Suburban Trees, Suburban Speed – This Week’s Links
Further brief relief from the mind’s ache of the everyday.
Features
André Valente: Day Five
André Valente hits the street of Angoulême during the weeks of the year when it isn’t packed full of comics to see what kind of memories he can track down. (The answer is quite a few!)
Liana Finck’s Skeptical Mythologizing
Andrew Field returns to examine the works of Liana Finck: the Jewishness of her work, and the interplay between the literary and comic, in a tradition that extends far back in time.
André Valente: Day Four
You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and sometimes, your first impression includes a phrase that you may never be able to recover from. André Valente presents: A Cautionary Tale!
Finding Format
“Webtoons” are the rising popular style of webcomics today, employing an infinite canvass to draw the reader’s eye downward in the manner typical of internet publishing. But what happens when these comics are transformed into books? Aidan Lee explores the bumpy results.
Excerpt: Sleeping While Standing
Thanks to Avery Hill, we’re pleased to share “Toys” from Taki Soma’s upcoming graphic novel, Sleeping While Standing.
“One Of The Things They Definitely Are Is Queer”: An Interview With Rachel Pollack
World Fantasy Award and Arthur C. Clarke Award winning novelist Rachel Pollack talks with Alex about her influential work writing Vertigo’s Doom Patrol, a life spent in love with Tarot, and what motivated a still-recent return to comics writing.
Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ – This Week’s Links
Ah, news, the song of– wait, did we get an Eisner nomination? For BEST ARTICLE DESCRIPTIONS?! Oh my gosh, I am so honored! There’s no way Karl Ove Knausgård of ComicBook dot com can beat me!
The George Pérez Interview
In this archival September 1982 interview, Perez talks about working on the Teen Titans and his ambition to draw all of the Marvel and DC characters.
The Fallout of Dreams, the Demonstration of Shadows: Watchmen and the Atomic Zeitgeist of the ‘80s
When the war in Ukraine began, PhD student Evheny Osievsky was reading Watchmen in Kyiv. Watchmen, with all of its martial brinksmanship; its dreams of apocalypse. This article examines the end-of-days texture of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons/John Higgins classic.
Photos from the 42nd Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and Los Bros at the 2022 Latino Comics Expo
On the West Coast, comics creators are recharged and attending in-person events again. Christopher Diaz was there to capture candid shots of the Hernandez brothers, R. Kikuo Johnson, Jordan Crane and more for TCJ!
“It’s Really Inspiring To See Comics Being Experimental”: A chat with Dynamite Diva creator Jasper Jubenvill
Ian Thomas chats up the creator of
Holding Up Office Lights – This Week’s Links
Hmm, news. Don’t know what to make of it anymore. Used to be you’d glance at a paper on the stands, raise an eyebrow. Now it’s all modems. The weather…
The 1982 Neal Adams Interview
In this 1982 interview, Neal Adams talks about working for Marvel and DC, a comics guild, creator’s rights, his auteur film effort, and more.
Remembering Playboy & Hef
R.C. Harvey first encountered Playboy in 1955, two years after it started publishing. Today, in 2022, he eulogizes what the magazine used to be, and laments what it eventually became.
“I’ve Started Getting An Idea Of What Comics Are About”: An Interview With Ken Niimura
Ken Niiumara talks with Alex Dueben about his recently published Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy with Yen Press, which sees the cartoonist delivering a fresh take on centuries-old Japanese folktales.
George Pérez, 1954-2022
As the newsstands gave way to the comic book direct market, and fans obsessed over the minutiae of hundreds of characters, a Titan emerged who could draw them all with the grace and weight of polished jewels. Here we remember George Pérez.
A Beginning Is A Very Delicate Time – This Week’s Links
“Hey everybody! Are you ready to talk about comics this week?!” The festival crowd masses forward and launches an enormous wooden plank directly at my head. I see Iron Man inside the sky.
On Comics and Catholics: The Justin Green Interview
In this 1983 interview, Justin Green talks about God, the Vietnam war, underground comics and Superboy.
Neal Adams, 1941-2022
Remembering one of the giants of mainstream comics: among the most influential superhero stylists of the 1970s, and a committed agitator for creators’ rights.
“It’s All Made Up, And We Want To Talk About That”: Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh on Squire
Tiffany Babb speaks with artist Sara Alfageeh and writer Nadia Shammas on their shared backgrounds, fantasy worlds, and the role of storytelling when it comes to empire building – and how all of this came to inform the creation of their graphic novel Squire.
Justin Green, 1945-2022
Remembering the underground comix great – a pioneer in autobiographical comics and minicomics, and a private, dedicated artist.
I Put Away Childish Things – This Week’s Links
The other week I learned my four-year old nephew has begun making little zines… laughing in genetic destiny.
Chris Ware and the Unassuming Power of the Graphic Novel Form
An examination of the particular traits Chris Ware brings to graphic novels – or should we say “story drawings”?
