This week, we’re joined by Michael Walsh (Comeback / The Oates & The Elphyne) as we discuss his comics origins, doing design work for We Can Never Go Home, his Image Comics series The Silver Coin, and more!
IDB is an all-new weekly podcast presented by Ashcan Press and featuring Matthew Rosenberg, the Supple Boiz, and wonderful guests from the world of comic books!
Our theme song is “Where’s the Poison” by Summer People.
Enjoy!
Hi again.
I have to say what an unexpected thrill the last newsletter was. When you send out a post, the fine folks of Substack send you an email that reads “(name of person) liked (name of post)” every time someone likes it. Of course you can turn that off, but why would I? This is literally the only validation I get in my life anymore. So imagine my delight after my last post entitled “You!” when I got these emails.
Spent 2 minutes redacting everyone’s names before I realized they are all publicly visible on the post. Sigh.
Only as I share this now do I realize that this in the past tense. Liked instead of likes. That’s actually not as confidence inspiring as I thought. hmmm.
I’m very excited for this week’s episode of Ideas Don’t Bleed. Michael Walsh is a brilliant artist, an amazing storyteller, and an all around cool person. And he said if I had him on the show he’d give me his dog, which was so kind of him and I can’t wait to have a new(ish) dog.
Besides being one of my favorite artists and oldest friends in comics, I also credit a lot of my success to his work. When we just started working on WE CAN NEVER GO HOME, Michael was my first choice for cover artist. I knew he’d understand the feel we were going for, and I knew he’d be able to absolutely deliver covers that would stop people in their tracks. He was kind enough to deliver the 5 iconic covers to the series (and the matching collected edition cover so that the little gallery below is balanced).
Obviously, I chalk up so much of the success of the book to the amazing art inside by Josh Hood, Amanda Scurti, and Tyler Boss. But it was Michael’s covers that made people notice our book on the shelf and pick it up. He gave us a chance and made sure we could find an audience.
A little known fact- he also designed the logo for the book. When we had him doing the covers he asked for the logo so he could fit the art appropriately. We didn’t have a logo yet because we barely knew what we were doing. So he just made a placeholder design for us. And the logo you see above is that “placeholder”. I liked it so much we just kept it… and didn’t pay him extra for it… because we’re bad people.
Anyway, Michael has gone on to do amazing books like COMEBACK, SECRET AVENGERS, VISION, BLACK HAMMER/JUSTICE LEAGUE, and his all ages fantasy series that he wrote and drew- THE OATES & ELPHYNE.
But maybe the most impressive feat in his career so far, and a testament to both his power as an artist and his frustrating charm, he has finally pulled off something that many in comics have tried before but none have succeeded quite so well at- an anthology series with a single artist but multiple writers. The amazing horror series THE SILVER COIN is available now in 3 trade paperbacks with writing from folks like
, myself, and many more. And all the art (and some of the writing) is by Michael. It’s a tremendously good and creepy comic.
What a neat cover. Everyone should read that issue at least.
In more somber news, comics just lost a great champion. Jesse Tapia was a friend to all comic creators, even if they didn’t know it. A tireless supporter and promoter of comics, he was exactly the kind of reader so many of us creators hope to have in our corner. It’s heartbreaking to have to write that he passed away last week, ut the wonderful folks over at his homebase Arsenal Comics have set up a fund to help Jesse’s family in this horrible time.
Timmy said it better than I could-
“On November 8th, we lost our Jesse. He was the best of us. It’s an awful thing in so many ways and we just want to make this time for his family and his partner Shieanne as easy as it possibly could in this super difficult time. There’s so much to deal with in times of sudden unexpected grief and finances shouldn’t be something one has to consider. We’d really appreciate any help you can contribute, it really means so much to us everything everyone has said in our Arsenal community and beyond regarding Jesse.”
Obviously times are tight everywhere, but if you have a few bucks to spare to help the family members of a fallen member of our community, it would be appreciated.
IDEAS DON'T BLEED episode sixty-one | Michael Walsh, part one
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IDEAS DON'T BLEED podcast
A weekly podcast where hosts Matthew Rosenberg, Ethan S. Parker, and Griffin Sheridan talk to guests from around the world of comic books. It's fun. It's short. Why not give it a listen?
A weekly podcast where hosts Matthew Rosenberg, Ethan S. Parker, and Griffin Sheridan talk to guests from around the world of comic books. It's fun. It's short. Why not give it a listen?
IDEAS DON'T BLEED episode sixty-one | Michael Walsh, part one