Brad Guigar (/ˈɡaɪɡər/, GY-gər; born April 9, 1969) is an award-winning American cartoonist who is the editor of the newsletter The Webcomics Handbook on Substack and the creator of the comic Evil Inc.
| Brad Guigar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 9, 1969 |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer, Penciller, Inker, Publisher |
Notable works |
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| Collaborators | Dave Kellett, ComicLab podcast |
Early life
editBrad Guigar is the eldest of five children and grew up in Bad Axe, Michigan. He attended Alma College where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree before he moved to Canton, Ohio to work for the newspaper The Repository as a graphic artist and editorial cartoonist. He left The Repository and moved to Akron, Ohio and worked for the Akron Beacon Journal. He formerly worked at the Philadelphia Daily News and is married with two children. Guigar wrote and illustrated The Everything Cartooning Book (2004),[1] contributed to the book How To Make Webcomics (2008),[2] wrote its sequel The Webcomics Handbook (2013),[3] and maintains the site Webcomics.com.
Career
editGreystone Inn
editGreystone Inn premiered on the Web on February 14, 2000. Later that year, the strip was added to the Keenspot line-up of webcomics. After updating daily for over five years, Guigar took his comics, including Greystone, to Blank Label Comics. Greystone Inn appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, the Turlock Journal, the Stanford Daily and The Maine Campus. Selected Greystone Inn strips on graphic design also appeared in the Computer Arts magazine every issue. Guigar makes money off his syndications by offering Greystone Inn for syndication at a certain rate, with a lower rate offered for college papers.
Greystone Inn has had a spin-off comic written and drawn by Brad Guigar named Mondays With Mel. It featured an old comedian named Mel who had been introduced in Greystone Inn as an old friend of Argus's. It worked by Mel setting up a joke and then allowing the audience to provide punchlines with the best one being featured in the strip. Since Guigar left Keenspot, Mondays With Mel has been on hiatus and is no longer available online.
In May 2005 Guigar ended Greystone Inn and began a spin-off, Evil Inc, which focuses on a company of super-villains. Evil Inc retains several Greystone Inn characters and has a similar style.
Courting Disaster
editCourting Disaster is a single panel cartoon about love, sex, and dating. It originally appeared every Friday in the Philadelphia Daily News accompanying a sex advice column. In 2015 Courting Disaster was revived for occasional release as a Not Safe For Work comic available to certain Patreon subscribers.[4]
Phables
editPhables was a comic strip about life in Philadelphia that appeared bi-weekly in the Philadelphia Daily News from 2006 to 2009.[5] In May 2007 the strip was named "Best Local Column" by the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.[6] Later in 2007, the strip was also nominated for the Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic.[7]
Evil Inc
editA spin-off from Guigar's previous project, Greystone Inn, Evil Inc debuted on the web on June 22, 2005. The strip chronicles the schemes and adventures of the eponymous Evil Incorporated, a business run by supervillains. One of the launch strips for Blank Label Comics until becoming part of the Halfpixel lineup, it appeared daily in newspapers until 2015.[8] Visually, Evil Inc started in black and white but soon transitioned into color. Most strips are formed of a series of panels which use a multitude of camera angles.
The comic follows strong story arcs. In one, the corporation was bought, and subsequently brought to financial ruin, by the Legion of Justice (a parody of the Justice League and similar teams). However, the ruination of Evil Inc also spelled doom for the Legion. Each strip maintains a self-contained joke, often uses puns, and frequently parodies superhero comics.
Saturday strips are usually unconnected to weekday strips (the strip does not update on Sundays) and include such themes as Evil Inc character profiles called "Personnel Files" (which describe a specific Evil Inc character, usually one featured in the previous week), customer service calls fielded by Lightning Lady (who answers the phone "Evil Inc, how may I harm you?", previously "How may I misdirect your call?"), or, recently, various characters approaching a door that has been altered to complement the sign next to it (for example, the December 4, 2010 strip shows a door labeled "Office of Bizarro"; in this strip, the doorknob is placed next to the door rather than on it).
On January 1, 2016, Evil Inc was rebooted as a graphic novel, leaving behind the comic strip format. The storyline was also rebooted and included among the changes: [9]
- The story’s main focus became a branch office of the Evil Inc corporation instead of the monolithic headquarters.
- Miss Match and Captain Heroic were no longer married.
- Their sons, Oscar and Oliver, were removed completely.
- Evil Atom was replaced as CEO by Dr. Whoosh.
