Podcasts

While making The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue I recorded a bunch of reflections on why and how I was making the book. These microcasts were shared exclusively with people who supported me on Patreon (I’m sharing the entire process of making the next Doctor Baer story there right now!).

To count down to the book’s release, I’m putting some of those reflections into the Thunder Punch Daily feed. Please note: the book was titled Baron von Bear and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue at the time of this recording. But baronvonbear.com does take you to the book’s landing page. Here’s the original post:

This time I respond to a prompt provided by a listener: Do you feel your political beliefs make their way into your work, would you want them to, and how would you feel if someone challenged you on teaching your beliefs to children?

So this one is all about how I think about expressing my beliefs in my work.

• Learn more about The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
• Suggest a topic for TPD here
• TPD theme music by Eliott Drozd
• Intro VO by Tara Platt

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

While making The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue I recorded a bunch of reflections on why and how I was making the book. These microcasts were shared exclusively with people who supported me on Patreon (I’m sharing the entire process of making the next Doctor Baer story there right now!).

To count down to the book’s release, I’m putting some of those reflections into the Thunder Punch Daily feed. Please note: the book was titled Baron von Bear and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue at the time of this recording. But baronvonbear.com does take you to the book’s landing page. Here’s the original post:

Baron von Bear and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue celebrates the physical peril of adventure fiction. But it does not celebrate the act of physically overcoming an enemy. Today I share how my upbringing and media of the 80s helped shape this value in my storytelling.

• Learn more about The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
• Suggest a topic for TPD here
• TPD theme music by Eliott Drozd
• Intro VO by Tara Platt

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

While making The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue I recorded a bunch of reflections on why and how I was making the book. These microcasts were shared exclusively with people who supported me on Patreon (I’m sharing the entire process of making the next Doctor Baer story there right now!).

To count down to the book’s release, I’m putting some of those reflections into the Thunder Punch Daily feed. Please note: the book was titled Baron von Bear and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue at the time of this recording. But baronvonbear.com does take you to the book’s landing page. Here’s the original post:

Baron von Bear is a spooky fantasy adventure graphic novel for middle graders. That genre comes with the expectation of fantastic locations. This time I dig into why I chose the ones I did, why I chose three, and how these kinds of settings worked on me as a child.

Suggest a thought/question/wondering here! 

Links mentioned:

• My Nerd Nite talk on Sunbow cartoon writing 
• My Transformers podcast 
• The map of BvB’s world 

• Learn more about The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
• Suggest a topic for TPD here
• TPD theme music by Eliott Drozd
• Intro VO by Tara Platt

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I’m talking aggressive battle tortoises on this edition of Thunder Punch Daily. Why is Taft a tortoise, and why does he walk on all fours? And how is he inspired by my younger brother?

• Learn more about The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
• Suggest a topic for TPD here
• TPD theme music by Eliott Drozd
• Intro VO by Tara Platt

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In early July 2024 my old friend Rob Stenzinger visited me in Columbus, and we found ourselves having the kinds of discussions we recorded for the Lean Into Art cast. Particularly topics surrounding our projects we’ve been working on for the past two-to-three years and how we’re thinking about marketing them. So we turned on a mic and captured some of the thinking we’ve been doing.

We set up pretty hastily, so the audio quality isn’t what we had on Lean Into Art. But the gentle, thoughtful approach to art-making topics is all there. I hope you enjoy it!

Links mentioned:

• Word Turtle Island, Rob’s new game where you use words as weapons to rescue books and readers
• The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue, my middle-grade graphic novel where an archivist of spooky artifacts learns to be an adventurer

• Learn more about The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
• Suggest a topic for TPD here
• TPD theme music by Eliott Drozd
• Intro VO by Tara Platt

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I was given the gift of a thought experiment via the Doctor Baer AMA form:

Indiana Jones grew much larger than its creator. How do you think you’d feel about being an artist and about Dr. Baer if it found great success and the Dr. Baer intellectual property grew beyond your control of it?

While I like to think I’d be able to let it go and see it turned into derivative works, I know I haven’t always felt this way. So I take a survey of my WHY over the last 30 years.

• Learn more about The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
• Suggest a topic for TPD here
• TPD theme music by Eliott Drozd
• Intro VO by Tara Platt

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I just got the advance reader copy of The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue!

It’s hard to articulate the emotions I felt holding this artifact of two years’ worth of effort in my hands.

Which got me thinking about this Thought/Question/Wondering from the Doctor Baer AMA:

Do you ever feel the tension between protecting time to work on your book against time that friends and family want you to spend with them? What does that look like, and how on earth do we find the best balance in this (that’ll bring the least amount of guilt, ha!) ? 

So I take some time to explore the tensions between us and the world when we set out to make art.

Links mentioned:

• Four Million Years Later
• Tell The Damn Story episode 300

• Learn more about The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue
• Suggest a topic for TPD here
• TPD theme music by Eliott Drozd
• Intro VO by Tara Platt

Podcast: Play in new window | Download