Marv Newland burst onto the animation scene nearly 40 years ago with his oddball student film Bambi Meets Godzilla. Since then, his subversive, raunchy, and surrealistic short films have earned him and his studio International Rocketship worldwide notoriety. S.W. Conser catches up with Marv in Vancouver BC, on the final leg of the Words & Pictures road trip. Originally aired October 31st.
Platform International Animation Festival Did you know that the biggest animation event in the country is happening this summer, and the host city is Portland? Tune in to Words and Pictures to hear the preview from event organizers, Marilyn Zornado and Shawn Bowman. Originally aired April 24th.
S.W. Conser hosts a discussion with sculptor Joe Liptak about an exhibit on Viewmasters that the 3D Center is mounting. Also an episode of History Detectives coming up in June takes place at the 3D Center.
Words & Pictures welcomes celebrated stop-motion animator Teresa Drilling. Dividing her time between Portland and London, Teresa has brought alive characters for Aardman Animation ("Wallace and Gromit"), Sesame Street, and most recently, the American version of "Creature Comforts," airing on network TV this summer. Plus, she's got a lot to say about Jungian archetypes. No, seriously.
Special for the Platform Animation Festival - Originally aired on Words & Pictures on June 26, 2007
Rose Bond and Dryden Goodwin introduce the free animation installations that have been appearing in the Pearl District during the Platform Animation Festival. Rose is a celebrated local animator and visiting artist Dryden Goodwin has been featured at the Tate Modern Gallery.
Award-winning authors/film historians Amid Amidi & Jerry Beck have been rescuing forgotten animation from archives and festivals and collecting it on their website Cartoon Brew Films. S.W. Conser and Bill Dodge catch up with Amid and Jerry following their appearance at the Platform International Animation Festival.
Hundreds of artists, writers, and self-publishers converge on Portland State University every August for the annual Zine Symposium. Organizers Claudia McBarron and Patrick Devine offer a rundown of this year's events, joined by local cartoonist Erika Moen.
Mike and Laura Allred, the award-winning team behind such offbeat comics as Madman, The Atomics, and Red Rocket 7, sit down with Words & Pictures host S.W. Conser to discuss contemporary art, dream inspiration, and film adaptations of their work. Recorded during the 2007 Stumptown Comics Festival.
Up-and-coming Portland cartoonists Ryan Alexander Tanner (creator of the Xeric grant-winning comic Television) and Farel Dalrymple (author of the graphic novel Pop Gun War and artist for Marvel's offbeat title Omega the Unknown) share stories of building collaborative art scenes in Portland, perpetrating media hoaxes, creating comics for the Rose City Rollers, and occasionally managing to break into the big time.
Marjane Satrapi's celebrated graphic memoir Persepolis has been adapted into a major motion picture which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. S.W. Conser talks to Ms. Satrapi about animation for adult audiences, Persian art, Iranian politics, and the role of women in bringing about cultural change.
Jim Woodring is responsible for some of the most mind-bending art and stories in the alternative comics scene, and his new book Seeing Things collects the most recent of his iconic imagery and nightmarish narratives. Jim is joined in the studio by Bob Rini, co-founder of the Seattle cartoonist collective Friends of the Nib.
S.W. Conser goes behind the scenes at the locally-produced opera Too Much Coffee Man: the Refill, and chats with Stacey Murdock, the baritone in the title role, and Shannon Wheeler, the creator of this unlikely pairing of the worlds of musical theater and alternative comic books. Originally produced for the April 8, 2008 editon of Stage and Studio.
Newly elected president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, Ted Rall has courted controversy across the globe. He's reported from war zones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, stared down right-wing pundits on the Fox News Channel, and written numerous books including Revenge of the Latchkey Kids, Generalissimo El Busho, and the recent Silk Road to Ruin.
S.W. Conser talks with author Jeff Gordinier about his new book X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking. A droll overview of media and culture in the information age, Jeff's book offers cautious hope for our future.
Filmmaker ToddDarling's purchase of a smoke-belching snowmobile led to a cross-country odyssey to unravel the mysteries of deregulation in the Bush era. S.W. Conser talked with Darling about the resulting documentary A Snowmobile for George on the eve of its Portland premiere.
Words & Pictures visits the Stumptown Comics Festival and talks with award-winning web cartoonist Nicholas Gurewitch, creator of the outlandish and wildly popular comic strip The Perry Bible Fellowship.
Words & Pictures welcomes guest Mike Konopacki, a labor cartoonist who collaborated with author Howard Zinn and historian Paul Buhle to create a comics version of Zinn's A People’s History of American Empire. S.W. Conser talks with Konopacki about the power of images to raise public consciousness and the challenges of mixing caricature with historical portrayals.
S.W. Conser talks with Jacques Boyreau, curator of the SuperTrash Film Festival, about overlooked cinema and Portland's festival culture. Jason Leivian joins the conversation to discuss the gallery show of Supertrash poster art currently at Floating World Comics in downtown Portland.
