This is something fun. I was a guest on The Inkstuds Comic Book and Cartoon Power Hour this past week. Thanks to podcast rival Robin McConnell for inviting me on his show. I really enjoyed the conversation.

It actually was pretty great to talk to another comics-podcaster. I am hesitant to listen back to the audio, because I am pretty sure I am guilty of hijacking some of the interview and turning it around on Robin. I am not sure it’s something I can help at this point – I’m finding that hosting my own podcasts week in and week out is making me a compulsive interrogator.

But, in a way, I think that the fact that we’re putting each other in the hot-seat, probably makes for a pretty interesting discussion. We talk a lot about the reasons why we’re making podcasts, and how doing all the research and thinking about comics in terms of discussing them publicly is having an effect on our abilities to continue to enjoy reading them personally. This is something I wonder about a lot. At the moment I’ve really focused on guests for TCJ Talkies whose work I was already very familiar with and a fan of. I have not yet tried bringing someone on whose work I hadn’t already read. I am not sure how that would change my enjoyment of their work – if I needed to cram and read the material to prepare to talk to them. Robin on the other hand (who has interviewed a ton of people) is in a completely different boat – reading comics to get ready for shows. He even talks about reading Troop 142 the day before our conversation, while sitting on a bus going to work.

Also, if you want to hear the audio of my first appearance on Inkstuds, back in 2009, I’ve got the link here.

A couple of nice bits of press have come in recently. One is this funny interview up at the F*cked in Park Slope blog (or FIPS), which I am really excited about, since I assume it will mean that people will recognize me when I walk into the Pavillion movie theater or go to Union Market from now on. Also, I love that they used that adorable photo of me and Orli. It was taken in Scotland, not Park Slope, but it was just too lovely not to repurpose, I imagine.

This interview came about because of the short Park Slope Vampire Mom story I posted a little while back, which can be read online here.

Also, some nice reviews for Troop 142 that I believe I have not yet linked to:

There are a lot of interpretations to Troop 142, an original graphic novel concerning Boy Scouts and adult chaperones up at a summer camp. It’s a credit to the creator, Mike Dawson, that the book is so rich with genuine-feeling human interaction and characterization that it merits discussion as literature rather than pop entertainment. Under the Radar

Applying the same level of merciless scrutiny used by Anton Chekhov, Dawson rips away the naive Norman Rockwell facade of one of the few rites of passage left to young American males, and replaces it with something complex and uncomfortable. Foreword Reviews

The release party is over, which means Troop 142 is essentially out now. I believe amazon orders will start shipping now, and hopefully the book will start making it’s way into finer comic stores within the next few weeks. Be on the lookout!

A couple of reviews of the book have started trickling out onto the internet. Here’s one by Greg McElhatton, and here’s one posted at Paste Magazine.

This weekend, September 10th and 11th, I will be appearing at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda (Rockville?), Maryland. I’ll be curled up at the Secret Acres booth pretty much the whole time, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find me. There’ll be plenty of books.

I am also participating in two panels over the weekend:

On Saturday, at 4:30PM, in the Brookside Conference room, I’ll be moderating Alex Robinson: Ten Years of Box Office Poison

Over the last several years, Alex Robinson has produced Tricked, A Kidnapped Santa Claus, and Too Cool to Be Forgotten, among other books, but his first major work was the 600 page graphic novel Box Office Poison, originally serialized in comic book format and collected in 2001. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of his debut book, Robinson will discuss his career with his Ink Panthers podcast co-host, cartoonist Mike Dawson.

On Sunday, at 1:30PM, in the same room, I’ll be appearing as one of the panelists in this discussion: Navigating the Contemporary Publishing Landscape

In the early 2000s, corporate publishers nearly raced to acquire graphic novels. Now, as the mainstream publishing industry faces severe contractions and as online media assumes many traditional functions of publishing, cartoonists face a rapidly changing publishing landscape, one that includes a resurgent small press. Johanna Draper Carlson will speak with Domitille Collardey, Mike Dawson, Meredith Gran, Roger Langridge and Julia Wertz about publishing options today.

I plan on bringing my little shiny pink MP3 recorder to both panels, so if you miss them, they may appear online at some point down the line. But don’t miss them! Come on out. I am sure they’ll both be better live and in person.

Speaking of me speaking about myself, please take a half-hour to read through this in-depth interview with me over at The Comics Journal. Thanks to Rob Clough for doing it with me. I don’t think I’ve ever publicly discussed a lot of things in there, especially about the early part of my career. It was really great to be able to talk about all of that, and just incredible to be interviewed by TCJ at all. I think if you read the interview, you’ll understand just how long I’ve been a comics fan, and what a big deal it is for me to get the spotlight treatment here.

I think that’s all. I hope to see you all this weekend!

Four new Troop 142 pages posted. I love the word “wuss”. Is it regional to the New York area, or is it widely used? I used it around my Scottish Uncle once, and always thought it was amusing how he pronounced it (woose, like “Moose”) with his thick accent.

In other news, Troop 142 #4 got a mixed-to-good write-up over at The Comics Reporter. Obviously I wish the review had been 100% totally positive, as Tom Spurgeon is one of my favorite writers about comics, but I’m still psyched to get to read his response to the book. And, he’s not wrong about some of the criticisms he made, especially that scene where the Dad’s discuss Scouts and atheism. It felt clumsy when I wrote it, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt totally confident about it.

Having wobbly scenes like this go out into the world is one of the big downsides to my approach to writing combined with how I’m releasing the pages (online and in print) as I finish them. I’m certainly look forward to the day I start editing/revising this thing as a whole.

