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RiYL podcast 004: John Roderick

Brian Heater — Wed, 15 May 2013 03:59:10 +0000

John Roderick's less inclined to play the role of the cross country troubadour in the heady days, but the indie rock elder statesman has slipped quite comfortably into the role of podcast philosopher. Come sit with us, on his leather couch.

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RiYL: a new podcast

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:38:36 +0000

Hurray! We've added a new podcast to Boing Boing's line-up of high-quality audio disinfotainment. Brian Heater, our Comics Rack columnist, is the host of RiYL, which he describes as “mostly just an excuse to interview people I think are cool.”

The first three episodes feature cool people indeed:

Scam zine editor Erik Lyle
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Holy Modal Rounders and Fugs musician Peter Stampfel
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Author Mary Roach, the wonderful writer who lifts the lid off the everyday to find the weirdness within
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Other Boing Boing podcast: Gweek, Apps for Kids, TMSIDK

Cool Tools Show & Tell Video Podcast 003

Mark Frauenfelder — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:51:51 +0000

Welcome to episode 3 of Cool Tools' Show and Tell podcast! This time, I had a video hangout with:

Brian Heater, the Director of Media and Senior editor for Engadget, where he writes features, covers news and hosts the show and podcast. He’s written for Spin, Wired.com, The Onion, The New York Press, The Daily Beast, Entertainment weekly, Boing Boing, and elsewhere. His new podcast is called RIYL -- and he says “it's mostly just an excuse to interview people I think are cool.” He lives in Queens with a rabbit who was once featured on Boing Boing.

and…

Sean Michael Ragan, the technical editor for MAKE magazine and a long time contributor to Make’s online and print outlets. He edits the weekly "Toolsday" column online, as well as the Toolbox section of the print magazine.

Brian and Sean showed and talked about eight different tools they love. Check them out at Cool Tools.

Gweek 095: Ruben Bolling and Nate DiMeo

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:29:02 +0000

In this episode of Gweek, I talked to Ruben Bolling and Nate DiMeo.

Ruben Bolling is the creator of “Tom the Dancing Bug,” the weekly comic strip that premieres every Wednesday on Boing Boing. “Tom the Dancing Bug” has won many awards and is a multiple Harvey Award nominee for Best Comic Strip. You can join the INNER HIVE, the comic strip’s subscription service.

Nate DiMeo is the creator of the Memory Palace, a podcast and public radio segment. He’s an on again off again journalist and has written for the TV show Parks and Recreation and was a finalist for the Thurber Prize in American Humor for co-writing a companion book for Parks and Rec called Pawnee: the Greatest Town in America.

Here's what we talked about:

Cinebook, a line of European comic books, including Lucky Luke, Yakari, Blue Coats

Marble Season, by Gilbert Hernandez

Waze, a traffic and GPS app

The Books of Beginning series, a middle-grade fantasy adventure trilogy by John Stephens

Super Flat Times, a kinda lost, unheralded, terrific collection of short stories about a bonkers dystopian world by Matthew Derby

The Hunter, by Richard Stark

Wikireader, $20 gadget contains "the entire English Wikipedia with 3 million topics"

GET GWEEK: RSS | On iTunes | Download episode | Listen on Stitcher

Tell Me Something I Don't Know 007: Jeff Smith

Ed Piskor — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:25:42 +0000

This is episode 7 of Boing Boing's, Tell Me Something I Don't Know. It's an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do.

Jeff Smith began writing, drawing, and publishing Bone in 1991, through his company, Cartoon Books. He championed self-publishing in the 1990s with other independent cartoonists known as the Spirits of Independents and continues to self-publish through Cartoon Book. Since 1991, Bone has become a world-wide phenomenon, published in nearly 30 languages. In 2005, Scholastic reissued Bone in color through their Graphix imprint, inspiring an entire generation of young cartoonists who found his work through traditional book stores, comic book shops, schools, and libraries. He followed the Tolkien-esque, Bone, with Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil (DC Comics) and RASL (Cartoon Books) - a sci-fi noir about a dimension-hopping art thief. Smith recently announced his next project, Tüki Save the Humans, about the first human to leave Africa during the Ice Age.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know is produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, 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.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, 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.

