Carey Pietsch

It seems like, especially recently, if you're on the internet you're inundated with projects from the McElroy family. Whether it's podcasts, YouTube series or the new My Brother, My Brother and Me show on Seeso, there's so much McElroy content out there that it's hard to find a place to start. If you're visiting us, that means you're probably a big fan of comics, and the way high-concept stories can be told via serialized fiction and if that's the case, you need to listen to The Adventure Zone.

If you're not familiar with The Adventure Zone already, then folks, I have some good news: you have over fifty episodes of one of the best, funniest, and most thrilling ongoing narrative podcasts in front of you to listen to, which is something you should start doing immediately if not sooner. It's an actual-play Dungeons & Dragons podcast from brothers Griffin, Travis, and Justin McElroy (of the My Brother, My Brother And Me podcast) and their father Clint that follows the adventures of a party of fantasy goofballs trying to protect the world from powerfully destructive magic. First Second has announced a graphic novel adaptation of The Adventure Zone's first arc, "Here There Be Gerblins," from artist Carey Pietsch, and it looks like it's going to be amazing.

Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh & Carey Pietsch's Lumberjanes and James Tynion IV & Rian Sygh's The Backstagers are two of the most popular all-ages comics on the stands right now and both have proven to big books for Boom Studios' all-ages imprint Boom Box. Next month, Boom Box will release New York Comic Con exclusive variants for each title and we have an exclusive first look at both covers.

You may be familiar with the hit Dungeons & Dragons podcast The Adventure Zone, starring Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy and Griffin McElroy of My Brother, My Brother & Me alongside their father, Clint McElroy. The show is a light-hearted and hilarious affair as Griffin plays dungeon master for his family, leading them through perilous adventures and battles. Inspired by the podcast, a host of incredibly talented illustrators and indie comics artists have come together to create The Adventure Zine, a fifty page book of fan art dedicated to the show, and today the campaign to create the book has launched with the aim to raise money for Facing Hunger, a network of food banks based in Huntington, West Virginia.

Space Battle Lunchtime is about a reality cooking show, which is already getting me excited. From Master Chef to Chopped to the Great British Bake-Off, I'm a big fan of the genre (although not Top Chef—too heavy on reality show drama, if you ask me), and I'm also into comics that are about things I like that nobody's made a comic about before. But as the name implies, Space Battle Lunchtime isn't about just any reality cooking show, it's about one that happens in Outer Space! Even more exciting! SBL tells the story of Peony, a baker from Earth who gets a last-minute chance to compete in the universe's most popular cooking show, but might not be ready for the treacherous world of space-cooking.

As the latest guest artist to head out to camp with the Lumberjanes, Carey Pietsch is well qualified. Not only does she know her way around a campfire, but her previous comic work includes a series of self-published mini-comics that combine exactly the sense of grandly fantastical and intimately personal that has made Lumberjanes one of the most important hit comics of the past couple of years. Pietsch joins writers Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh for the latest Lumberjanes arc, featuring an encounter with a possible werewolf, starting with issue #21, in stores this week. ComicsAlliance chatted to Pietsch to find out how she landed the gig, and what sort of experience she has in the wilderness!

If you know Ian McGinty's name, odds are you associate it with a comics adaptation of an animated series --- Adventure Time, or Bravest Warriors, just to name two --- or the Munchkin card games. But this fall, he's turning the tables; the first issue of his new, creator-owned Z2 Comics series Welcome to Showside comes out in late October, and it's already being developed as an animated pilot, with McGinty serving as showrunner and lead voice actor. McGinty will take the role of Kit, a kid who just happens to be the son of the evil Shadow King, the leader of a netherrealm full of monsters. We sat down with McGinty to discuss the pressure of writing and drawing a creator-owned book while overseeing an animated project, and to dig into the appeal of all-ages comics, pulling stories from real life, and snagging none other than Henry Rollins to do some voice acting.

One of the great thing about the Adventure Time comics -- and there are a lot of great things about the Adventure Time comics -- is how great they are for telling stories with the familiar Cartoon Network characters that you could only really tell in comics. The best example might have been the fantastic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure issue, but next week, writer Ryan North and artists Kat Philbin, Missy Pena, Becca Tobin, Liz Prince, Carey Pietsch, Jesse Tise, Ian McGinty, T. Zysk, David Cutler, Yumi Sakugawa, Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb (phew) are doing it again with a special issue that's all about the cast making their own zines. That's right, everyone: If you've ever wanted to know what a zine would look like if it was made by BMO, now is your chance to find out. It's about a bear named Cool Bear, and it is amazing.