Super Fun Weekend

Phil Hester is an Eisner-Award nominated writer and artist who has been working in comics, and traveling for conventions, for over 25 years. He is the writer and co-creator of Firebreather and the co-creator and artist of Family Tree, both for Image Comics, and has done work for every major publisher in the business. In this episode Phil talks about moving around as a kid, the appeal of conventions of all sizes, what makes a good trip, being cool, and much more.

This week’s guest is the Eisner Award winning writer and creator of CHEW, John Layman. John’s also written for Marvel, DC, Wildstorm, IDW, Oni and Dynamite. In this episode we chat about working conventions as an editor, doing shows as a writer, and traveling internationally as a working comic creator. John also gives advice on going to your first shows while trying to break in, tells a touching story involving cosplay, and how the con next door is always better than the con you’re at.

It's the debut episode of Super Fun Weekend featuring artist, Michael Cho! Michael is a Shuster and Ringo Award Winning cover artist and his first graphic novel, Shoplifter, was published by Pantheon and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List. In addition to drawing a huge amount of covers for Marvel and DC, he has also done illustration work for clients such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s election transition team, and many more.

Ryan and Michael talked a bit about the Shane Glines Drawing Board forum, a message board that was around in the early 2000’s that a staggering amount of up and coming professional cartoonists and comic artists frequented, what it’s like to be back at shows after a couple years, some of his favorite shows like TCAF in Toronto and Heroes in Charlotte, his favorite cities, how hard a pottery convention can party, drawing at conventions, and much more.