Follow TMSIDK on Twitter

Subscribe to the Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast | iTunes

Gweek 094: Director Chris Columbus and writer Ned Vizzini, authors of House of Secrets

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 06 May 2013 22:35:23 +0000

In this episode of Gweek, I talked to Ned Vizzini and Chris Columbus about their new book, House of Secrets. Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling calls House of Secrets “a breakneck, jam-packed, roller-coaster of an adventure about the secret power of books.”

Ned Vizzini is an award-winning author and television writer. He’s the author of the novels Be More Chill and It's Kind of a Funny Story, and he was on Gweek 069 last year when his delightful young adult novel, The Other Normals was published. He’s also written for TV, including MTV’s Teen Wolf.

Chris Columbus is the writer, director, and producer of many award winning movies, including Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Goonies, Gremlins, The Help, and Home Alone.

RSS | On iTunes | Download Episode | Listen on Stitcher

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Gweek!

Gweek 093: Crime writer Duane Swierczynski

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:30:20 +0000

In this episode of Gweek, I talked to the terrific crime writer Duane Swierczynski. Duane has a new book out today, called Point & Shoot. It's the third and final novel in his Charlie Hardie series (see my review here). Next week, Dark Horse is releasing X #1, written by Duane. We talked about his novels, non-fiction work, and comic book writing (See my review of his comic book series, Bloodshot). We also geeked out on our favorite crime writers, and I added several authors to my list of books I want to read before I die.

RSS | On iTunes | Download Episode | Listen on Stitcher

What we talked about in this episode:

Point & Shoot

Frauds, Scams, and Cons

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Gweek!

Gweek 092: Cartoonist Lucy Knisley

Mark Frauenfelder — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:46:00 +0000

Dean Putney and I interviewed Lucy Knisley, one of my favorite cartoonists. From her website:

Lucy is an illustrator, comic artist and author. Occasionally she is a puppeteer, ukulele player and food/travel writer. She likes books, sewing, bicycles, food you can eat with a spoon, ornery cats, art you can climb on, manatees, nice pens, costumes, baking, television, cheese and Oscar Wilde.

Her first published book, French Milk, is a drawn journal about living (and eating) in Paris with her mother. (From Touchstone Publishing from Simon and Schuster), August of 2008.

Her newest book, Relish, from First Second Books, is about growing up in the food industry. (First Second Books, April 2013.)

Beginning with a love for Archie comics, Tintin and Calvin and Hobbes, she has been making comics in some form or another since she could hold a pencil.

RSS | On iTunes | Download Episode | Listen on Stitcher

What we talked about in this episode:

Mailbox

Primates

Pretty Girls Ugly Faces

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Gweek!

Tell Me Something I Don't Know 006: Robin Bougie, publisher of Cinema Sewer and Sleazy Slice

Ed Piskor — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:04:40 +0000

Robin Bougie is a film journalist, cartoonist, and publisher in Vancouver. He publishes the underground film magazine, Cinema Sewer focusing on exploitation, genre, and cult films. He also publishes (and contributes to) Sleazy Slice, an annual anthology of adult comics. His writing and art have been collected in three Cinema Sewer books by FAB Press (volume four will be out later this year). In July, FAB Press will release Bougie’s Graphic Thrills: American XXX Movie Posters, 1970 to 1985. Get your hands dirty on his website and order some of his work at Cinema Sewer.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know is produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

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.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

Follow TMSIDK on Twitter

Subscribe to the Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast | iTunes

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting TMSIDK!

Gweek 091: Dennis Eichhorn & Real Stuff

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:46:01 +0000

Dennis Eichhorn launched the autobiographical comic book, Real Stuff, in 1990. Dennis has had some of the strangest life experiences you can imagine, and he comes across as a person who is adventurous, compassionate, curious, and enjoys laughing at himself. Best of all, he is a terrific storyteller.

Real Stuff is one of my favorite comics of all time, and I have some good news to share. Boing Boing is going to run the amazing stories from the pages of Real Stuff, once a week (Read the first one here). I’m immensely excited that a new audience is going to be able to read Real Stuff on Boing Boing, free of charge. I hope you’ll enjoy reading, or re-reading them.

Gweek 090: Melissa McEwen, food blogger

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:48:11 +0000

I spoke with food blogger and Meatshare founder Melissa McEwen. Her blog, Hunt Gather Love is about "the intersection between evolutionary biology and food."

Melissa is profiled in today's Chicago Reader article about a supper club run by amateur chefs.

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Gweek!

