It Doesn’t Not Make Sense
Tegan O’Neil is back, and today she’s looking at recent works from artist Ashley Wood – one of the singular talents to emerge from genre comics’ rough late ’90s, who’s carved a place in the wider popular culture.
Features
“You Can’t Have Me Talking About D-Man”: An Interview With Kyle Starks
Kyle Starks went from a bucket list item to Kickstarter success followed by widespread adoration from the Rick and Morty community: but what he really wants to talk about is what you’ve all got wrong about D-Man.
Spins A Web, Any Size – This Week’s Links
If all the internet has been collapsed into four or five social media platforms, what happens when they all break? I for one will be linking to this news column from my favorite anime web rings.
Visiting Short Run Comix & Arts Festival 2022
In addition to Chris Anthony Diaz’s photo coverage, TCJ went to Short Run 2022 and jotted down some notes on printing, satellite events vs. panel blocks, and the joys of seeing new comics, new faces and old friends in person.
Notes on Charles Johnson: Cartoonist, Radical
Aubrey Gabel examines a new collection of vintage gag comics by the National Book Award-winning novelist and academic Charles Johnson, situating them in the particularities of Black radicalism in the ’60s and ’70s.
Inside the World of Korea’s “Digital Snack Culture”
RJ Casey gets a peek behind the curtain of big money comics in this conversation with former Fantagraphics intern Jiwon Kim as she walks him through NSFW webcomics 101.
Hard to Hold a Candle – This Week’s Links
Never more violent has been the barbarous bearing of a cruel destiny.
Losing Faith in Comics Translation
Are more accurate translations more faithful? Foreign comics in translation are among the best-selling works today – and Bart Hulley is here to ask the million dollar question of our automated age.
Big in Ohio: A Massive Justin Green Exhibit and CXC’s Triumphant Return
Two big reports in one post, as John Kelly attends Binky Brown’s Funeral Pyre, a memorial exhibition for the late underground pioneer currently running in Cincinnati, and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, the 2022 edition of the popular east coast comics show.
COVID, Comics & Manga: A Talk with Juan Albarran, the Mangaka from Spain
In this rare look at comics cultures in juxtaposition, Ritesh Babu & Ari Bard sit down with former DC Comics inker and current seinen manga artist Juan Albarran, one of relatively few western talents to headline a weekly serial for a major Japanese publisher.
Joseph Greene, Comics Creator
A profile of an industrious Golden Age comic book writer, a collaborator with Jerry Robinson, Jack Kirby and Mort Meskin – one of the first to see his fortunes flower on television, before politics took its toll.
Seinen Manga Legend: Remembering Miyaya Kazuhiko
In this deeply personal reflection from 1997, Natsume Fusanosuke considers the work of the late gekiga artist Miyaya Kazuhiko (1945-2022), and how his early works embodied the aspirations of young Japanese readers in the late 1960s.
“We’re In An Unavoidable Age Of Twitter-metrics”: An Interview with Daniel Irizarri
Daniel Irizarri talks about his early self-published comics work, coming up via DeviantArt, working with a publisher versus Kickstarting a project, the current political and environmental challenges in his home of Puerto Rico, and how one does all these things while grappling with a hurricane.
The Drew Friedman Interview
In this 1992 interview, Drew Friedman talks about his family, technique, photorealism, his love of “sub-celebrities” and ugly faces, and more.
Vincent Makoto Palani Kukua, November 5, 1976 – October 4, 2022
Andrew Farago looks back at the life of an artist and comics professional whose life–and deliberate kindness–affected all who worked with him.
Vanna Vinci: Bringing Liminal Characters to Life
Matteo Gaspari returns with another profile of a notable (and under-translated) artist of Italian alternative comics: Vanna Vinci, whose work ranges from supernatural-tinged tales of the everyday to empathetic biographies of notorious women.
An Interview With Blexbolex
In this never before published interview, two highly original and wildly imaginative bookmakers discuss the book as object, “the trouble and magic” of childhood, and the word associations that create the underlying structure of Blexbolex’s stories.
Nine, Ten, Never Sleep Again – This Week’s Links
I almost hit another car turning to look at a skeleton in someone’s yard today. And that’s only 1/13th the transfixing power of these creepy and eerie links.
Permanent Damage Comix Show: San Francisco, 2022
Chris Anthony Diaz hit the streets of San Francisco at the same time as a whole bunch of cartoonists for the Permanent Damage Comix Show, which had made its way over from Michael Mann’s own Los Angeles. Would the Bay Area be able to handle all that Hollywood? Let’s go to the film!
The Ineffable Image Inside the Comics of Lynda Barry
As Lynda Barry’s seminal work returns to print in new, lush editions, Robert Petersen casts a look back at the breadth of her career, and the astonishing potency that remains in the creative pursuit of the image.
PCX 2022
TCJ editor Joe McCulloch attended Philadelphia’s premiere small-press comic book show, and we were unable to stop him from filing a report.
“The Closer They Come To Being Finished The More Compromised They Become”: An Interview with Duncan Fegredo
In this sprawling conversation, artist Duncan Fegredo describes his early work in British comics, the beginnings of his American career at Vertigo with Peter Milligan, and what it was like to take over the reins of Hellboy.
