Author Archives: Paul Tumey

About Paul Tumey

Paul Tumey is a writer, artist, and comics historian. He is the creative director of Presentation Tree, a 15-year old business devoted to developing great presentations. He is a co-editor and essayist for THE ART OF RUBE GOLDBERG (Abrams ComicArts - November 2013). He is also a contributing editor and essayist for SOCIETY IS NIX: GLEEFUL ANARCHY AT THE DAWN OF THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIP 1895-1915 (Sunday Press - July 2013). Tumey researched and wrote about the cartoonist Harry Tuthill in an introductory essay that was published in THE BUNGLE FAMILY 1930 (Library of American Comics, 2014). Tumey was a contributing editor and essayist for KING OF THE COMICS: 100 YEARS OF KING FEATURES (IDW, 2015). Most recently, Tumey contributed an essay on Dick Tracy to DICK TRACY: COLORFUL CASES OF THE 1930s (Sunday Press, 2016) and co-edited and wrote for FOOLISH QUESTIONS AND OTHER ODD OBSERVATIONS BY RUBE GOLDBERG (Sunday Press, 2017). Tumey has published over forty essays, reviews and interviews in THE COMICS JOURNAL. He has lectured on comics at Parson's The New School (New York City) and the University of Washington. Tumey is currently at work on his own book about the great screwball cartoonists. He lives in Seattle, WA with his wife Claire Mack, two teens, two parakeets, a cat, and several piles of crumbling old paper.

Spain Bang: New Books and Movie Rev Up the Motorcycle Outlaw Cartoonist’s Legend

We’re living through a Golden Age of Spain Rodriguez, so it’s time for Paul to catch us up on the recent reprints and biographical work (including a documentary) on the motorcycle riding Marxist radical who never stopped creating. Continue reading

 
milt gross

Gross Prophets: Pete Maresca on Milt Gross and Sunday Press

Paul catches up with friend, collaborator and comics historian Pete Maresca on his latest publication via Sunday Press: Gross Exaggerations: The Meshuga Comic Strips of Milt Gross. No subject is out of bounds! Continue reading

 

The Craziest Damn Superhero Universe: All Time Comics

Paul Tumey goes all in on the work found in All Time Comics, a gonzo series of super-hero comics made by the likes of Trevor Von Eeden, Josh Simmons, Josh Bayer, Julia Gfrörer, Noah Van Sciver and more. Continue reading

 

Ominous Absurdity From “The Pits of Hell” by Ebisu Yoshikazu

This collection of surreal and savage manga stories drawn in a naïve art style vibrates on my bookshelf and issues forth the sounds of thumping pachinko machines, clattering speedboat motors and roars of rage so intense there is no doubt in my mind they have the power to rip my head off. Continue reading

 
Mark Campos at the 2012 Short Run Comics & Arts Festival. Photo: James Gill.

Mark Campos, 1962-2018: Seattle’s Unsung Comics Master Remembered

A tribute to the Seattle cartoonist’s life and work, with remembrances from friends and fellow cartoonists. Continue reading

 

Art Young Returns, and Nine More

At the top of Tumey’s stack of favorite books of 2017 sits a thick, five-pound book with about 800 old cartoons which are mostly political. Continue reading

 

The Emil Ferris Interview: Monsters, Art and Stories (Part 2)

“She uses the sketchbook idea as a way to change the grammar and syntax of the comics page …” – Art Spiegelman in The New York Times, February 17, 2017 (“First, Emil Ferris Was Paralyzed. Then Her Book Got Lost … Continue reading

 
Emil Ferris

The Emil Ferris Interview: Monsters, Art and Stories (Part 1)

My Favorite Thing is Monsters author Emil Ferris on her life as an artist and her love of monsters. Continue reading