Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Comic Lab
ArtsVisual ArtsEducationHow ToLeisureAnimation & MangaExplicit

Comic Lab

Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett

The podcast about making comics — and making a living from comics! It's half shop talk, half how-to, and half friendship. WE SQUEEZED IN THREE HALVES. It's tips and tricks and all the joys of cartooning as a pro. So pull up your drawing chair, put on some headphones, and join us while you draw! And if you like what you hear, join our community at patreon.com/comiclab (For sponsorship inquiries: comiclabpodcast@gmail.com)

Play
Open in
  • 32 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 6 min
  • English

Episodes 32

NewestOldestLongest
All20Unplayed20In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • #464
    Thursday · 1 hr 30 min

    25 Years of "Pearls Before Swine," with Stephan Pastis

    Stephan Pastis joins Brad and Dave to celebrate 25 years of "Pearls Before Swine" and his anniversary collection, Pearls Jubilee. Instead of simply collecting his favorites, Stephan ranks everything from his best strips to his worst mistakes, most controversial cartoons, and memorable brushes with fame.

  • #463
    October 29 · 59 min

    How to Beat Writer's Block

    Two weeks ago, Dave felt he was doing the best work of his career. Now, he dislikes every idea and dreads sitting down to write. What changed — and how does he get moving again?

  • #462
    October 22 · 1 hr 7 min

    Tapas Is Shutting Down — Now What?

    What happens to your audience when the platform hosting your comic disappears? Veteran cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett discuss the news of Tapas shutting down and why owning your website, building a mailing list, and connecting readers through RSS remain essential tools for an independent comics career.

  • #461
    October 15 · 1 hr 7 min

    WorldCon 2026 and Hugo Awards review

    A Hugo Award nomination brought cartoonist Dave Kellett new readers, book sales, and Patreon supporters. Five days behind a WorldCon booth brought something else entirely: A serious crisis of confidence.

  • #460
    October 8 · 1 hr 7 min

    How to Launch a Comics Studio

    Should you launch a comic studio — or are you really talking about a comics collective, a shared workspace, or simply collaborating on a project? This week, Brad and Dave unpack what the word “studio” actually means and why adding another layer of branding might make your project harder, rather than easier, to promote. They discuss shared creative spaces, financial partnerships, anthology projects, comics collectives, and why most collaborations work better when everybody knows exactly what they

  • #459
    October 1 · 59 min

    Is there a LIMIT to comics success?

    Is there a limit to how many cartoonists can build successful careers—or is the real limiting factor the cartoonists themselves?

  • #458
    September 24 · 1 hr 2 min

    How to Build Momentum

    How do you build momentum as a cartoonist — and what happens when you lose it? Cartoonists Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett examine momentum across every part of a creative career: Generating ideas, maintaining a productive workflow, growing an audience, and building a sustainable business. They discuss why progress can feel imperceptibly slow at first, how consistent work eventually begins producing its own energy, and why returning after a break can feel like starting a stalled train.

  • #457
    September 17 · 1 hr 15 min

    How to Make a Style Guide for Your Comic

    When a listener asks about creating a style guide for a comic, Brad and Dave discuss the small decisions that help lettering remain clear, consistent, and easy to read — from spelling out numerals and avoiding hyphenated line breaks to shaping word balloons, using all-caps lettering, and deciding whether “livestream” is one word or two.

  • #454
    August 27 · 1 hr 2 min

    How to Succeed at San Diego Comic-Con

    Dave Kellett is back from San Diego Comic-Con 2026, and he brought receipts! After 27 years of exhibiting at the show, Dave just had his best Comic-Con ever — and he's going to share his thoughts on how he made that happen.

  • #453
    August 20 · 1 hr 13 min

    Special Guest Fran Sundblad, creator of "Tiff & Eve"

    Cartoonist Fran Sundblad, creator of Tiff & Eve, joins Brad for a wide-ranging conversation about creating character-driven comics, finding an audience on Reddit, and learning when not to chase the algorithm.

  • #452
    August 13 · 1 hr 7 min

    The Worst Thing About Webcomics

    A listener asks us to address the downside of webcomics. We'll talk about time management, burnout, financial insecurity, and reader interactions. Then we realize that all those drawbacks have one very important thing in common — and it's not what you'd expect!

  • #451
    August 6 · 1 hr 17 min

    How to Calculate Churn — and Why

    Is your Patreon actually growing — or are new members disguising a retention problem? Brad walks Dave through the process of calculating churn rate and shows how one number can unlock a much clearer understanding of a membership business. They discuss subscriber retention, lifetime value, onboarding, well-timed interventions, and how to determine whether advertising or convention appearances are truly worth the investment. Then, Dave asks whether publishing a children’s book page by page on his

  • #450
    July 30 · 1 hr 8 min

    First Pages First

    What belongs at the beginning of your book? Brad and Dave discuss whether an anti-AI statement offers creators any meaningful protection, break down the information that belongs on a copyright page, and explore the many ways cartoonists can approach the first page of a story or chapter. The best opening isn’t determined by a universal rule—it should establish the right expectations, reflect the story you’re telling, and give readers a reason to keep going.

  • #449
    July 23 · 1 hr 26 min

    Special Guest Dylan Meconis

    Cartoonist and author Dylan Meconis joins Dave Kellett to discuss marketing middle-grade webcomics, working with fans who offer to translate your work, and finding the right balance between control and accessibility. They also share practical advice for cartoonists creating an autobiographical avatar—including how simplification, posture, clothing, line quality, and tone can make a character feel unmistakably like you.

  • #447
    July 9 · 1 hr 8 min

    Why Some Punchlines Don’t Land

    Using Brad’s motorcycle-jump-over-a-ravine metaphor, the ComicLab guys discuss why wider joke “canyons” can create bigger laughs, why shorter jumps can feel merely “technically funny,” and why the best cartoonists learn how to build strong launching ramps while understanding that every reader brings a different landing ramp.

  • #446
    July 2 · 1 hr 4 min

    Never Outsource Your Vision

    It's one of the easiest traps for independent creators to fall into: Outsourcing important business or creative decisions to reader polls. Audience feedback can be useful, but when creators ask readers to steer decisions about Patreon tiers, Kickstarter rewards, publishing strategy, or creative direction, they often get noisy, contradictory advice that can lead them away from their own best judgment.

  • #445
    June 25 · 1 hr 2 min

    Surviving Your Own Success

    Brad and Dave discuss what happens after a cartoonist achieves the dream: Making a living from comics. They explain why success can create its own time-management problems, how to protect the thing that’s already working, and why adding books, Kickstarter campaigns, merch, newsletters, or conventions should happen gradually.

Showing 1–20 of 32 episodes