Gweek 089: Marina Gorbis, executive director of Institute for the Future

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:20:49 +0000

Earlier this month, Boing Boing posted an excerpt from Marina Gorbis's fascinating new book, The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World. As David wrote, the book is "a compelling, provocative, and grounded book about how technology is enabling individuals to connect with one another to follow their passions and get stuff done, outside of large corporations, governments, and the other institutions that typically rule our lives." David and I spoke with Marina about The Nature of the Future for this edition of GWeek.

When Marina was a child, growing up in the Soviet Union, she lived with her sister and widowed mother, a medical doctor at a government clinic in Odessa. Her mother’s salary was meager, and her mother wasn’t a member of the privileged communist party elite, and yet Marina says she and her sister enjoyed a life filled with the arts, good food, fashionable clothes, travel, and education. It was all possible, she says, because her mother knew the value of social capital. “Social connections,” Marina writes, “were a powerful currency that flowed through [my mother’s] network of friends and acquaintances, giving her access to many goods and services and enabling our comfortable, if not luxurious, lifestyle.”

Marina never forgot this lesson about the incredible power of networked individuals, and it directed the course of her professional life. For the past 7 years, Marina has been the executive director of the Institute for the Future, an independent, non-profit research organization and creative design studio in Palo Alto California where David is also a researcher. IFTF helps organizations think about the future to make better decisions in the present.

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Gweek!

Gweek 088: Nick Harmer of Death Cab for Cutie

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:28:54 +0000

David and I had a terrific conversation with Nick Harmer, bass player for Death Cab for Cutie. We talked about the state of home recording, great crime novels, the best places to use the toilet while on tour, and much more.

Nick provided a list of enjoyable books he's read while on tour:

A Darkness More Than Night, by Michael Connelly
The Cabinet of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (I dig the character Agent Pendergast)
The Guards, by Ken Bruen
Out, by Natsuo Kirino
The Night Gardner, by George Pelecanos
Print The Legend, by Craig McDonald
In The Woods, by Tana French
Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn [Boing Boing interviewed Gillian on Gweek 073 in 2012]

Nick says: "Pretty much anything by these authors is great reading. Other notable go-to authors for me include: James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, James Sallis, and Walter Mosley to name a few."

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Gweek!

Tell Me Something I Don't Know 005: Jesse Schell

Ed Piskor — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:20:59 +0000

This is episode 5 of Boing Boing's newest podcast, Tell Me Something I Don't Know. It's an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do.

Jesse Schell is the CEO of Schell Games - a video game and transformational game design company, a Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, and the author of The Art of Game Design. He is a prolific speaker, well-known for his 2010 DICE talk, "Beyond Facebook", which has had over 1 million views online. His resume also includes stints as a juggler, comedian, and Creative Director for Walt Disney Imagineering.

The best way to keep up with Jesse Schell's many activities is through his website. You should probably follow him on Twitter @jesseschell.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know is produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

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.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

Follow TMSIDK on Twitter

Subscribe to the Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast | iTunes

Gweek 087: The Art of Doing

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:30:34 +0000

I had an enlightening conversation with Josh Gosfield and Camille Sweeney, authors of a great new book called The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It So Well. Josh and Camille interviewed 36 notable people -- artists, entrepreneurs, actors, athletes -- asking them their secrets of success. Joining me on the episode was Gweek's frequent co-host, Joshua Glenn, co-editor of Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun and HiLowBrow.

In this episode:

The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It So Well

Ye-Ye Profile: Gigi Gaston

Fathom Butterfly - the notorious beauty queen, showgirl, Hammer horror actress, porn star, felon and feminist filmmaker tweets her memoirs

Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun, by Elizabeth Foy Larsen and Joshua Glenn.

Katana, by Ann Nocenti and Alex Sanchez

Science-Fiction: The Early Years, by Everett Franklin Bleiler

In Praise of Messy Lives, by Katie Roiphe

Geek Battle: The Game of Extreme Geekdom

Flow Free

Gweek 086: Utopian for Beginners

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:55:01 +0000

This was a fun episode! I spoke with John Glassie, author of A Man of Misconceptions, a non-fiction book about the unusual 17th-century polymath, Athanasius Kircher, and Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein, which recounts Joshua’s yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes.”

In this episode:

A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change, by John Glassie

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by Joshua Foer

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology, by Lawrence Weschler

"Utopian for Beginners: An amateur linguist loses control of the language he invented," a New Yorker article by Joshua Foer

"Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm," a Wired article by Gary Wolf

Atlas Obscura is the definitive guide to the world's wondrous and curious places.

