Recent Reviews
Recent Articles
One For You, Nineteen For Me – This Week’s Links
Hello, I am here to collect the comics tax! (Panels vanish depending on one’s income bracket.)
Remembering Comics Retailer and Historian Robert Beerbohm, 1952-2024
Following the death of American comic book retailer and historian Robert Beerbohm on March 27, 2024, we reached out to notable comics academics, writers and historians and asked them to share their memories of him.
A Look Back at Retail, a Comic Strip About Work, with Cartoonist Norm Feuti
William Schwartz speaks with cartoonist Norm Feuti about Retail, a daily strip about day-to-day work that ran from 2006 to 2020.
The Mystery Behind Astro Boy
In this new translation of a 2022 essay, Natsume Fusanosuke muses on the elusively erotic quality of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy, and the force of Tezuka’s personality that shaped the very idea of manga history.
Arrivals and Departures – April 2024
It’s back: YOUR favorite monthly column of small-press and self-published capsule reviews by RJ Casey. Why is it 80 degrees out in April?!
“I Was Done With Not Being Noticed”: The Matt Lesniewski Interview
Jake Zawlacki talks to artist Matt Lesniewski about his ascendant career, his interests in storytelling, and his recent series Faceless and the Family.
An Interview with Trina Robbins
In this vintage interview from The Comics Journal #53 (Winter 1980), Bill Sherman speaks with the cartoonist Trina Robbins (1938-2024) about a life in underground comics as the ’70s drew to a close.
Ed Piskor, 1982-2024
Cartoonist Katie Skelly pens an obituary for Ed Piskor, author of popular series such as Hip Hop Family Tree, X-Men: Grand Design and Red Room, and co-creator of the influential YouTube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe. Piskor died on April 1, 2024, aged 41.
Mark D. Bright, 1955-2024
Remembering a sturdy and humane craftsman who co-created several prominent off-kilter superhero projects of the 1990s; Mark D. Bright died on March 27, 2024, aged 68.
The War on Gaza – 4.9.24
This is the seventh installment of Joe Sacco’s column, “The War on Gaza.”
“You Can Best Access The Truth About An Era And Time Through Its Pop Culture Ephemera”: An Interview with Tim Lane
Steven Brower chats with Tim Lane, one of the standout alternative cartoonists of the 21st century, whose new comic book series, Mythologies & Apocrypha, debuts this month.
April Now in Morning Clad – This Week’s Links
Everybody damned to turn the awful spinning wheel.
The End of History, as Presented by Sergio Toppi
Hagai Palevsky examines a recent collection of science fiction comics by the late Italian master Sergio Toppi, going deep into how the artist’s fascination with the cultural past informs his idea of the future.
Cartoonist Ed Piskor Dead at 41
Ed Piskor, prominent writer/artist of comics such as Wizzywig, Hip Hop Family Tree, X-Men: Grand Design and Red Room, was reported dead on April 1, 2024
Leela Corman on Victory Parade, Genocide and Transgressive Art: “This Is My Corner Of Humanity’s Coffin To Carry”
MariNaomi talks to Leela Corman about her new graphic novel, Victory Parade, as well as women’s wrestling, Yiddishkeit, and the power of transgressive art.
Take a Look, It’s In a Book: Classics Illustrated at First Comics
Tom Shapira looks back at a brief, adventurous revival of a early comic book institution: the First Comics run of Classics Illustrated.
“It’s A Cliché, But I Write What I Know”: An Interview with Gareth A. Hopkins, Abstract Cartoonist
Hagai Palevsky interviews UK artist Gareth A. Hopkins on abstract comics, autobiography, the texture of the page, and thinking a lot about what you are doing.
A Power Not Seen for Thousands of Years – This Week’s Links
How come I shoot the dead? That’s a silly question.
Alex Graham talks The Devil’s Grin and becoming a full-time cartoonist: “I’m so happy.”
Matt Petras talks to the Dog Biscuits author about her new comic, moving away from Instagram and leaving her day job.
When the Line Gets Interesting: Tanioka Yasuji and Sugiura Shigeru
Few things are more readily observable in comics than the line a cartoonist uses to draw on the page. In this newly translated excerpt from a 1997 study, Natsume Fusanosuke looks to the examples of manga artists Tanioka Yasuji and Sugiura Shigeru to explore the fundamental characteristics of the artist’s line.
“I’ve Rediscovered A Mode Of Expression That Was Important To Me As A Kid”: A Talk with Jordan Mechner
Jason Bergman chats with Jordan Mechner, pioneering designer of computer games like Prince of Persia, and more recently a writer of historical adventure comics. Now he’s turned cartoonist with Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family, a 320-page solo graphic memoir out this week.
Beware the Ides of March – This Week’s Links
After a three-year search we have finally hired a TikTok czar to an ironclad lifetime contract. Now to look at the news while I merge into traffic.
