Daniel talks about how comics helped him learn a new language when he was young and how wide a variety of styles there are to suit every taste.

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Show Notes

Part One: I chat with Dr Daniel Boswell about comics research, the way comics can help learn new languages, how they are therapeutic, and how different styles mean that pretty much everyone is covered if they would like a comfort comic book!

Mentioned in this episode are:
Tintin
Asterix and Obelix
2000AD
Superman
X-Men
Alan Moore
Garth Ennis
Patrick Zircher
Inkblot
Jimmy Palmiotti
Archie

Part Two: I conclude my chat with Daniel about comics and we chat and laugh about tie-ins, keeping fans on side, character design, the brilliant rise of creator owned IP, and the expressive art found in comics. This episode has plenty of laughs, me chatting horses in comics, and Daniel struggling to pick his favourite IP.

Things mentioned in the episode:
Deadpool
Black Widow
Rob Liefeld
Louise Simonson
Paper Girls
Miss Marvel
Marvel Assembly – Preeti Chibber
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur
The Inhumans
Marvel Knights
BlackSad
Blade Runner
Snowpiercer
Thor
The Avengers
The Walking Dead
The Flash
Flashpoint
Wolverine
Dr Strange
Savage Avengers
Batman
The Joker
The Riddler
Catwoman
Jim Lee
Frank Miller
Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing
Dune
Shirow Masamune
Ghost in the Shell
Kieran Gillan’s The Wicked and the Divine

Liam chats about the power of comics in the first part of this interview and in the second on how books and writing helped his mental health, as well as the importance of bringing iconic characters to life.

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Show Notes

Part One: I chat with comics artist, writer, and novelist Liam Sharp about the therapeutic effects of reading and the power of comics in this, the first part of our interview.
Liam does a wonderful deep dive into the world of drawing comics and mental health.

Liam’s website
Liam’s Twitter

So many comic creators and writers were mentioned I hope I have covered them all!
Grant Morrison
Philip Larkin
The Boys
Garth Ennis
Marlon Brando
Elektra Assassin
Stray Toaster
Bill Sienkiewicz
Green Lantern
Dave Gibbons 
Neil Adams

Part Two: In this second part of my interview with Liam we go into detail about Liam’s struggles with mental health, how writing and reading helped him and how carefully he worked on Wonder Woman knowing how important a character she is to so many people.
We also chat about the huge success of Liam’s kickstarter campaign and how unexpected and life changing it will be for him. To have readers so visibly show their love and support has been incredible.

Liam’s website
Liam’s Twitter

More comics and creators mentioned here!
Wonder Woman
Greg Rucka
Arkham Asylum
Dave McKean

Ram talks all about how he became a comics writer and why he feels that more representation is needed in the industry.

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Show Notes

I chat with award winning comic writer Ram V this week all about how he fell into writing for comics and his interesting journey into reading comics. We discuss how comics are subtle or not so subtle pieces of social commentary, how representation and  new takes on classic characters is essential for the future of comics.

Links to:
Ram’s website
Ram’s Twitter

Works and creators mentioned in the episode:
Joe Abercrombie
Jon Delillo
Bill Sienkiewicz
Liam Sharp
Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Sequential Art by Will Eisner
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Black Mumba by Ram V
Alan Moore
Swamp Thing by Alan Moore
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
Essex County Trilogy by Jeff Lemire
Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
The Picture of Everything Else by Dan Watters
Pluto by Naoki Urasawa
20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa

Bonnie talks about her love of books and illustration, how she sees pictures as she reads, and how reading brings her joy.

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Show Notes

This week I chat with illustrator and artist Bonnie Hawkins. We discuss how reading has saved her life, how illustrations appear in her head as she reads, her love of illustrated books, and whether drawing is therapeutic.

An absolutely delightful episode with so much joy and beautiful books!
Do go check out:
Bonnie’s website
Bonnie’s Twitter
The 52 Crows Project

This week’s episode artwork is the drawing that started Bonnie’s illustration career.

Works and people mentioned in the episode
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
Fairies by Brian Froud and Alan Lee
Masquerade by Kit Williams
Grimm’s Fairytales Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
The Liveship Traders Trilogy by Robin Hobb
The Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin Hobb
PJ Lynch
East o’ the Sun West o’ the Moon
Alan Lee

I chat with Sarah Howell, Head of HR at Creative Assembly, and Sarah and Rosie from the charity Safe in Our World all about the importance of looking after mental health in the workplace and how best to create an encouraging space to increase diversity and inclusion in the gaming industry.

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Show Notes

I chat with Head of HR at the award winning games developer Creative Assembly, Sarah Howell, alongside Sarah and Rosie from Safe in Our World, a videogames specific mental health charity.

We discuss the importance of wellbeing in an industry that is rife with burnout and crunch, what support is available both at CA and SIOW, the difficulty of working from home and how to move forward with flexible working conditions, and we finish up with a great discussion on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the industry and what CA do to help improve this area and be the change we want to see.

Creative Assembly Legacy Project
Safe in Our World
Black Girl Gamers
Autistica
POC in Play

I chat with Joanne about her new book Honeycomb, the therapeutic effects of reading whilst undergoing hospital treatment, and how important good translations are.

