In the first Panel Borders of 2026, Alex Fitch talks to a pair of creators whose work mixes Western and Eastern influences.
Luobai chats about her PhD work – comics that deal with anxiety featuring a mythical creature called the Red Monkey, recorded at Cartoon County in Brighton; and in an interview recorded at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, Craig Thompson discusses his latest graphic novel Ginsing Roots, a title that mixes autobiography with the history of Ginsing production, and acts as a sequel and commentary on his earlier book Blankets.
Panel Borders is first aired on ResonanceFM, this episode now podcast after broadcast at panelborders.wordpress.com.
Luobai is a freelance illustrator and a third year PhD candidate at University of the Arts London, who has had several exhibitions of her work, and illustrated books such as Portraying anxiety disorders in picturebooks and Graphic Medicine – Healing Readers by Comics and Illustration by Haiqi Yang.
Craig Thompson is a cartoonist and the author of the award-winning books Blankets; Good-bye, Chunky Rice; and Habibi.
His graphic novels also include Carnet de Voyage and Space Dumplins, and Ginseng Roots (2025). Habibi was an Observer Graphic Novel of the Month and a New York Times bestseller, which was described by Neel Mukherjee as “a landmark publication”.
Ginseng Roots, published by Pantheon in April 2025, explores class divide, agriculture, holistic healing, the 300-year-long trade relationship between China and North America, childhood labour, and the bond between two brothers.
His work has received four Harvey Awards, three Eisner Awards, two Ignatz Awards and a Rudolph-Dirks-Award.
• Panel Borders is first aired on ResonanceFM, broadcast streamed at resonancefm.com / Resonance Replay stream on mixcloud.com / podcast after broadcast at panelborders.wordpress.com
Head downthetubes for…
• Luobai: Official Website | Instagram
• Craig Thompson Official Site: craigthompsonbooks.com | Social Media: Facebook | Instagram
• Information about the UK collected edition of Ginsing Roots, and the US serialised version published by Uncivilized Books
• Listen to Alex’s previous interviews with Craig Thompson
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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