In this week’s special edition of Off Panel, creators Declan Shalvey and Stephen Mooney and retailers Bruno Batista and John Hendrick join the show in a live podcast recording from Dublin’s preeminent comic shop, Big Bang Comics. In the episode, we discuss how creators, retailers and journalists can work together to give comics a bright future, how promoting comics is changing, what comics are today, whether artists can consider the industry as a whole while working, what artists can do to work with retailers, the biggest misconceptions about retailers, whether fill-in artists impact orders, incentive covers, social media’s impact, how your location impacts your ability to work in comics, whether it’s good enough to just be good, comic sites, what the future of comics looks like, and more, before diving into a quick Q&A.

You can find Batista, Hendrick, Mooney and Shalvey on Twitter, as well as Big Bang Comics. You can find Shalvey’s work in Injection, Savage Town and the upcoming Return of Wolverine, and Mooney’s work in Half Past Danger, Grayson and The Dead Hand.

You can download the show directly here on Libsyn.

Off Panel now has a Patreon! Support the show and earn some rewards by backing the podcast on there.

Thanks to this episode’s sponsor, AHOY Comics. They’re looking to shake up the publishing industry with a bold new format: comic book magazines! What are those? Comic book magazines will feature traditional, full length comic stories plus extra material, like prose fiction from Grant Morrison, cartoons from Shannon Wheeler, and more! And AHOY is debuting in September with two titles: First is The Wrong Earth, a six-issue mini-series from Tom Peyer and Jamal Igle about parallel earths, heroes and vigilantes, and what happens when they trade places. The other is High Heaven, a five-issue mature readers mini-series from Peyer and Greg Scott about a chronic malcontent who dies and goes to heaven, but he still can’t help but complain about everything. Look for those in comic shops everywhere this month!

Thanks to my patrons, including – but not limited to – Ciaran Marcantonio, WMQ Comics, Akylle, Greg Lockard, Kokaachi, Phil White, Ben Becker, Shaun Pinello, Kent Heidelman, Phillip Sevy, Al Ewing, Ryan Alcock, Nick Michelin, David Kelley, Robert Wilson IV, Nick Poleto, Dylan Campbell, Eoin McCready, Brenden Fletcher, Michael Garland, Gary Moloney, Jonathan Nilsson, Matthew Groom, Jason Nassi, Mike Gillis, Adam Bogert, Xavier Files, Maria Schweitzer, Matthew Taylor, Tyler Turner, Dan Gearino, Nick Pitarra, Jacob Sareli, Ford Gilmore, David Baroldy, Evan Blasor, Brian McCray, Ira James Udaskin, Henning Ahlers, Modern Magic Stories, Nick Hall, Bruno Batista, Bobby Angus, Bjorn Basen, Darren Neely, John Hendrick, Steve Anderson, Phil Knall, Ian Maxfield, Cliff Chiang, Benjamin Schipper, Colin McMahon, Chris Palmer, Maxwell Schmidt, Scott McGovern, Nathan Fairbairn, Cat McKenzie, Lou Iovino, Nicholas Keslake, Greg Rucka, Ryan Mayle, Adam Highfill, Nicholas Gardner, Andrew Corrigan, Fiona Staples, Chris Morris, Chris O’Hollaran, Mark Abnett, Mike Murphy, Michael Shirley, Tom Barnett, Jim Demonakos, Norbert, Nick Lowe, James Kaplan, and Mission: Comics and Art in San Francisco. You’re all the best.

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Header image is of the five participants in this chat at Big Bang Comics, with left to right being Hendrick, Batista, myself, Shalvey and Mooney. Intro and outro music is Vulfpeck’s Outro from their album Vollmilch. Thanks to the band for letting me use the track.