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Show Notes

I chat with the wonderful Joanne Harris MBE, an author across an incredible number of media. We chat about the therapeutic effects of reading and writing, how personifying illness can be beneficial and the ups and downs of translations. We have a very interting chat about reading as a bilingual, the joy of graphic novels, and sneaking those books your mother doesn’t want you to read at the library.

Works and authors mentioned:
Lee Child
Georgette Heyer
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
Gustave Flaubert
Andre Gide
Guy de Maupassant
Alexandre Dumas
Francoise Mauriac
Stephen King
George R.R. Martin
Mervyn Peake
Agatha Christie
Laura Grandi Italian translator and author
P.G. Wodehouse
John Mortimer
Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Brian Vaughan
Becoming Unbecoming by Una
Chi’s Sweet Home by Kanata Konami
Inkblot by Emma Kubert and Rusty Glad
Wayfareres Series by Becky Chambers

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Show Notes

I chat with the wonderful Audioverse Award winner and multiple Hugo and BFA finalist pop culture journalist and podcaster Alasdair Stuart all about the therapeutic effects of reading, consuming media, and writing about your favourite things. This is a fun lively chat that goes from magicians Penn and Teller all the way to The Abyss, stopping via Nick Cage and a Dalek Escape Room. All in all a wonderful insight into the perspective of a pop culture journalist writing on very popular IP with steadfast and vocal fans.
Photo credit to ©Edge Portraits 2019

Link to Alasdair’s website
Link to Alasdair’s Twitter
Link to The Full Lid
Link to the Escape Artists podcast website where you’ll find PseudoPod and the Escape Pod
Link to Alasdair’s Twitch

List of things mentioned in the podcast:
Books
Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski
More than Meets the Eye  (Transformers comic)
Lost Light  (Transformers comic)
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Film, TV, nd Theatre
Red Dwarf
Twilight Zone Theatrical Production
JiuJitsu
The Abyss
Doctor Who
Parks and Recreation
New Girl
Leverage

Awards
IGNYTE awards
Aurealis awards
Sir Julius Vogel Award (The Vogel’s)

I chat with the father of UK fantasy Ian Livingstone all about his co-creation of a new genre of books with the Fighting Fantasy series, the importance this had on getting children to read, and why videogames are so brilliant at getting gamers to use creative and critical thinking.

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Show Notes

I chat with the delightful Ian Livingstone, games legend. Co-founder of Games Workshop, co-creater of the Fighting Fantasy genre of books, videogames star who brought us the brilliant Lara Croft. We chat all about the therapeutic effects of reading, how he and Steve Jackson created an entirely new genre of books that encouraged children to read and increased literacy rates. He shares some amusing stories about the launch of the first book and how they are still in print today. We also discuss co-writing, how important games are for critical thinking, and why having a sense of agency is so important when engaging in media.

Ian’s Twitter
Ian and Steve’s new book from Unbound

Things mentioned in this episode:
On the Road by Jack Kerouac 

Fighting Fantasy books mentioned
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Citadel of Chaos
Forest of Doom
City of Thieves
Deathtrap Dungeon
Assassins of Alansia

Games Mentioned
Skyrim
Dark Souls
Minecraft
Rollercoaster Tycoon

I chat with Nick Coveney all about reading It at a young age, finding yourself represented in stories, LGBTQ+ in literature & publishing, problematic authors, & how digital is changing how we consume books.

There is a content warning on this one as Nick says a rude word. He quickly follows it up with rainbows and unicorns though.

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Show Notes
I chat with the wonderful Nick Coveney of Rakuten Kobo. We chat about Nick’s early experience of reading It and what kinds of books he finds therapeutic. We also chat about problematic authors and their effects on being able to gain comfort from their books, how well represented LGBTQ+ is in literature and publishing and problems arising from perceived rulebooks. We discuss the role of the ebook and audiobook on reading habits and how publishers like Rakuten Kobo can decide which books are available on their platform.

Authors and works mentioned in the podcast:
Peter F Hamilton
It by Stephen King
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Quartet by Orson Scott Card
It’s A Sin by Russel T Davis (TV)
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Dragonriders of PERN by Anne McCaffrey
The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

This week I chat with Rachel Taylor and Amanda Melfi, social media and marketing geniuses at Tor. We chat about the importance of author wellbeing, the role of Tor’s social media channels, and how Rachel sent John Scalzi a secret burrito one time.

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Show Notes
I chat to the fabulous people behind the Tor family of twitter accounts Rachel Taylor and Amanda Melfi all about how they try to be fun and engaging on social media on behalf of the Tor family without putting pressure on their authors. We chat about favourite books, hilarious twitter moments, sending John Scalzi secret burritos, and why it’s important to them to make the Tor spaces a safe space for authors and readers alike.
Check out the Shelf Healing Twitter account for debates on what counts as a dragon!

Twitter accounts:
Tor Books
Tor.com
Tor.com Publishing
Nightfire
Tor Teen
Rachel’s account
Amanda’s account

Books, authors, and twitter accounts mentioned in the episode:

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke
John Scalzi
The Invisible Life of Addie by V.E. Schwab
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Murderbot by Martha Wells

Twitter accounts
Effin birds
Spark Notes