The Short Box Podcast: A Comic Book Talk Show · Badr Milligan of The Short Box Entertainment Company | Comic Book Podcast

Cliff Chiang is planning his next big thing: An interview about process, Paper Girls, and DC Comics

·1 hr 13 min·5 clips

After finishing Catwoman: Lonely City, Chiang was 'pretty burnt out' when a family member's stroke delayed everything.

Cliff Chiang starts with Paper Girls. Working with Brian Vaughn is the biggest creative impact named in the excerpt, especially in how it changed the way Chiang thought about scripts, story, and collaboration. The conversation stays warm and shop-talky. Paper Girls does not come off like another credit on the resume. Chiang talks about it like a project that made comics feel natural again, more instinctive and alive for the person drawing them. The host gives that room to breathe, then the talk settles into process. Chiang explains how he moved away from tight pencils and let the inks carry more of the life. Perfection is not really the prize here. That opens the door for a very Short Box follow-up, built around a watched clip and a fan's slightly embarrassed amazement. The host brings receipts: a Felix Comic Art YouTube video from ten years earlier, with Chiang at a drawing board working on the Paper Girls crew. The bicycle binder gets its time. Photo reference sits right beside the drawing, which grounds the whole thing in the practical mess behind clean-looking comics. Then comes the eraser shock. The host remembers Chiang wiping out most of a tight pencil drawing before going back in with ink, and suddenly the finished line appears. That becomes the light bulb moment. What looks almost wrong from the outside turns into a small lesson in how Chiang gets that bulky, clean, bold look onto the page. Chiang does not make it mystical. He answers like someone who has lived with that rhythm for years. The episode also has convention-table energy. The intro places the show in Jacksonville, names episode 485, and sets up a conversation for Short Box listeners who like hearing from the people behind the pages. The outro gets communal quickly, with supporter names and a familiar sendoff that make it feel less like a promo stop and more like a comics room with regulars.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Short Box Podcast: A Comic Book Talk Show