Language learning apps and websites: Memrise, iAnki, Dr. Moku's Hiragana Mnemonics, Dr. Moku's Katakana Mnemonics

Gweek 085: Maximum Sugar Rush

Mark Frauenfelder — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:30:04 +0000

(Thanks to SoundCloud for hosting Boing Boing's podcasts!)

Gweek is a podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, TV shows, music, movies, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My guests in this episode:

Peter Bebergal (left), the author of Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood and a writer for various online and print magazines. He blogs at mysterytheater.blogspot.com. Glenn Fleishman (right), executive editor of The Magazine, a periodical for technology-minded readers that isn’t always about technology, the host of the podcast The New Disruptors, and one of the writers of The Economist magazine’s Babbage blog.

Peter talked about the "lack of pop culture for that once powerful consumer: the 10-13 year-old boy." He said, "I spend so much time with my son trying to figure out the appropriateness of media, from TV to movies to video games. There is so little directed to his age (11). everything is either dumbed down or too violent and mature. My son gave me a list of his favorite things this past year." Peter shares his son's list in this episode.

Other things we talked about:

Maximum Ride novels, about mutant kids who have spy-like adventures.

Justified: It's back and continues to be one of the great network shows.

Sony NEX6: The prospect of a compact camera with most of the characteristics of a DSLR, but at a lower cost and in a more compact form factor. The differences between a smartphone and anything but a DSLR are eroding. Cameraphones have nearly caught up to some of the better point-and-shoots. (And some cameras are becoming phones or running Android.)

PrintrBot Jr., a $400 3D printer.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples: the weirdest comic you'll ever read right now for a mainstream audience

Strange Aeons magazine

Wreck-It Ralph Soundtrack

Tell Me Something I Don't Know 003: Eric Skillman, Criterion Collection art director

Ed Piskor — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:30:09 +0000

Thanks to Soundcloud for hosting Boing Boing's podcasts!

This is episode 3 of Boing Boing's newest podcast, Tell Me Something I Don't Know. It's an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do.

In this episode Jim, Jasen, and Ed interview Eric Skillman, a Brooklyn-based graphic designer at the Criterion Collection. He also does freelance design (Comics Journal 301, The Playwright, Leaping Tall Buildings) and writes crime comics including the anthology Egg, the graphic novel Liar's Kiss, and the webcomic, Suckers. You can see more of his work here and here and follow him on Twitter @EricSkillman.

It's produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

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.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

Follow TMSIDK on Twitter

Subscribe to the Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast | iTunes

Gweek 084: Carrie Brownstein

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:34:39 +0000

This morning David and I spoke with with Carrie Brownstein: musician, writer, actor. She's a founding member of the bands Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag, and the co-creator, co-writer, and co-star of Portlandia, the hit sketch comedy series on IFC, currently in its 3rd season.

Previously:

Portlandia: A Guide for Visitors

Portlandia: Artisanal popcorn

Portlandia just keeps getting better

Portlandia holiday preview video: "Vagina Pillows"

SPOILER ALERT: New Portlandia preview clip is called "Spoiler Alert"

(Image of Carrie Brownstein: Wildflag - SXSW Music 2011 - Austin, TX, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from kk's photostream)

(Thanks, Rachel Maguire!)

Tell Me Something I Don't Know 002: Faith Erin Hicks interview

Ed Piskor — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:54:49 +0000

Boing Boing has a new podcast! It's called Tell Me Something I Don't Know, and it's an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do.

In episode #2, Jim, Jasen, and Ed interview Faith Erin Hicks (Tumblr), who writes and draws comic books for a living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her comics include Demonology 101, The War at Ellsmere, Brain Camp, and Friends With Boys.

She is the co-writer and artist for Dark Horse Comics and Naughty Dog Games' comic book, The Last of Us. A print edition of her web comic, The Adventures of Superhero Girl, was recently released by Dark Horse Comics. And her forthcoming graphic novel (with Prudence Shen), Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, is currently being serialized online. The print edition will be released by First Second in May 2013.

