Hey Fan People, Speech Bubble is taking a break for the summer. Listen to this announcement to find out the amazing reason why.

Aaron's Top 10 Episodes

Chester Brown

Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba

Seth

Cecil Castellucci

Paul Soles - The Voice of '60s Spider-Man

Willow Dawson

Chip Zdarsky Live @ Hairy Tarantula

Ho Che Anderson Live @ The Toronto Cartoon Arts Festival

Kevin Boyd - Comics Coordinator at Fan Expo Canada (Three-Part Series)

Joe Kilmartin - The One that Started It All

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Jim Rugg is the Ignatz and Eisner award-winning cartoonist behind Street Angel, (co-written with friend Brian Maruca) Afrodisiac, Rambo 3.5, SuperMag and The P.L.A.I.N. Janes, which is co-written by past Speech Bubble guest Cecil Castellucci. But these days he is best known as one half of the immensely popular Cartoonist Kayfabe YouTube channel with Ed Piskor (Hip-Hop Family Tree, X-Men Grand Design, and the upcoming Red Room)

Though based in Pittsburgh, prior to COVID-19 and the proximity precautions that come with it, Jim was scheduled to attend The Toronto Cartoon Art Festival in May 2020 in support of Street Angel: Deadliest Girl Alive from Image Comics and The P.L.A.I.N. Janes from Little Brown and Company, but formerly published by DC Comics' now defunct Minx imprint. There, he was going to surprise attendees with his latest project, Octobriana 1976 -- the world's first black light comic book -- with AdHouse Books. In light of the pandemic, Jim has switched gears and he is now funding Octobriana 1976 on Kickstarter from now until June 18, 2020 at 5 p.m. EST.

He comes to Speech Bubble in support of Octobriana where we talk about Octobriana's strange and controversial origin story, why Jim decided to print this comic with fluorescent ink and why rebellious women are characters he keeps coming back to. We also talk about his collaborators: Shelly Bond, Cecil Castellucci and Brian Maruca, while tracing his journey from self-taught comics fan to a professional cartoonist who has taught others at the School of Visual Art.

For all you Cartoonist Kayfabe fans, we talk about the way the channel has suddenly become important to the larger comic book community and some very high-profile creators. We get behind what fans of the channel know as "The Cartoonist Kayfabe Bump" and Jim talks about his strategies for back issue diving and he speculates with Aaron about what the comic industry may look like post-pandemic.

This episode is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula, which has supported us from the beginning. Please buy something from them in their time of need at their online store. Please also support Speech Bubble through our Patreon Page where for $3 a month you can hear audio blogs from Aaron and some process blogs from guests about some of their best comic book issues.

@jimruggart

Jimrugg.com

Octobriana 1976 Kickstarter Page

Cartoonist Kayfabe YouTube Channel

The Making of Octobriana 1976

The books that influenced Octobriana 1976

The story behind Octobriana

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This conversation with The Hamilton Spectator's resident editorial cartoonist runs the gamut. Graeme Mackay (as Aaron learns, pronounced Mac-kai) is "The Last of the Mohicans." He has held his position since 1997 and,pre-COVID-19, was actually still been going into a newsroom when many of his editorial cartoonist colleagues either have been working from home for years or their positions have been eliminated entirely as newspapers tighten their belts.

It's actually COVID-19 that forced Graeme to finally work from home and switch to digital drawing (something he would've had to do anyway as The Spectator was set to move offices later this year) and he and Aaron talk about that transition to digital and how Graeme is finding adjusting his technique after years of using traditional pen and ink.

The two also talk about Graeme's serpentine route to working at The Spectator, from his interest in politics and glad-handing those in power to a brief stint in the deli section of Harrod's Department Store in London, England (and that time the late Dodi Fayed landed on the roof in his helicopter because he just had to have his favourite brand of mustard) to finally sending cartoons to various newspapers across Canada and being syndicated in many of them.

They also talk about his earliest influences in cartooning, including the drawings of Richard Scary, and Graeme's uncanny ability to draw city skylines at just three years old. They talk about his earliest cartoons in the pages of Carelton University's student newspaper, the genius of Gary Larson's Farside and of course, Mad Magazine. The recent passing of Mort Drucker of The Usual Gang of Idiots there comes up as well.

Meanwhile, both Aaron and Graeme share the fact that they were raised by television in common, which was another heavy influence on Graeme's career both in comedy with SCTV and in watching the news at a very early age.

The two also discuss Graeme's favourite cartoons from his own work and the possibility of doing anthology or a "Best Of" somewhere down the line. Graeme talks about how supportive his editors have ever been and also those rare times his cartoons were spiked from publication. They discuss the fact that despite the fact he fears that the other shoe may one day drop and he may lose his job, he is a well respected cartoonist, having been featured in the "This Is Serious: Canadian Indie Comics" exhibit in early 2020 alongside Canadian comic book legends like Chester Brown, Seth and Fiona Smyth.

Finally, not only do they talk about the way COVID-19 and the way the stay at home order is affecting Graeme's work, but also his part in "The Cartoonists Against COVID-19" social media exhibit spearheaded by The Association of Canadian Cartoonists to show solidarity with front line workers and to promote the work of the famous Canadian editorial cartoonists who may have lost work due to the pandemic. Then, the two wonder about whether maybe this pandemic will shake up the capitalist system in a good way. This episode is once again sponsored by Hairy Tarantula.

Graeme Mackay's Website

Graeme Mackay on Facebook

Graeme Mackay's YouTube Channel

Graeme Mackay, Wes Tyrell, Matt Weurker and Cartoonists Against COVID-19 on Politico

#cartoonistsagainstcovid

The Association of Canadian Cartoonists

Our conversation with Graeme's friend and fellow editorial cartoonist Wes Tyrell

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