To make a comic book, it takes both people working on their own and getting together. 

Many professional comic artists today work on bigger projects that involve multiple talents– writers, colourists, and letterers. All specialists who contribute separately to make a comic book. 

But then on their own, many artists work on their own comics, their own creations and characters, making something that has meaning to them, alone. 

Despite working on their own (in dispersed locations and in isolation), the individual comic book artists and creators are able to address specific submarkets. 

When comic book artists, like Mary Guo, Tristan Bun and Isabel Torrubia Gortari, create using their own lived experiences and their specialized skills, what emerges are topics they are interested in: stories about loneliness and isolation.

And those individual stories connect to others – tens of thousands of readers – each time they post their comics online. 

By telling their own stories about being alone, they find their audience.

Source Materials Cited In This Episode:
Mary Guo and Tristan Bun Interview – November 15, 2021
Isabel Torrubia Gortari Interview – November 16, 2021
The Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham

Host and Writer: Peg Fong
Director: Callie O’Reilly
Theme music: Ian Lefeuvre and Ari Posner
Engineer: Geoff Devine
Series Producers: Debbie O’Reilly, Guillermo Serrano and Allison Pinches
Executive Producer: Terry O’Reilly