TMSIDK is produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

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.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

Subscribe to Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast | iTunes | Listen to previous episodes | Twitter on Twitter

Cool Tools' new "Show and Tell" videocast and podcast

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:12:11 +0000

I'm going nuts with podcasts. Here's the latest: Cool Tools' "Show and Tell" videocast and podcast. Last week, Kevin Kelly and I did a video hangout with Joshua Glenn and Michael Pusateri. We showed each other 18 different things we love, including books, kitchen tools, games, apps, and gadgets.

Subscribe: RSS | iTunes. Listen on Soundcloud. Watch Video.

Here are the show notes.

Gweek 083: How Schweetz It Is!

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:53:00 +0000

In this episode of Gweek I was joined by John Walker of the gaming review site Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and Phillip Gullet of the blog Phil Are Go.

Here are a few of the things we talked about:

Rum Doings Podcast

Marvel NOW!

Dresden Files: Cold Days

The Art of Wreck-It Ralph

Nexus7

Gweek 082: Mitch O'Connell, the World's Best Artist

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:16:46 +0000

In this episode of the Gweek podcast, I interviewed Mitch O'Connell about his massive new art book, Mitch O'Connell the World's Best Artist by Mitch O'Connell. This book shows his early work (he published a great zine when we were in high school together), his attempts to enter mainstream comics ("Interesting, but no cigar" -- Jim Shooter), his commercial art, band posters, gallery paintings, tattoo flash, and more. See sample pages here.

Tell Me Something I Don't Know 001: Gary Groth interview

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:42:17 +0000

It's produced and hosted by three talented cartoonists and illustrators:

Jim Rugg, a Pittsburgh-based comic book artist, graphic designer, zinemaker, and writer best known for Afrodisiac, The Plain Janes, and Street Angel.

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.

Ed Piskor is the cartoonist who drew the comic, Wizzywig, and draws the Brain Rot/ Hip Hop Family Tree comic strip at this very site, soon to be collected by Fantagraphics Books.

In episode #1, Jim, Jasen, and Ed interview Gary Groth, the founder/publisher of The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books. His influence on the state of the contemporary American comics industry and on the art-form itself is difficult to overstate. As a publisher, Fantagraphics' list of works include such celebrated comics as Charles Shultz' Peanuts, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, the Complete Crumb Comics, the Hernandez Bros.' Love and Rockets, Dan Clowes' Eightball (including Ghost World and the original appearance of Ice Haven), Chris Ware's early Acme Novelty Library (including Jimmy Corrigan's original serialization), Charles Burns' Black Hole series, and literally dozens of other significant comics from the last 35 years. Meanwhile, as the founder of the Comics Journal, Groth established and maintained levels of journalistic standards and critical writing never-before-seen in the American comics industry.

Follow TMSIDK on Twitter

Subscribe to Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast | iTunes

Book picks from Mark, Jane (9), and Sarina (15)

Mark Frauenfelder — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 23:01:58 +0000

In this special Superb Owl Sunday Family Channel podcast my daughters Jane (9), Sarina (15), and I shared a pan of Jiffy Pop and talked about books.

What we are reading now:

Mark: Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin

Sarina: The Postmortal, by Drew Magary

Jane: Frederick Douglass: Young Defender of Human Rights, by Elisabeth P. Myers

Favorite books:

Mark: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, by B. Traven

Sarina: The Outsiders, be S. E. Hinton

Jane: By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman

Gweek 081: Wonderful apps, books, comics, and gear

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:20:16 +0000

Gweek is Boing Boing's podcast about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

Subscribe to Gweek on iTunes | Subscribe via RSS | Listen via Stitcher | Download MP3 | Listen via Soundcloud

My co-hosts for this episode:

Joshua Glenn, a Boston-based writer, publisher, and semiotician. He is co-author of Significant Objects, published by Fantagraphics, and Unbored, the kids' field guide to serious fun coming from Bloomsbury this fall. He edits the website HiLobrow, which as HiLoBooks is now publishing classics -- by Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, and others -- from what he calls science fiction's Radium Age.

Kevin Kelly, senior maverick at Wired, editor of Cool Tools, co-founder of Quantified Self, and author of books.

In this episode, we talked about:

About Love: Three Stories by Anton Chekhov, illustrated by Seth. Three interlinked stories about hunters who are stuck in a hut during a snowstorm. Joshua: "Seth is not only great at illustrating, he's also great at decorating books. It's a beautiful pleasure to hold this book." Seth also illustrated two books that Joshua co-wrote: The Idler's Glossary and The Wage Slave's Glossary.

