Cartoonist Gale Galligan joins Off Panel for an extended chat about their work and their just released graphic novel, Freestyle. Galligan discusses the intersection of drawing and comics as a youth, the impact of comic strips and manga, what they learned from working with Raina Telgemeier, The Baby-Sitters Club club, the appeal of shorter comics, blending emotions, how Freestyle evolved at Scholastic, its main cast, telling stories about young people, establishing shots, their process, photo reference, the honesty of kids, secret teammates, and more.

You can find Galligan on Twitter, Instagram, and their website, as well as the just released Freestyle from Scholastic Graphix.

You can download the episode directly here on Libsyn.

Big thanks to Deanna Chapman for stepping in to help edit this podcast. It wouldn’t have sounded as good without her excellent work!

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Thanks to the sponsor of this week’s podcast: Zoop! Zoop is one of the newest crowdfunding platforms on the scene, with current campaigns going featuring creators like Matt Lesniewski, B. Clay Moore, Tony Harris, Paul Cornell, Ryan Kelly, and more. It’s the same crowdfunding experience, but without the buggy add-ons pages or surveys after the fact. You simply throw rewards and add-ons into your account and check out. Head to Zoop’s website to support the live campaigns and sign up for launch alerts for what’s next. Also, Zoop is taking submissions! So creators, reach out at hello@wearezoop.com to learn more!

Also, thanks to the other sponsor of this week’s podcast: Bad Idea! Can you stop Bad Idea? Please? You might be able to by backing the Stop Bad Idea Kickstarter, in which you can get a variety of amazing comics, with all proceeds going to hopefully ending Bad Idea forever, as their $2.6 million stretch goal would stop Bad Idea once and for all. Check out the Kickstarter today, and let’s see what we can accomplish together. Let’s Stop Bad Idea.

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Have a question for Off Panel? You can reach David by email or Twitter.

Header art is from Galligan’s cover to Freestyle. Off Panel’s theme music is an original track by custom music agency Upright T-Rex Music, written and performed specifically for the podcast. A huge thanks to Ross and Cody from Upright T-Rex Music for putting the track together!