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Slipgate Complex – This Week’s Links
Two or Three Things I Know About News. In Praise of News. Nouvelle nouvelles. Sympathy for the News.
Urasawa Naoki: An ‘Adult’ Since He Was Young
You’ve probably heard about Urasawa Naoki – but not how Natsume Fusanosuke knows him. How did the young Urasawa embrace the lessons of Ōtomo Katsuhiro? Why were these artists ‘adult’ while similarly popular cartoonists were not? This 2004 essay has the answers.
Dispatches from Comics Camp – A Report from SPX 2022
Jason Bergman brings you photos from the floor of last week’s Small Press Expo, with comments from more than 20 exhibitors.
“I Felt A Responsibility To Share My Experience”: Janet Biehl on Their Blood Got Mixed
Ian Thomas sits down with Janet Biehl: an illustrator, editor, translator and journalist, who has recently released her first longform comics work, Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War on ISIS, chronicling life and conflict in a self-governing region of Syria.
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.
