.

In this episode we talk about some of the most social fun one can have as a cartoonist: TABLING! Read on for tips about navigating comics conventions, zine fairs, and press expos of all seasons and sizes.

Learn about attending conventions to share your work, expand your network, have fun, and see what's out there in the world of comics.

We’re honored to have had Tessa Hulls as a guest speaker, sharing her history with comics, the process behind Feeding Ghosts, and more!

Per her publisher's website: Carol Tyler is one of the most enduring cartoonists of her generation. Debuting with the short story ""Un-Covered Property"" in Weirdo in 1987, she went on to contribute to other anthologies of the era like Street Music, Twisted Sisters, Wimmens Comix, Drawn & Quarterly, and Zero Zero.

Fred Noland's specialty is visual storytelling, whether in animation, comics, or illustration. Noland’s comics have appeared in the New Yorker, Popula and the East Bay Express. His illustrations have appeared in LA Weekly, Nickelodeon Jr., Xbox Magazine, Revolver, Canoe & Kayak and more. He was the chief artist on the animated short series “Priced Out” which has been shown world-wide. His graphic novel biography about turn-of-the-century champion cyclist Major Taylor is scheduled for release from Drawn & Quarterly in 2025.