- The characters no longer aged in real-time.
- Several new characters were introduced.
Evil Inc After Dark
editIn June 2015 Guigar launched Evil Inc After Dark on Patreon as an NSFW spin-off of the main Evil Inc comic. After Dark content is exclusive to paying fans and continues romantic Evil Inc plot points via sex-positive forays into characters' bedrooms.[10]
Webcomics.com
editWebcomics.com is an advice site run by Guigar which includes tutorials, community discussion, and job information relating to comics.
ComicLab
editSince 2018 Guigar has co-hosted the podcast ComicLab with fellow cartoonist Dave Kellett. It's aimed at comic professionals and semi-professionals, marketed as a show "about making comics — and making a living from comics!"[11] As of August 2024 there are 350 episodes of ComicLab available on Spotify with a rating of 4.9.[12]
Nominations & awards
edit- 2023: Won, Ringo Award, Best Humor Webcomic — Evil Inc [13]
- 2023: Nominated, Reuben Award, Online Comics: Long Form — Evil Inc [14]
- 2022: Nominated, Reuben Award, Online Comics: Long Form — Evil Inc [15]
- 2012: Won, Philadelphia Geek Award, Comic Book Artist of the Year[16][17]
- 2007: Nominated, Eisner Award, Best Digital Comic - Phables [7]
- 2007: Won, Society of Professional Journalists (Philadelphia), Best Local Column - Phables [6]
- 2007: Nominated, Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards, Outstanding Superhero/Action Comic — Evil Inc [18]
Charitable work
editAs a member of Alternative Brand Studios, Brad Guigar ran the AltBrand 2002 MDA Webcomic Telethon. It featured over 20 comic artists and raised $850.
As a founding member of Blank Label Comics, Guigar also spearheaded the 2005 Webcomic Telethon for Hurricane Relief that raised an estimated $28,635 for the American Red Cross response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
References
edit- ^ Guigar, Brad J (4 November 2004). The Everything Cartooning Book: Create Unique And Inspired Cartoons For Fun And Profit. Adams Media. ISBN 978-1-4405-2305-2.
- ^ Guigar, Brad J.; Kurtz, Scott; Kellett, Dave; Straub, Kris; Straub, Peter (2008). How to Make Webcomics. Image. ISBN 978-1-58240-870-5.
- ^ Guigar, Brad (12 August 2014). The Webcomics Handbook. Toonhound Studios, LLC. ISBN 978-0-9815209-6-4.
- ^ Goodman, David (4 April 2016). "Interview With Webcartoonist Brad Guigar". Bam Smack Pow. FanSided.
- ^ Kleefeld, Sean (13 April 2012). "Kleefeld on Webcomics #56: Brad Guigar Interview". MTV News. Viacom International. Archived from the original on May 18, 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-19.
- ^ a b E&P Staff (18 May 2007). "'Phables' Cartoon Feature Wins SPJ Column Prize". Editor & Publisher. Nielsen Co. Retrieved 2017-05-19.
- ^ a b "Eisner Award Nominations Overwhelm with Variety". Comic-Con. San Diego Comic-Con International. 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-07-07.
- ^ Melamed, Samantha (28 December 2015). "Edge City's 15-year run reflects the state of the comics page". Philly.com. Philadelphia Media Network.
- ^ Guigar, Brad (1 January 2016). "Introducing the NEW Evil Inc graphic novel". Evil Inc. Greystone Inn Comics. Archived from the original on 2016-01-09.
- ^ Melamed, Samantha (December 28, 2015). "The sad state of newspapers' funny pages Two strips' exit reflects the tough challenges amid online competition". National. Philadelphia Inquirer, The. PA. p. A01. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
- ^ "Simple Cast". Retrieved 2024-08-31.
- ^ "Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
- ^ "2023 Ringo Awards". RingoAwards.com. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
- ^ "REUBEN FINALISTS 2023". Reuben.org. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
- ^ "REUBEN FINALISTS 2022". Reuben.org. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
- ^ "Philadelphia Geek Awards ceremony announces comic book category winners". Philadelphia Comic Book Examiner. Philadelphia Examiner. PA. August 20, 2012. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
- ^ Weisenbach, Traci L. (October 19, 2012). "Funny Business". Local News. Huron Daily Tribune, The. MI. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
- ^ Kjerland, Erik (2007). "Outstanding Superhero/Action Comic". Ryan Estrada. Webcartoonists' Choice Awards. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.