Bad at Sports Episode 904: Caitlin McGurk and Brian Baynes

Bad at Sports

Broadcast live from Rice University (yes, in Houston), this episode of Bad at Sports brings together the curator of comics and cartoon art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, Caitlin McGurk, and the Richmond-based zine publisher and comics obsessive behind Bubbles Fanzine, Brian Baynes.

We dive deep into McGurk’s new book Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, a biography and art book reclaiming one of the first women to work for The New Yorker. McGurk details her decade-long research process, Shermund’s punk rock lifestyle in the 1920s, and the bittersweet reclamation of her uncredited legacy.

In the second half, we sit down with Brian Baynes, who champions comics culture from the DIY trenches. He shares his mission behind Bubbles, how it draws on punk zine culture, why it stays in print forever, and how he's preserving overlooked voices from India to local comic shops.

From feminist cartoon history to cassette-label archaeology and typewriter ribbon obsession, this one’s a love letter to the weird, wonderful, and un-archived margins of visual culture.

Names Dropped:

• Caitlin McGurk – Curator at Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, author of Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins
• Brian Baynes – Publisher of Bubbles zine
• Bubbles Zine – Indie comics fanzine
• Barbara Shermund – Early New Yorker cartoonist and subject of McGurk’s book
• Spain Rodriguez – Underground cartoonist who created Granny McGurk
• The New Yorker – Home of Shermund’s work in the 1920s–40s
• Rea Irvin – The New Yorker’s founding art director
• Harold Ross – Founding editor of The New Yorker
• Art Students League of New York – Where Shermund studied
• California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute, recently closed) – Shermund’s California alma mater
• Hearst Newspapers – Syndicated Shermund’s comic strip
• Maximum Rocknroll – Long-running punk zine
• Punk Planet – Chicago-based punk zine, aesthetic cousin of Bad at Sports
• Soft Boys / Archer Prewitt – Musician and cartoonist interviewed in Bubbles
• Ludwig Wittgenstein – Language philosopher referenced by Baynes
• Cameron Arthur – Cartoonist behind The Hidden Islands
• Anand Radhakrishnan – Likely creator of Stories from Zoo (not named directly, based on context)
• Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum – At Ohio State University, world’s largest cartoon archive
• Overlooked No More (Barbara Shermund) – NYT’s obituary project