Born in Kingston, raised in Ottawa and living in Toronto, Michael DeForge is a multi-Ignatz and Doug Wright award winning and Eisner nominated alternative cartoonist. His body of work numbers many web comics, zines, mini comics, graphic novels, anthologies and gallery shows. He’s also a prolific commercial illustrator, having done many gig posters, media illustrations, film screening announcements and album covers. He is so prolific that he’s often publishing at least two comic works a year either with Koyama Press or Drawn and Quarterly, including the award-winning series Lose, as well as graphic novels Ant Colony, Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero, Brat and more recent works like Stunt, Leaving Richard’s Valley and his latest work, coming out the day after this Speech Bubble episode’s release, from Drawn and Quarterly – Familiar Face.

Michael sits down with Aaron to talk about the issues brought up by Familiar Face, including its inspiration – the simple fact that much of our lives are at the mercy of technology whether we want it to be or not. DeForge also takes Aaron inside his early work drawing gig posters for the Ottawa punk scene for free concert tickets and tells him how he illustrated the music he heard. You’ll learn what and who influences his signature art style, from pencils to inks, colours and panel construction. You’ll hear his thoughts on the impending closure of Koyama Press and the story of how he first met its namesake publisher “Saint” Annie Koyama. Oh and how could we forget, his work as a designer on the Adventure Time cartoon. Michael tells the story of how he got the job and what he actually designed for each episode and he lets us know that his last work for the series will be found on the mini series, Adventure Time: Distant Lands. This episode of Speech Bubble is brought to you by Hairy Tarantula at 3456 Yonge St. for all your comic and role-playing needs and Bam Coffee Co. where you can get a Bam Box full of freshly roasted coffee and geek swag like prints and mini comics for 15% off by entering SB15 at checkout.

@michael_deforge

@michael.deforge

MichaelDeforge.com

Buy Michael DeForge’s latest, Familiar Face

Join Michael DeForge on tour March 2020

Familiar Face Publisher, Drawn and Quarterly

Stunt, Publisher Koyama Press

Buy the Seripop gig posters that influenced Michael DeForge

Michael DeForge on IMDB

Michael DeForge on Chapters.Indigo.ca

Michael DeForge’s All Dogs Are Dogs at Saw Gallery 2015

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Hairy Tarantula

Bam Coffee Co.

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