028: Ryan Claytor - Cartoonist and Teacher; One Bite At a Time

10/10/24 • 73 min

Today’s guest is cartoonist, designer, teacher, and Pinball Wizard Ryan Claytor. I’m one of his stops on the digital (and AFK) book tour for his brand-new book, One Bite At a Time: The First 20 years of Elephant Eater Comics. You can purchase the book at OneBiteAtaTimeBook.com along with more of his work

Ryan stopped by to talk about his path from Marvel Comics intern to auto-bio cartoonist to totally unhinged (in a fun way) pinball devotee. We talk about his shiny basketball shorts, but also, in good ol’ Ledger style, existential crises as well, along with whether it's truly possible to bring what's in your head out into the world as a physical object. Ryan says this book is the closest he's ever gotten, so make sure you go to ElephantEater.com and check out all of his work, and again, if you go to OneBiteAtaTimeBook.com you can find yourself right there to buy this very gorgeous volume.

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Please rate and review Ledger wherever you can - Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc. - and tell people if you think they'd like it. Swing by austinRwilson.com to see my publishing credits, to contact me, or to read free fiction.

My website also has links to my newest story, Dynasty of Blood, a serialized story set in a fictional 1980s, but one that deals with the historically factual Satanic Panic and its connection to tabletop roleplaying games. Print copies of volumes 1-3 are now available both print-on-demand and print-at-home!

Links to all my work can be found here: https://linktr.ee/austinRwilson

Thank you so much!

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Links to all my work can be found here: https://linktr.ee/austinRwilson

Thank you so much!

Previous Episode

027: Rana Tahir - Author, Heroes and Monsters: The Stranger Things Choose Your Own Adventure novel

Rana Tahir writes poetry, non-fiction, and fiction, and is the author of Heroes and Monsters, the Stranger Things Choose Your Own Adventure novel as well as SPIES: Noor Inayat Khan, a CYOA tale of the eponymous WWII spy.

During the interview I reference a chat she had on the Books With a Past show, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/live/-0IiY5wkreo?si=JoUvs-FSfzNaqHkl

Rana and I discuss how you never know who is seeing your writing and where it will lead you; the program Scrivener; Harry Styles fan-fic; whether Robin from Stranger Things is tall (she’s not); writing in second person; and a special performance of an early poem by Rana Tahir that you won’t want to miss.

Thank you so much to Rana for stopping by and to you for listening!

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Links to all my work can be found here: https://linktr.ee/austinRwilson

Thank you so much!

Next Episode

029: Drew Larimore - Playwright, UPSTATE

Playwright Drew Larimore joins Ledger today for a special reason: I read his play UPSTATE in the very first round of submissions as a script reader for the Austin Film Festival, which is THE film festival/contest/conference for writers.
I happily put Drew's play through to the next round and also wrote that it had a serious chance of winning the category. It made it to the semifinals and Drew dropped by to talk about the difficulty of writing this play, his fear of its reception, but also how he was happy to hear laughter during workshops/previews as the two characters argue (but also commiserate and care for one another) after the difficult, life-altering decision to return the child they'd adopted.
Yeah. The premise is very, very good. We also talk about how he views his writing as a rotating dessert tray of ideas, how he felt supported to tackle a difficult topic, and a whole lot more. To check out his work or to reach to Drew and his agent about producing UPSTATE head to https://drewlarimore.com/.

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Links to all my work can be found here: https://linktr.ee/austinRwilson

You can also go to mossheartbooks.com to check out my independent bookshop and follow me on Instagram @mossheartbooks.

Thank you so much!