Just in time for the 2008 election, investigative reporter Greg Palast has published a comic book, Steal Back Your Vote, with the cooperation of Robert Kennedy Jr. and cartoonists Ted Rall (America Gone Wild), Lloyd Dangle (Troubletown), and Lukas Ketner (Witch Doctor). KBOO's S.W. Conser talks to Greg and the comic artists about steps that citizens can take to counteract voter fraud and suppression.
Election Night Radio Theater: Cable news talking heads make sure they don't miss a single weasel word during coverage of Barack Obama's election. Pundit: Randall Howington Reporter: Kathy Fors Written byS.W. ConserwithRandall Howington
Words & Pictures travels north to Bellingham, Washington, to visit Canadian comics and animation wizard Michel Gagne, whose work runs the gamut from the abstract jazz-inspired film Sensology to concept design for Disney and Pixar.
Gagne's bewildering take on the Dark Knight for DC Comics (Batman: Spore) infuriated traditional superhero fans, and his recently unveiled project Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet breaks the mold for computer-based gaming. Recorded with the kind assistance of KUGS-FM Western Washington University.
S.W. Conser asks Chicago political consultant Don Rose what listeners can expect from the new Obama administration. Chicago's rich mix of rough-and-tumble precinct politics, racial and ethnic ferment, and grassroots activism on urban and human rights issues has deeply influenced Obama's political career to date. A longtime champion of progressive causes and candidates, Rose mentored Obama's chief campaign strategist (now senior advisor) David Axelrod, and has butted heads with chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
For the first time in three decades, Pulitzer prize-winning graphic novelist Art Spiegelman (Maus) has gathered his early groundbreaking comics into one volume. The new edition of Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! includes a new graphic memoir opening a window into both a personal and cultural history of the late 20th century.
Art talks with S.W. Conser and Bill Dodge about comics as high art, breaking the media censorship of the Danish Muhammed cartoons, and creating picture books for children and grownups.
Stop-motion animator Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) spent more than three years bringing the Neil Gaiman story Coraline to the big screen. On the eve of Coraline's world premiere at the Portland International Film Festival, Selick sits down with S.W. Conser to talk about art, commerce, and the future of hand-crafted animation.
Behind the Screen is a new radio program covering independent filmmakers along with local screenings and festivals. In this pilot episode, Toni Tabora-Roberts gets a preview of the Cascade Festival of African Films from co-director Mary Holmstrom, and S.W. Conser talks with Coraline director Henry Selick on the eve of the film's opening night premiere at the Portland International Film Festival.
Hosts S.W. Conser and Bill Dodge sit down with Don Hertzfeldt, award-winning filmmaker and co-founder (along with Mike Judge) of the touring festival The Animation Show. A young animator who embraces the pre-digital tools and techniques of the previous century, Don plunges his simply-drawn yet evocative characters into such poignant, bizarre, and hilarious short films as Everything Will Be Okay and I Am So Proud of You.
Mayor Sam Adams has declared April to be Portland Comics Month in honor of the strong base of independent talent making their home in Oregon. Mike is joined by comics artist and PNCA instructor Neal Skorpen, who is leading a collaborative workshop at Stumptown on The Instant Graphic Novel.
S.W. Conser interviews artist, author, filmmaker, and culture-jammer John Law about his explorations of off-limits structures, his history with San Francisco's prankster brigades The Suicide Club and Cacophony Society, and his co-founding of the Burning Man Arts Festival.
John's short story collection The Space Between, based on his lifelong fascination with bridges, has just been published by Furnace Press, and his documentary Head Trip follows a trio of iconic giant Doggie Diner heads on a cross-country odyssey.
Joanna is the founder of the local animation society ASIFA-Northwest, and Joan is the Academy Award-winning creator of the films Creation and Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase. Their fiercely independent visions can be seen this Thursday evening at the Hollywood Theatre screening Words Worth a Thousand Pictures: Contemporary Animation about Language.
A short story by Seattle cartoonist Jim Woodring about the wonders of childhood and the mysteries of the great wide world is brought to the radio airwaves by director S.W. Conser and the One Take Pony players: David Chelsea, Zoe Loranger, Emily Young, and Mike Russell.
A short story by Seattle cartoonist Jim Woodring about the wonders of childhood and the mysteries of the great wide world is brought to the radio airwaves by director S.W. Conser and the One Take Pony players: David Chelsea, Zoe Loranger, Emily Young, and Mike Russell.
Portland artist Arnold Pander has teamed up with Brother Jacob to create projects as diverse as nightclub murals and erotic short films shot in infrared. The Pander Brothers' latest releases are the independent film Selfless, an identity theft-themed thriller with an existential twist, as well as the self-published graphic novel Tasty Bullet, about an energy drink with strangely alluring properties.
Special thanks to Trillium Shannon for her invaluable production help, as well as Jenka Soderberg and Mimi Villarqui for their excellent translation skills.
Comics artist Josh Neufeld met and talked with survivors of Hurricane Katrina while volunteering with the Red Cross in 2005. The result of these conversations is the graphic chronicle A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, a critically-acclaimed collection of first-person accounts from the Crescent City's various cultures, races, income groups, and neighborhoods. S.W. Conser spoke with Josh during the 2009 Wordstock Literary Festival.
