Episode 143 - A Publisher Spotlight on Retrofit Comics / Big Planet Comics - a podcast by Stergios Botzakis & Derek Royal

The Two Guys are back for yet another publisher spotlight, and this time they are looking at the 2015 releases from Retrofit Comics / Big Planet Comics. The episode begins with a brief interview with Box  Brown, the founder and editor of Retrofit Comics. He discusses the origins of Retrofit as a Kickstarter campaign, his education as a publisher, the ensuing partnership with Big Planet Comics, and the philosophy behind and publishing trajectory of their efforts. After that, the guys discuss the 2015 releases (so far) from Retrofit / Big Planet, beginning with Kate Leth's Ink for Beginners: A Comic Guide to Getting Tattooed. Andy points out that Leth's work is one of a growing number of informational or expository comics to be found out there, and that tattoo parlors around the country would do well to stock this small book. Next, the guys turn to Box Brown's An Entity Observes All Things, a collection of nine short stories, all with a sci-fi or futuristic themes of some sort. Some of their favorites include "Mundo Jelly," "Voyage of the Golden Retriever," "Memorexia," and the title story. Then they look at perhaps the most experimental, and the smallest, book of the lot, Niv Bavarsky's Piggy, a disparate series of stories and drawings in mini-comic form. The unconventional nature of Piggy is then contrasted to the more genre-based comics of the week, Laura Knetzger's Sea Urchin and Jack Teagle's The Unmentionables. The former is an autobiographical account of the author's inabilities concentrate and relate to others -- represented effectively by a sea urchin inside her brain -- as well as a speculation on her place in the world. The Unmentionables is a fun, action-packed story of a group of pro wrestlers who become crimefighters, and its origin-story feel promises more installments to come. Finally, the Two Guys turn to what may be the two most ambitious narratives of the week...or so Derek feels. Olivier Schrauwen's Mowgli's Mirror is a wordless, almost treasury-sized comic about a young man in a jungle -- no overt links to Kipling's stories -- searching for companionship and finding unexpected encounters. As the title suggests, there are parts of the narrative that are symmetrical in nature, but in this aspect the book doesn't hold a candle to the final book discussed in this publisher spotlight, Matt Madden's Drawn Onward. As we have come to expect from Madden -- see, for example, 99 Ways to Tell a Story and A Fine Mess -- this book is an experiment in form, where the second half of the narrative mirrors the first half...or vice versa. Depending on how you read it, it's a story of either connectedness or alienation. Either way, it's a self-reflexive tale where the narrator uses her art to make sense, and perhaps even transform the meaning, of experiences that unsettle her. In wrapping up the episode, Andy and Derek also talk briefly about some of the other books that Retrofit / Big Planet have been putting out over the last couple of years. (Box Brown and Jared Smith, the head honchos of the two respective presses, sent the guys a large package containing their back catalog.) Among the earlier titles they mention are James Kochalka's Fungus: The Unbearable Rot of Being, Sam Alden's Wicket Chicken Queen, Anne Emond's Debbie's Inferno, Josh Bayer's Theth, and issues #1 and #2 of Box Brown's Numbers. If you didn't know anything about Retrofit Comics / Big Planet Comics before, then there is no excuse not to be turned on to their stuff after this episode. Go get it!

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