Vela Quadrant Task Force. A long-running webcomic. Kevin: "The art in it looks like folk art painting. There's a kind of cramped feeling to it. There's an offbeat, slightly skewed sensibility … there's something outsider about it."

Kevin gives us an update on the successful Kickstarter campaign for the second volume in The Silver Cord graphic novel series. Download the first issue for free as a PDF here.

Finish This Book. Joshua: "It's a very neat book kids. The author, Keri Smith, pretends that she's found a bunch of scattered pages in a park that she's assembled. There is a mystery involved, and you have to figure out what this manual was. And in order to do that, you have a bunch of creative exercises on each page."

The People of the Ruins, by Edward Shanks. The fifth book in the Radium Age Science Fiction Series, published by Josh's HiLoBooks. "Trapped in a London laboratory during a worker uprising in 1924, ex-artillery officer and physics instructor Jeremy Tuft awakens 150 years later — in a neo-medieval society whose inhabitants have forgotten how to build or operate machinery."

The Yeti USB Microphone by Blue. Mark: "There are many reasons to use the Yeti microphone for podcasting instead of a USB headset. You can change the directionality with a knob. There's a knob for the game. You can plug headphones into it and get instant monitoring of what your voice sounds like, so you can modulate your voice -- it really helps to keep me from yelling into the microphone."

Reflective Zero Messenger Bag from Rickshaw Bagworks.

And lots more: Lens reversal rings for macro photography, 21 truly great movies for parents and kids to watch together (that you can watch instantly on Netflix), Finding Bigfoot, Waze GPS collaborative navigation app, Banksy Bristol Tour app, Werewolf/Mafia, the parlor game.

Gweek 080: Interview with Anarchy Comics publisher Jay Kinney

Mark Frauenfelder — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 22:31:53 +0000

In this episode of Gweek I interviewed one of my publishing heroes, Jay Kinney. Jay was a founding member of the underground comics movement in the late 1960s beginning with Bijou Funnies in 1968. In 1970 he launched Young Lust comics, a great parody of the true love comics of 40 through 60s. He was also art director of the rock fanzine, Who Put the Bomp, which launched the careers of music journalists Lester Bangs and Griel Marcus.

He was editor of Co-Evolution Quarterly, the magazine that grew out of the Whole Earth Catalog. When Co-Evolution Quarterly evolved into Whole Earth Review, Jay wrote an article for it in 1987 called, "If Software Companies Ran the Country," in which he likened digital media to the replicating Shmoos in L'il Abner, and the article remains as fresh and powerful today as it did 25 years ago.

Jay was the founder and publisher of the late, great Gnosis Magazine, and more recently the author of several books on Western esoteric and occult traditions, including The Masonic Myth, "a journey of discovery into the real facts (and mysteries) of Masonry's history and symbols."

We also discussed the newly-published anthology of Anarchy Comics, yet another terrific creation by Jay. Though it ran only four issue from 1978 to 1987, the series remains one of my favorites, and I treasure my original copies.

Apps for Kids 35: Chip Chain

Mark Frauenfelder — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 23:46:55 +0000

Click here to play episode. Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 9-year-old daughter, Jane Frauenfelder.

In this episode of Apps for Kids, we talk about Chip Chain, a fun spin on the match-3 genre. We also talk about the Magic Treehouse series of books.

If you're an app developer and would like to have Jane and me try one of your apps for possible review, email a redeem code to appsforkids@boingboing.net.

Listen to past episodes of Apps for Kids here.

To get a weekly email to notify you when a new episode of Apps for Kids is up, sign up here.

Gweek 079: Milo Danger, maker of the armed civilian drone

Mark Frauenfelder — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:30:18 +0000

In this special edition of the Gweek podcast I interviewed Milo Danger, the guy who installed a paintball handgun into an unmanned drone and shot cardboard targets shaped like human torsos. Milo has other videos on his Danger Info YouTube channel about lock picking and how to grow medical marijuana.

Gweek 078: Joshuah Bearman and ARGO

Mark Frauenfelder — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 00:38:16 +0000

I interviewed one of my favorite journalists, Joshuah Bearman, who wrote the 2007 Wired article that the movie Argo was based on. It was called "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran." Joshuah has also produced some of the best and weirdest episodes to appear on This American Life, including the mind-boggling full-hour piece called "The Incredible Case of the P.I. Moms." I talked to Joshuah about all the above and more.