Panel Borders: Sporting Titles with Ellen Lindner and Josh Hicks

By John Freeman on April 2, 2022

On next week’s only British radio show about comics, Panel Borders, host Alex Fitch talks to a pair of cartoonists whose recent work has been on sports themed comics.

Panel Borders is the UK’s only monthly broadcast radio show about comics and is generally presented by Alex Fitch, with guest presenters including Duncan Nott, Dickon Harris, Grant Rogers and Virginie Sélavy.

Previous guests have included British comic creators such as: Alan Moore, Philip Pullman, Raymond Briggs, Eddie Campbell, Garth Ennis, Bryan Talbot, and Davids Gibbons and Lloyd.

Ellen Lindner chats about her project A History of Gender Rebellion in Baseball, which has generated the comic, Lost Diamonds and two issues of the zine The Cranklet’s Chronicle, so far.

Ellen Lindner (she/her is the
author of the Ignatz-nominated
graphic novel The Black Feather Falls,
and The Cranklet’s Chronicle, a history of
gender, baseball and social change in
America, and Lost Diamonds, an
ongoing history of people who are
not men playing baseball in America
(a MICE Mini-grant winner in 2021).

Also an editor and educator, Ellen’s comics have appeared in The Lily, Spiralbound, World War 3 Illustrated, and a variety of other publications and anthologies.

Plus, Josh Hicks discusses Glorious Wrestling Alliance, which follows the escapades of ‘the universe’s least-professional wrestling company’, as well running Carp Publishing Endeavours, a micropress based out of Cardiff.

Born in 1991, Josh Hicks is a cartoonist from Wales who’s been making comics since 2015, working with anthologies and independent publishers in the UK and self-publishing his own minicomics.

His debut full length work, Glorious Wrestling Alliance, was published by Graphic Universe/Lerner last year, after first being self-published in a single colour edition in 2019. His anthology of short pieces, Human Garbage, was published by Good Comics in 2017.

His work has appeared in Off Life Magazine, The Atomic Elbow, Dirty Rotten Comics, The Good Comics Reader and the Broken Frontier Yearbook. When not making comics, he works in animation as a director and storyboard artist.

• Panel Borders: Sporting Titles airs at 5.30pm, Wednesday 6th April 2022, repeat broadcast 11am, Sunday 10th April 2022, Resonance 104.4 FM and DAB (London) / broadcast streamed at www.resonancefm.com / extended podcast after broadcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “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.