Recent Reviews
The Lion & The Eagle #1
Aftershock Comics
Mouse In Residence
Spector Books
Putin’s Russia: The Rise Of A Dictator
Drawn & Quarterly
Conundrum: An Annual Magazine of the Comic Arts #3
Conundrum Press
Recent Articles
Angoulême 2022: The Return
Bill Kartalopoulos visited the 49th Angoulême International Comics Festival, and there are dozens of photos to peruse in this big trip report!
Jennifer Hayden: Day Four
On staring into black glass in a room of new silence.
“If I Could, I’d Completely Redraw It”: An Interview With Chaz Truog
While “Animal Man” may be the first title you think of when his name comes up, Chaz Truog’s career has gone much further than one fondly remembered DC comic. In this conversation, he talks about time spent in the monthly trenches with Coyote, his groundbreaking work on Leonardo Da Vinci in Chiaroscuro and his latest, the violent medieval epic, The Passion of Sergius & Bacchus.
Jennifer Hayden: Day Three
A drive to Princeton, a whale of a surprise, and books, books, books: today’s Cartoonist’s Diary has it all. Deadlines are in the rearview for Jennifer Hayden!
Jennifer Hayden: Day Two
A little bit of progress counts as progress: don’t let anybody put your success on a scale! Jennifer Hayden gets it, in today’s Cartoonist’s Diary!
Jennifer Hayden: Day One
There’s probably no more Cartoonist’s Diary then a Diary that includes good food, deadlines, dreams, frustrating emails and good bookstores: Jennifer Hayden, starting it off correctly!
Garry Leach: A Life in Comics
David Roach takes a look at the work of Garry Leach, one of the most influential British comics artists of the last 50 years, who passed away in March of 2022.
You Can Tell Me, I’m A Doctor – This Week’s Links
I can’t believe I have to set foot in a church this weekend after looking at those Squeak the Mouse pages… but I have faith. Faith that these links will purify this fallen world!
Transgression: Squeak the Mouse
Massimo Mattioli‘s Squeak the Mouse is an excellent comic; transgressive to the point of sparking litigation. But what does it mean to be ‘transgressive’ today? To be sold as such? It’s one thing to get the joke… but who is it on?
The Hunt Emerson Interview
In this interview, which originally ran in TCJ #198 in 1997, British cartoonist Hunt Emerson (Phenomenocomix, Firkin, Calculus Cat, Casanova’s Last Stand) talks about his relationship to the American underground and European comics scenes, adapting classic literature, music, Fortean philosophy, and much more.
I Like A Manifesto, Put It To The Test-O – This Week’s Links
You got it, Swee’Pea – it’s the untouchable report from the world.
The Infinite Canvas and MS Paint Adventures
Andrew Hussie’s MS Paint Adventures used online media spaces to foster communities, modes of presentation and storytelling in a fashion that allowed the conventions of comics to be bent and broken to fit artistic vision to a degree that remains unique in the medium’s history.
“I Really Am an Underground Cartoonist”: Talking to Rick Veitch
Over the last few years, Rick Veitch has utilized a host of publishing tools to bring his older work back to print, and to return to those series as well. Jason Bergman caught up with him about his dreams, his super-heroes, and which major publisher is still frightened by his work.
Sufferin’ Succotash – This Week’s Links
There is no news today; instead, this post is a map to hidden treasure. Ha ha, April Fool’s! The treasure is inside all of us who share in the miracle of hyperlinks.
Of the Old Guard and the New Kids
Author Brian Doherty’s forthcoming narrative history of underground comix, “Dirty Pictures”, is a big one – so big, an entire chapter had to be deleted for space. Today, we present to you that lost chapter as a standalone reflection on the generation gap (or lack thereof) between the underground cartoonists and their older, straighter inspirations.
Reamed, Not Hardly
After decades spent in the underground comics trenches, playing music and fighting careerist temptations, George Hansen has settled into a nice routine: “making the animals happy”. Bob’s ready to take a look, we’ll let Goshkin keep the score.
“I’m A Citizen Of Gay America”: An Interview With Eric Orner
Eric Orner is one of the only former U.S. Congressional aides who can lay claim to a long-running comic strip and time spent in the Disney trenches. Today, he’s talking to Alex Dueben about how that history helped inform Smahtguy, his biography of the iconic and iconoclastic Barney Frank, one of the first gay and out congressmen and a front-line defender of civil rights.
This Amoeba’s Got A Mind Of Its Own – This Week’s Links
Reticence is nothing to the flying hand of news, and here is where it is caught.
On the Neglect of Cartoons and Comics in the Literary Universe; Or, Gabrielle Bell and Contemporary Ekphrasis
Andrew Field explores the concept of ekphrasis, the vivid description of one in another–”an antithetical act of translation”–as it operates in the comics of Gabrielle Bell.
“The Main Motivation Has Been Paying The Rent”: An Interview With Hunt Emerson
Hunt Emerson catches up with TCJ’s Tasha Lowe-Newsome about his experience with cancer, COVID, and Kickstarting comics, following the successful campaign to print Phenomenomix. In so doing, he also talks about his work in Kenya, his time in bands, and the work he’s produced due to his unwillingness to turn down a gig.
The Strange Second Life of Legacy Comic Strips or: I Want Wilbur Weston Dead
We can all name daily newspaper comics that have outlived their creators: Mary Worth; Mark Trail; Nancy. But while some vanish into the background, others command the passionate and/or sardonic attention of readers. Zach Rabiroff speaks with the writers, artists and editors behind today’s legacy strips.
Friday Night, Saturday Morning – This Week’s Links
Great news, I just won the Paresseux d’Or at Angoulême for best marginal contribution to a column about comic books! I’d like to thank Clark, Gary Groth, the ghost of Coulton Waugh, and all the teachers who did not wake me in homeroom. Grazie, amici!!
Barbara: Tezuka Osamu’s Self-Denial
In this new translation of a 2020 essay, Natsume Fusanosuke holds forth on a God (of Manga) in crisis, as Tezuka Osamu attacks his own semiotics in the early ’70s serial Barbara, which was later adapted to film by Tezuka’s son, Macoto.
