Off Panel #412: A Guest in the House with Emily Carroll

Cartoonist Emily Carroll joins the show to talk about her career, craft, and upcoming graphic novel, A Guest in the House. Carroll discusses early influences, their lasting impact, storytelling flow, having fun in the work, experimentation, how she views her webcomics, her process, lettering and coloring, domestic life, A Guest in the House’s lead, horror endings, age specificity (or the lack thereof), the long shadow of Through the Woods, pushing herself as a storyteller, and more.

You can find Carroll on her website and her work in A Guest in the House at First Second.

You can download the episode directly here on Libsyn.

Big thanks to Deanna Chapman for stepping up to edit this podcast. If it sounds better than usual, it’s because of her.

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Thanks to the sponsor of this week’s podcast: Zoop! August is the time for many launches, including, ironically enough, the book called August by Benjamin Morse! Also an anthology from Stacked Deck Press, Tony Gregori’s Porkchop Robot Killer, and the end of Glenn Bray’s Scrapbook campaign. And around the corner in September is Howard Chaykin’s first foray into crowdfunding! There’s so much more on the horizon so stay tuned for updates! 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! They’re headed back to Kickstarter for The End from David and Maria Lapham, Scorpio Steele, Bill Crabtree and Dave Sharpe, with this being a digital comic that will see them squaring off with Amazon for supremacy of that market. Keep up with them at their website and on Twitter for all the latest.

Also, big thanks to my patrons, including – but not limited to – Andrew Leamon, Christina Merkler, Mike Cancel, Scott Place, Travis Gibb, Darcy Van Poelgeest, Kevin Bides, Tom Evans, Natalie Mokry, Reid Beaman, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Max Wood, Jeremy Lambert, Brian, Chris Doray, Nir Levie, Dennis Hoffman, Jason Hussa, Kieron Gillen, Jonathan Kent-Uritam, Henry Johnston, Django Bohren, James Tynion IV, Chris Lankford, Jason Wood, Tom Peachey, Ben Damstedt, Ram V, Nick Walker, Patrick Coyle, Isaac Orin, Scott Carpenter, Rentnarb Studios Comics, Capes and Tights Podcast, Klaas Van de Ven, Brian, Submet Industries, Jack Mulqueen, Kyle, Karl Kerschl, Robert Masella, Elsa Charretier, Luc Nakashoji, Dr. Luke, Scott Haselwood, CanadianByProxy, Bradley Roeder, Carl Choi, Brandon De Pillis, Patrick Brower, Declan Shalvey, Dan Gearino, Atom Freeman, Ben Wild, Brian Klein-Q, Nick Bennett, Daniel Whitfield, Susana Polo, Reed Hinckley-Barnes, Mario Tiambeng, Andrew Kurita, Matt Mahoney, Stefan Hull, Phillip Maira, Chris Bachalo, Torunn Grønbekk, FuzBubbles, Christopher Ta, Transmitterdown, Walt’s Comics & Books, Akil Wilson, Alex Dimitropolous, Terry Dodson, Wesley Gift, Shawn Kirkham, Julio Anta, Brett A. Schmidt, Jason Goodmanson, Paul Reinwand, Vita Ayala, Akylle, Phillip Sevy, Al Ewing, Ryan Alcock, David Kelley, Nick Poleto, Matthew Groom, Jason Nassi, Adam Bogert, Matthew Taylor, Nick Pitarra, Jacob Sareli, Ford Gilmore, David Baroldy, Nick Hall, Bjorn Basen, John Hendrick, Steve Anderson, Ian Maxfield, Cliff Chiang, Colin McMahon, Scott McGovern, Nathan Fairbairn, Adam Highfill, Fiona Staples, Mark Abnett, Michael Shirley, Tom Barnett, Jim Demonakos, Norbert, Nick Lowe, James Kaplan, and Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco. You’re all the best.

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

Header photo is from Carroll’s cover art for A Guest in the House. Off Panel’s opening theme music is Vulfpeck’s “Outro,” used with permission from the band (and thanks for me for them doing so!), with the rest of the music being 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!