David Malki!, creator of Wondermark, joins Jesse and Jordan for further discussion of music festivals, making Brita tea and more.

Lynda Barry is a legendary comic strip author whose Ernie Pook's Comeek has run for many years in alternative newspapers around the country. Her two most recent books, What It Is and Picture This are about writing and creating art, respectively. The former won an Eisner Award, comics' most prestigious prize. The books take the form of a notebook, filled with text, collage and drawings. The content is based on a series of seminars Barry has taught on getting creative work done. In our interview, Barry talks with Jesse about activating the brain and the benefit of doing creative work that doesn't need to fall into the dichotomy of beautiful/not beautiful, good art/not good art, or being productive/being nonproductive.

JESSE THORN: It’s The Sound of Young America, I’m Jesse Thorn. My guest on the program is Lynda Barry. She’s one of the nation’s most accomplished comics artists, graphic novelists, comic strip writers, artists, etc. etc. Her comics have run in alternative newspapers across the country for many, many, many years and more recently she’s turned much of her time towards writing longer works. Her book of just a couple of years ago, What It Is, was about the process of writing, and her latest, Picture This, is about the process of making art. They’re beautiful multimedia comics collage works that, as I said, are about process.

Lynda Barry, welcome to The Sound of Young America.

LYNDA BARRY: I’m delighted to be here.

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• MaxFun friends Rob Huebel and Paul Rust fight dirty with puns and pipes in Action Movie Pun Brainstorm. (If you haven't listened to Rob's presentation of Simon Rich's "Brainteasers" yet, you really should.)
  
  
• The Decemberists, fronted by singer Colin Meloy, have announced a release date of January 18, 2011 for their upcoming album "The King is Dead". You can download the new song Down By the Water for free from their website.
  
  
• Comics artist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegelman edited and wrote the introduction for a new set of the wordless woodcut novels of Lynd Ward. Each page of Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts is wordless, set with an single engraved image. The whole thing looks beautifully packaged, to boot.
  
  
• Fans of upcoming guest Judd Apatow and crew should be happy: the debut of IFC's run of Apatow's great college comedy series Undeclared is Friday at 11pm. We've had several alums of the show on the program, including screenwriter Rodney Rothman and musician and actor Loudon Wainwright III.
  

Dan Clowes is the author of numerous acclaimed comics. His works include Ghost World, Art School Confidential and the latest, Wilson.

Wilson is the story of a middle-aged man who has lived his life in an effort to avoid social relationships, only to realize that time is running out to build a family.

Batman takes on his nemesis, The Riddler, who takes on himself in this comedy sketch from writer and performer Sarah Gee. You can catch Sarah perfoming at Improv Olympic in Chicago Sunday, Monday and Wednesday nights.

Keith Phipps and Tasha Robinson of The AV Club join us once again to recommend some of the best in pop culture.

Keith says to check out the 1930s version of Alice In Wonderland, featuring Gary Cooper, Cary Grant and WC Fields. He also recommends the new Johnny Cash record, American VI: Ain't No Grave.

Tasha says to check out the touring show of the Oscar-nominated short films, and an amazing choose-your-own-adventure graphic novel called Meanwhile.

Our hats are off to comic book writer Gregg Schigiel for including everyone's favorite fictional characters, Chip Dipson and Dip Dopson in the brand new issue #2 of Marvel Comics' X-Babies.

Charles Burns is a cartoonist and illustrator whose best-known work is the graphic novel Black Hole. His illustrations have been featured in The New Yorker, and his graphic art has promoted products like Altoids and Coca-Cola's short-lived hip spinoff, OK Cola. We spoke with him at the Philly Improv Theater in Philadelphia.

Brian Michael Bendis on The Sound of Young America from Jesse Thorn on Vimeo.

Brian Michael Bendis is an acclaimed comics writer. His work has ranged from independent crime comics to the artist-controlled superhero imprint Image to helming some of the most important characters in superhero comics for Marvel. Several years ago, he re-created Spider Man for the 21st century with Ultimate Spider Man. He now steers Marvel's most important superteam, The Avengers. We spoke with Brian at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Oregon.

Brian Michael Bendis on The Sound of Young America from Jesse Thorn on Vimeo.

Our second video from our trip to the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Shot and edited by Brian Brewer.

Yesterday: Mirah
Later this week: Nick Kroll, Blitzen Trapper, Reggie Watts, The Third Floor