In this installment of R.C. Harvey’s long running column, he switches his focus from the comics of the past to look at the work of today: new work from Eduardo Risso, Sean Phillips, Jeff Lemire, Matthieu Blanchin, Howard Chaykin, and more. Thinks may have changed–but Bob has changed with them!
My Badly Drawn Life is the newest book by the cartoonist Gipi in English translation, but it dates back to 2008 in Europe – a time when Gipi found himself at a creative crossroads. Valerio Stivé speaks with the maestro about the toughness of being light on the page.
Why? Because you are called.
Artist, editor, writer and comics archaeologist David Roach pulls back the curtain to reveal how one goes about putting together a collection of one legend’s original comics art, decades after those pages have found their way into collections and behind couches, across the globe!
German cartoonist Ralf König grew up reading Lucky Luke, and then one day, he loudly sighed over breakfast at the idea of getting to create his own Lucky Luke comic: and then, thanks to a friend, that demonstrative moment turned into Swiss Bliss, an actual Lucky Luke story. Aug Stone has the story!
Tom Veitch, well known amongst comics readers for his underground comics with Greg Irons and popular runs on Star Wars comics has passed away due to complications related to COVID-19.
Critic and editor Zoran Djukanovic offers a passionate appreciation of the artist Zoran Janjetov, going well beyond his popular SF collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky. This 2021 essay, first published in the catalog to Janjetov’s Antibody exhibition in Serbia, is now presented in a new English rendition.
Two decades ago, John Kelly talked to Tony Millionaire at a bar about drinking and making comics. Now, the two speak again, about comics, Saturday Night Live, Adult Swim, Patreon, making comics…and getting sober.
News is the only word for what we have here. News, and success. I mean the successful appearance of news, not news of success – that would be unusual.
The new boss is often the same as the old boss: history likes things that way, repetitive, punishing, obnoxious. Brian Puaca returns to TCJ to tease out the very clear connection to the comics battles of the past and the ones that are currently eating up the airwaves once again, with a look at Maus, Tennessee and…Wertham?
In this conversation between Tony Millionaire and John Kelly from 1999, the cartoonist explains how he got his start, his time spent hanging off the roof of a cab, how autobiographical his comics about an alcoholic and suicidal crow are, and his love for all things nautical. Next week, we’ll present an all new conversation between Kelly and Millionaire, picking up right where this one leaves off.
Lawsuits! Lawsuits! None of you are without sin!!
On January 10, Tennessee’s McMinn County Board of Education voted to remove Art Spiegelman’s Maus from its eighth-grade language arts curriculum, citing its use of profanity and depictions of nudity. These are the unedited minutes of that Board’s meeting.
The prolific cartoonist talks with Joe Decie about his collaborations with Mike Mignola, his extremely specific (and, in comics circles, rare) day job, and why it might be a good idea for creative types to bone up on their Hammer horror knowledge.
Remembering the artist behind Valerian and Laureline, among the most potent and influential talents in European SF comics.
Little do those fools know that this column of links is on the official curriculum… of everyone’s heart!
Toyokazu Matsunaga is a true renegade of manga – and if you didn’t know he spent the ’10s on a 3,000-page webcomic serial, you do now. Translator Carlo Vanstiphout gives us a tour of the new English-language edition, with a special comment from Matsunaga himself.
In this interview, circa 1985, Gil Kane and Gary Groth talk to Valerian and Laureline co-creator Jean-Claude Mezieres about being a storyteller, not an artist, the French comics scene, being an American cowboy, and collaboration. They talk at him about Clint Eastwood.
Ian Thomas catches up with one of the most prolific comics artists of the last two decades: Sean Phillips, who has drawn zombies for Marvel, horror for Vertigo, and a metric ton of comics written by Ed Brubaker. In this conversation, the two manage to cover it all at a pretty brisk clip.
Bob has always liked his James Joyce biographies, when they’ve shown up in prose. He also, as you well know, likes his comics. So is a comic biography of Joyce, like the one by Alfonso Zapico, going to be the peanut butter to his chocolate? Let’s put it this way: the word “best” is about to get a bit of a workout.
Those three little words we all long to hear: “It’s not NFTs.” And three more: “Friday link blog!”
Remembering a titan of fandom – the author of over 180 books, encompassing history, criticism, humor, science fiction and mystery. Ron Goulart died on January 14, 2022, aged 89.
In this new translation of a 2005 essay, Natsume Fusasnosuke details what he likes about the work of Yoshinaga Fumi, creator of Ōoku: The Inner Chambers – with a special emphasis on her self-contained works Garden Dreams and All My Darling Daughters.
