Recent Reviews
Recent Articles
Deny It To A King – This Week’s Links
Received wisdom tells you that the news is delivered today by video game professionals narrating from the corner of an eye. But here is the primal news; the ancient, powerful news. To click this link to is plunge one’s hands into the Earth.
Jason Novak: Day Five
It’s Friday, and for Jason’s final TCJ installment, the subject is RAGE. Repressed rage, silent rage, grocery store rage, impatience-driven rage – they all make an appearance! Step on in… it’s Diary time!
Jason Novak: Day Four
One way to grapple with parental issues? Put them down on pen and paper – and if you’re a creative type, make it drawing. Today, Jason tackles that theory with someone who has put it to practice!
Laying the Groundwork for Japanese Comics: Imaizumi Ippyō’s Establishment of Euro-American Narrative Cartoons in the Jiji Shinpō between 1890 and 1899
Eisner-winning scholar Eike Exner teams with Irene Chun to bring you a profile of 19th century manga artist Imaizumi Ippyō, a crucial and nearly-forgotten player in the wild days of satirical magazines inspiring (and copying) one another across nations, oceans and languages.
Jason Novak: Day Three
Today we talk about baby Hitler in Napoleon’s cradle, and fear! Wait, who is today’s guest anyway?
Jason Novak: Day Two
You might think you know what dedication looks like. But I ask you this: have you ever seen a crow try to eat a squirrel?
Jason Novak: Day One
If you’re launching a talk show, people will tune in out of curiosity. And if you turn your first guest into a cat? Well, that’s how you ensure a ratings bonanza. A new Diary begins!
“My Love Of Mythology Never Really Ebbed Or Waned”: George O’Connor on Olympians and Beyond
Gina Gagliano chats with one of the most prolific talents in 21st century children’s and young adult comics for the bookstore market: George O’Connor, who recently completed a 12-volumes-in-12-years collection of graphic novels drawn from Greek myth, Olympians.
To Be Too Practical Is Madness – This Week’s Links
I don’t know why you would expect to find some silly comment on a foreign country’s ruling class all the way down here; my entire life is dedicated to the humble promotion of links to news.
Diane Noomin, 1947-2022
A tribute to the late cartoonist and editor Diane Noomin, with an obituary by John Kelly and testimonials by 18 friends, colleagues and admirers.
Out of Print: Revisiting Susan Daitch’s The Colorist
John Kelly recalls The Colorist, a 1990 prose novel by Susan Daitch set in the world of comic book coloring – and, he adapts a recent interview the cartoonist Frank Santoro conducted with Daitch to digital form.
Those Chosen By The Planet – This Week’s Links
I can’t believe it’ not news! What– it is?! (I smiled then, like all of life’s burdens had been lifted from my shoulders. It was just a matter of time.)
Lily Renée Phillips, 1921-2022
The underground cartoonist and comics historian Trina Robbins presents an appreciation of Lily Renée, a Holocaust survivor well-remembered by Golden Age enthusiasts for her 1940s fantasy/SF and adventure strips for Fiction House.
“I’m Sure Their Wounds Will Heal”: Orochi, “Prodigy”, Kazuo Umezz, and the Family
Helen Chazan dives deep into one of the most remarkable vintage manga releases of the year: Orochi, collecting turn-of-the-1970s horror shorts by the redoubtable Kazuo Umezz.
“You Guys Have Given Me The Greatest Life Ever”: A New Interview with Kevin Eastman
After 24 years, we reunite with Kevin Eastman, one of our most (in)famous interview subjects. Jason Bergman speaks with a man exhausted by the major media world, who’s returned with much success to the comics that made his name so long ago.
We Are Strange, In Our Worlds – This Week’s Links
The power to drive up back issue prices… is this how God feels?
Nick Drnaso’s Non-imagination
The art of Nick Drnaso inspires a great deal of debate, and Lane Yates has a proposition: it is a most appropriate means of communicating the message of Drnaso’s books.
Paul Coker Jr., 1929-2022
Andrew Farago presents a heartfelt tribute to Paul Coker Jr., a pro’s pro of comics and animation, with comments by MAD colleagues and prominent admirers alike, and dozens of images spanning his entire career.
“My Purpose Is Simply To Tell People’s Stories”: A Visit with Igort, and a Look at His New Ukrainian Notebook
Valerio Stivé pays a visit to a living legend of Italian alternative comics, for a discussion of his recent “Notebooks” of personal stories from Ukraine and Russia – and a special preview of his next book, on the 2022 invasion.
Too Hot the Eye of Heaven Shines – This Week’s Links
They told me I’d flown too close to the sun. But I was hotter than that.
Sempé Fidelis: Jean-Jacques Sempé, 1932-2022
The world mourns the loss of one of its most talented artists, Jean-Jacques Sempé.
The Transgenerational Manga Sazae-san and Its Meaning
Can you feel nostalgia for a time that you can’t remember – even from before you were born? Maybe it’s not nostalgia, but natsukashisa. In this 2014 essay, Natsume Fusanosuke examines Sazae-san, a Japanese pop culture institution which began as a newspaper strip addressing the current day, and became a television platform for fond feelings in an eternal midcentury.
Taking a Look at Dirty Pictures (without the pictures)
John Kelly takes a look at Brian Doherty’s new history of underground comics – and takes his concerns to the author.
