Tell Me Something I Don't Know Boing Boing

Tom Scioli is co-writing, drawing, coloring, and lettering the monthly comic book series, Transformers vs. G.I.Joe. His other comics include Godland, American Barbarian, Final Frontier, and Myth of 8-Opus. Ed Piskor is the author/artist of the Hip Hop Family Tree – a weekly comic strip on Boing Boing and an ongoing book series that chronicles the history of hip hop in comics form. He is also the creator of Wizzywig.

They share a studio in Pittsburgh. We visited their studio to talk about what it’s like being professional comic book artists, selling their work, nostalgia, research, color theory, anger management, and “skewmorphism!”

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know is Boing Boing’s podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the practical side of how they do what they do.

The animation project Giant Sloth, starring Paul Giamatti, could be described as Night at the Museum meets Eraserhead. In this episode, we discuss the making of this animated short with its creator, Paul Hornschemeier. He tells us how the cast came together, what the transition from comics to filmmaking and television is like, and how social media has helped him draw more. He’s currently raising funds to complete Giant Sloth.


Paul Hornschemeier is a cartoonist, writer, artist, designer, animator, and filmmaker. His thought-provoking books include Mother, Come Home, Three Paradoxes, Life with Mr. Dangerous, and Artists Authors Thinkers Directors. He animated the opening credits for IFC’s Comedy Bang Bang. Keep up with Hornschemeier online at Forlorn Funnies. He posts a new drawing every day on the Daily Forlorn tumblr.

Vanessa German is a multidisciplinary artist and poet. She has done TEDx talks at MIT, Harvard, and Pittsburgh. She lives in Homewood, a Pittsburgh neighborhood that The Rachel Maddow Show called, “One of America’s Most Violent Neighborhoods.” In response to that violence, German began inviting children to make art with her on her front porch. This club quickly outgrew her front porch and she found an empty house and dubbed it ARThouse. You can donate to her project here.

ARThouse is important. We need it because it provides a safe, creative environment for children and neighbors to come together, to experience the power and energy of their creative minds. It is doubly, tripley, quadruply important because all of this good happens in a neighborhood that most people don’t hear about unless something violent and tragic has occurred. It is important because the children in this neighborhood demanded it. Insisted upon having a space that they could walk to, to be safe, to be creative, to have fun, to discover and express themselves.

Nicole Georges is a cartoonist, writer, winemaker, teacher, aerobics instructor (?), and pet portraitist. When she was a child, Georges’ mother and family told her that her father died when she was a baby. When she was 21, a palm reader told her that her biological dad was still alive. She called conservative talk show host Dr. Laura for some advice. She chronicles what happened next in her graphic memoir, Calling Dr. Laura.


Based in Portland, Georges has been making comics and zines including “Invincible Summer” for over a decade. She also teaches at the Independent Publishing Resource Center, which provides access to tools and resources for creating independently published media and artwork. Georges tells us about teaching Riot Grrl history and winemaking to teenagers, and finding value and self-empowerment through self-expression. When we talked to Georges, she was in the middle of a 9-month fellowship at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT.

Two years ago, we recorded a conversation with 16 year-old high school student. Not someone famous, but someone who is, to you, a random teenager. So that he could feel free to speak candidly about friends, school, and culture, we gave him the pseudonym Teenager X. He told us about being more tech-savvy than his teachers, he described his hectic schedule, he vented frustrations about learning to drive, and shared a funny anecdote about being kicked out of an online Metal Gear game.

Two years later, we revisit Teenager X. He's 18 now and mere months away from high school graduation. He talks about high school "busy work", modern jazz, and nerd culture. He tells us about a brief stint reviewing rom-coms for his high school newspaper and ponders his plans for life after high school, work, college, and girls.

Stephanie Buscema is a painter, illustrator, cover artist, and comic book artist. She studied cartooning and illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In our conversation, she tells us what it was like to grow up with artist role models in her family. We discuss the influence and importance of illustration greats Mary Blair and Marie Severin. Stephanie walks us through her process for creating killer Red Sonja comics covers, and talks about the benefits of working on a variety of projects in different formats, and the sacrifices necessary to be a working artist.