Category: Interview

Ben Towle is a five-time Eisner Award nominated cartoonist with a lengthy bibliography. His first book, Midnight Sun, was published by SLG Publishing in 2007 and is a historical fiction tale inspired by the real-life crash of an airship expedition in 1928. Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean is also a work of historical fiction. Published by Disney/ Hyperion Books in 2010, it features the famous aviator and her quest to fly across the Atlantic. Oyster War, published in 2015 by Oni Press, is a nautical fantasy about dastardly pirates looting the seas and the pragmatic Commander and crew hired to stop them. Ben’s latest book, Four- Fisted Tales: Animals in Combat, published by Dead Reckoning in 2021, shares stories of animals that have fought alongside soldiers throughout the centuries. Ben currently serves as a professor of Illustration at the Columbus College of Art and Design.

UGLAS The 2022 winner of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus’ Emerging Talent Prize, Victoria Douglas is a rising cartoonist and illustrator in the area. They are a graduate of Columbus College of Art and Design and have been making comics since 2019. Victoria is probably best known for their ongoing comic CINNAMON. Published by Behemoth Comics, CINNAMON is an ordinary housecat who turns everything into an adventure. We get to see things through her eyes as she does battle with the antagonistic Henchrats, defends her domain from a laser pointer, and sometimes even comes to blows with her owner. Besides CINNAMON, Victoria has self-published Templar Vitae, a 24-hour comic, and Biblioware, a collection of short semiautobiographical comics.

Prolific artist Bryan Christopher Moss is a well-known Columbus figure, having been interviewed by every major Columbus publication, as well as appearing on Good Morning Columbus, and WOSU’s art centric program Broad & High. He is known for working in a variety of mediums including comics, fine arts, and murals and recently completed work on the graphic novel The Eightfold Path published by Abrams Books. Among his other comic credits include Rita’s Adventures, Outer Heaven, and the upcoming The Evangelists. Besides his comic work, Moss has been a teacher for Columbus city schools, the manager for Aminah Robinson’s house, and had his art displayed around the city. Columbus is fortunate to claim him, and we appreciate the time he took to answer our questions.

Steve Hamaker is a local comic creator that has been in the business for over 20 years. Ever since he graduated from Columbus College of Art and Design in 1997, he has collaborated with some of the most notable cartoonists in the business. Steve is best known for his award-winning coloring work. His credits include the graphic novel series Bone and RASL by Jeff Smith, Table Titans by Scott Kurtz & Brian Hurtt, Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore, and Hilo by Judd Winick to name a few. He has even worked on Mylo Xyloto, a six-part comic by Mark Osborne based on the fifth studio album by the band Coldplay. Besides coloring, Steve is a successful cartoonist in his own right. His first graphic novel Fish N Chips was published in 2010 and followed up by his webcomic PLOX in 2013. PLOX, which is set in Columbus, follows the arcs of Kim, Chad, and Roy, three gamers struggling to navigate their offline lives. You can read it online at plox-comic.com. Currently, Steve is providing art for The Pathfinders Society. To date, two books in the young adult graphic novel series have been published, The Mystery of the Moon Tower (2020) and The Curse of the Crystal Cavern (2021). Steve lives here in Columbus with his wife and son.