The issue’s ending was another marvelous bit of restraint on Dawson’s part, as one of the boys asks the other if he wants to know a secret. Nothing further is revealed here, and I’ll be fascinated to see where Dawson takes this particular development, especially in light of the BSA’s infamous attitudes toward homosexuality. Dawson is cooking up a fascinating series here, and it’s clearly the best work of his career.

Clearly! Come on people, pay attention!

The Weekly Midtown Comics Podcast. We talk about all my books, The Ink Panthers, and the meaning of friendship.

Kidsmomo Podcast. My friends Nancy and Karen host a great podcast for kids, where they recommend all sorts of children’s books. I came on as a graphic novel expert and also to talk about BONE and OWLY.

Mike Dawson has two chief virtues as a writer: writing dialogue with an almost painful level of verisimilitude, and an understanding of the dynamics of teenagers that manages to emphasize the Darwinian nature of their relationships along with the naivete’ of youth. The first two issues of his latest project, TROOP 142, put the viciousness of the interplay between teenage boys in the context of a Boy Scout outing. One thing that Dawson hammers home in these comics is the tension between the ideals of being a Boy Scout and the reality of being a teen.

I haven’t yet figured out how I’m going to make these minis available for sale outside of comic conventions. I’d like to try to get a distributor interested in helping me out, but if that doesn’t work out, I’ll probably setup some kind of Paypal system or something.

I wasn’t totally sure what was going on with this, but it looks like the Czech edition of Freddie & Me is going to be published soon

Robin McConnell interviewed me this past week for his excellent comics-related radio show, Inkstuds. We talk about my books Ace-Face and Freddie & Me, as well as my ongoing webcomic, Jack & Max Escape From the End of Time, among other things.

Unfortunately the last minute and a half of our chat got scrambled, so had to be cut from the online audio. This results in the conversation ending kind of abruptly, just as I started on some weird rant about my disgust at my former college-age self for being such Politically Correct drip instead of going out and partying for four years. Maybe it’s for the best that the majority of this screed has been lost to the ages…

Things keep moving along with two new pages posted here.

To read from the very beginning, click here.

Apologies for the small update, but last week was killer, with Passover, Easter, and an unfortunate bout of food poisoning (I do not recommend the “Potage” soup from the Red Hook Fairway!).

In more pleasant news, I was happy to see this morning the first review (brief as it is) of Ace-Face, over on the Inkstuds blog. As mentioned in the review, Robin will be interviewing me later today, though the audio won’t be going online for a few weeks. Rest assured, I will link to that audio once it goes live.

It’s a great review, and I’m psyched they spotlighted it. I can’t help but assume the worst though, at the beginning where he mentions seeing the book on the shelves, noting in his “to check out one day” mental filing cabinet, and then a year later picking it up. Was it the same copy that he saw both times?

I have a new book coming out from AdHouse in April, entitled “Ace-Face: The Mod With the Metal Arms“. It’s a 96-page collection of short stories, mostly featuring the titular character Ace-Face, everybody’s favorite well-dressed crime fighter, doling out super-powered justice with his bionic limbs, and handling crisis’s at home as a husband and father.

Here are links to a few interviews with me, discussing the book:

The Pulse: Dawson’s Mod of Steel, ACE-FACE
Newsarama: Going Inside Ace Face with Mike Dawson
Comic Book Resources: Talking Comics With Tim
Comixology podcast – recorded at the New York Comicon

And some pages from the book can be seen at Publisher’s Weekly.

A few places posted online excerpts from Freddie & Me. These are the ones that can still be found online:

Pop Candy
NPR
Publishers Weekly

Here are some of the print interviews I took part in to help promote Freddie & Me:

The Comics Reporter – June, 2008
Newsarama – June, 2008
BlogCritics Magazine – June, 2008
The Daily Cross-Hatch – October, 2008

These are links to some of the audio interviews I did to help promote Freddie & Me. There were some others (including a bunch on the BBC radio, that sadly I may never hear again), but these are the ones I could find that are still online:

Pop Candy – May, 2008
Indie Spinner Rack – June, 2008
Comic News Insider – June 2008
Indie Spinner Rack – recorded @ HeroesCon with Alex Robinson, August 2008
Comic Geek Speak – February 2009

Photo by Seth Kushner

Freddie & Me was published in the Summer of 2008 by Bloomsbury in the USA and Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom. Here’s a slew of links, sampling some of the press the book received:

The Sunday Telegraph

Charming, sincere and, above all, expressively drawn, in an uncomplicated way it has much to say about what remains after we’ve gone.

Comic Book Resources

Perfectly captures the high drama of adolescence … encapsulates what it is to be a Fan of something, and love a bit of culture so much that you tie that love into the most meaningful moments of your life

Read About Comics
Entertainment Weekly
NPR

There’s a wistful air of self-deprecation in Dawson’s writing and illustration, as well as a killer backbeat.

Syndicate Product Covert HQ
Culture Catch
Booklist

This quiet, slice of life graphic memoir emphasizes the incredibly important role music plays in our lives, especially during our teen years. Dawson’s art is realistic and fearless–he isn’t afraid to depict himself in all his adolescent glory, bad haircut, braces and all.

Daily Cross-Hatch
Down the Tubes
Satisfactory Comics

Freddie & Me manages to deliver both the manifest awesomeness of Queen and the patent absurdity of an elementary-school boy who has given his soul to them, or a high-school boy whose emotional life is wrapped around the band he loves. In fact, sometimes it gives us both of these things (the sublime and the ridiculous) at the same time, in a way that seems totally appropriate to Queen.

Queenzone