Special thanks to Emily Young for her invaluable production help on this program.
Syncopated is a new anthology of non-fiction "picto-essays" created by a broad range of contemporary comics artists, including Alec Longstreth and Sarah Glidden, who join host S.W. Conser to discuss this unique storytelling form.
Award-winning Canadian cartoonist Graham Annable now makes his home in Portland, where he recently drew storyboards for the film Coraline. A leader in the new generation of indy cartoonists, Graham brought together the team behind the comics compilation Hickee, and now brings a graphic sensibility to the short-story form with his critically-acclaimed Book of Grickle.
Portland artist and self-styled "war junkie" Joe Sacco has carved out a niche in the publishing world for his war reportage comics. For twenty years Sacco has plunged into global hot spots to bring back detailed graphic stories of civilian bystanders. His books include Safe Area Gorazde, Notes From a Defeatist, and Palestine, which won him an American Book Award and led to a Guggenheim Fellowship. His latest book Footnotes in Gaza takes us back to the Palestinian refugee camps to reveal first-hand accounts of a massacre that was officially suppressed for fifty years.
In the runup to April Fools' Day, host S.W. Conser welcomes the creators of some of Portland's quirkier film screenings. Mike Shkolnik previews the sixth annual Faux Film Festival at the Hollywood Theatre, while Vortex, Nevyn, and Crystal of the Human Canvas Project talk about their film/performance collage of video, live audio, and movement.
S.W. Conser talks with Jeremy Franklin-Ross of Seattle's agit-prop art collective Department of Culture about the Portland debut of Smash Putt. Is it a touring interactive art exhibit or an industrial-demolition-style miniature golf course? You be the judge.
Oregon Cartoon Institute founders Anne Richardson and Dennis Nyback are working with cultural organizations around the state to spotlight the historical importance of locally-grown animators and cartoonists. They're joined in the studio by musician Heather Perkins, OCI's artist-in-residence, who is composing an original concert piece inspired by Bugs Bunny and (Portland-bred) voice artist Mel Blanc.
This audio file is the membership drive version of R. Sikoryak's appearance on Words & Pictures. An expanded version of the interview will be added to the site soon.
Host S.W.Conser visits local do-it-yourself film screenings held in nontraditional settings, including a barbecue and double-feature night at the Watershed industrial arts community center hosted by Deadletter B, a monthly screening for cinephiles at Mother's Velvet Lounge curated by Paul Harrod, and Asher Loverdi's cockeyed Saturday Morning Cartoon show at the Waypost Cafe.
Distinguished Professor of Education and Fugitive Days author Bill Ayers has teamed up with cartoonist and ex-Portlander Ryan Alexander-Tanner to adapt his groundbreaking education textbook into comics form. The result is To Teach: The Journey, in Comics. Host S.W. Conser asks Bill and Ryan about their struggles to translate mountains of text into narrative art (while avoiding Fox News cameras during the 2008 election); Bill's fights against the No Child Left Behind juggernaut; and the transformation of a famous mug shot into a cartoon icon.
Just in time for the 2008 election, investigative reporter Greg Palast has published a comic book, Steal Back Your Vote, with the cooperation of Robert Kennedy Jr. and cartoonists Ted Rall (America Gone Wild), Lloyd Dangle (Troubletown), and Lukas Ketner (Witch Doctor). KBOO's S.W. Conser talks to Greg and the comic artists about steps that citizens can take to counteract voter fraud and suppression.
Words & Pictures travels north to Bellingham, Washington, to visit Canadian comics and animation wizard Michel Gagne, whose work runs the gamut from the abstract jazz-inspired film Sensology to concept design for Disney and Pixar. 
For the first time in three decades, Pulitzer prize-winning graphic novelist Art Spiegelman (Maus) has gathered his early groundbreaking comics into one volume. The new edition of Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! includes a new graphic memoir opening a window into both a personal and cultural history of the late 20th century. 
Stop-motion animator Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) spent more than three years bringing the Neil Gaiman story Coraline to the big screen. On the eve of Coraline's world premiere at the Portland International Film Festival, Selick sits down with S.W. Conser to talk about art, commerce, and the future of hand-crafted animation.
Behind the Screen is a new radio program covering independent filmmakers along with local screenings and festivals. In this pilot episode, Toni Tabora-Roberts gets a preview of the Cascade Festival of African Films from co-director Mary Holmstrom, and S.W. Conser talks with Coraline director Henry Selick on the eve of the film's opening night premiere at the Portland International Film Festival.
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Host S.W.Conser visits local do-it-yourself film screenings held in nontraditional settings, including a barbecue and double-feature night at the Watershed industrial arts community center hosted by Deadletter B, a monthly screening for cinephiles at Mother's Velvet Lounge curated by Paul Harrod, and Asher Loverdi's cockeyed Saturday Morning Cartoon show at the Waypost Cafe.
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