Multimedia
The Comics Journal Audio Archive
Welcome to our online archive of excerpts from The Comics Journal’s archive of audiotapes, which were used to record interviews and public events and collected over the course of three decades — quite possibly the most extensive oral history of the United States comics industry in existence.
Todd MacFarlane
New to the website! It’s a clash of titans as executive editor Gary Groth confronts the Spawn creator and Image Comics co-founder in a no-holds-barred debate over artistic and commercial freedom vs. responsibility, originally recorded in 1992 for TCJ #152.
Click here to download:
Part One (14.5MB MP3 audio file, 63:28 minutes)
Part Two (4MB MP3 audio file, 17:39 minutes)
Berkeley Breathed
Recorded at the 1988 convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists in Milwaukee, Breathed took the occasion to address the ugly in-fighting over the Pulitzer Prize given to him the previous year for his daily newspaper strip, Bloom County.
Click here to download
(7.9MB MP3 audio file, 17:22 minutes)
The Cartoonist’s Art:
Roy Crane and Chester Gould
One of the coolest finds in the archive is a cassette containing two 1961 episodes from the radio program hosted by then-Bringing Up Father cartoonist Verne Greene, for what was then WRVR in New York City. Appearing on these episodes were Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould, and Wash Tubbs/Buz Sawyer cartoonist Roy Crane. Enjoy this near-forgotten moment from the history of comics!
Click here to download:
Roy Crane (6.7MB MP3 audio file, 29:08 minutes)
Chester Gould (6.6MB MP3 audio file, 28:59 minutes)
Gil Kane and Robert Crumb
The veteran comic-book artist and the underground-comix legend discussed influences on their work during a panel at the 1986 Dallas Con.
Click here to download
(21.9MB MP3 audio file, 47:39 minutes)
Walt Kelly
This interview with the Pogo creator was conducted by Gil Kane for an audience at the National Cartoonists Society banquet in November 1969, which was no mean feat, since Kelly had apparently been celebrating and was not initially in a cooperative mood. Among those in attendance was Rube Goldberg, who chimed in frequently, as you’ll hear.
Click here to download:
file one (19.3MB MP3 audio file, 42.01 minutes)
file two (7.7MB MP3 audio file, 16:47 minutes)
Stan Lee
We couldn’t resist. This snippet originally served as a hidden track on a promotional CD that we released a few years back — in it, one of the magazine’s poor interns is sent to ask the Marvel Comics face-man for an interview. Goodness only knows when or where this was recorded…
Click here to download
(40.2kb MP3 audio file)
Charles Schulz
Conducted for The Comics Journal #200, Gary Groth spoke with the Peanuts creator in Santa Rosa, California, and later in a follow-up conversation by phone. The below-linked files present an excerpt from the first side of the second tape (conducted in Santa Rosa), and the first side of the third tape (conducted by phone) in its entirety.
Click here to download:
file one (4.5MB MP3 audio file, 19:45 minutes)
file two (13.2MB MP3 audio file, 57:33 minutes)
