Virtual Memories Show 564:
Matt Bors
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“I just had my first actual post-Nib work week, and I realized that I do not receive and send 200 emails a day, like I did for the past decade.”
With The Nib, cartoonist & editor Matt Bors helped build an online (and print!) venue for political satire, graphic journalism and non-fiction comics that featured some of the best names in comics and gave space to a bazillion up-and-comers. Matt & I sat down during CXC to talk about his decision to close down The Nib after 10 years, how it felt to bring together the best political cartoonists under a single online umbrella, how tech money giveth and taketh away, and what this fall’s farewell tour means to him. We get into what comes after The Nib (like Justice Warriors comic), how it felt to see one of his comics displayed on the floor of the House of Representatives, the challenges & rewards of building a diverse roster of cartoonists, why he always wanted a print companion of The Nib, and how mainstream comics and dystopian science fiction have always held an appeal for him (and why he’d love to do more with his Wasteland characters). We also discuss how it feels to have traded America for Canada and how the move has changed his perspective, the ways his post-Nib self spends less time getting mad online, how he plans to catch up on all the comics he’s missed in the last decade, what it’s like having his first two-week stretch as an adult without immediate editorial deadlines, and more! Give it a listen! And go read Justice Warriors & check out The Nib archives!
“The alt-weekly cartoonists are the biggest influences on my political work.”
“If things get worse, The Nib won’t be here for it. Someone else will have to take up the reins.”
“It’s the story of the tech era: They were into us until they weren’t.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Matt Bors is an Eisner-winning comics editor and two time Pulitzer Prize Finalist in cartooning. In 2013, he founded The Nib, which published 6,000 comics, three books, and 15 issues of an award-winning print magazine. In 2017 he was the Executive Producer and head writer for two seasons of The Nib animation produced by Topic with Augenblick Studios.
His comics have appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, Village Voice, CNN, The Intercept, and were collected in the book We Should Improve Society Somewhat. He also drew the graphic novel War Is Boring, written by David Axe, and has edited comics for In These Times magazine. His latest project is Justice Warriors, a dystopian satire created with artist Ben Clarkson from Ahoy Comics.
Follow Matt on BlueSky, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at the Hotel LeVeque in Columbus, OH on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Matt by me. It’s on my instagram.