This Thing Without Teeth
A perspective on Crashpad, Gary Panter’s evocation of the underground era, from somebody who was there.
Features
Two By Melanie Gillman: As the Crow Flies and Stage Dreams
Pairing vast natural vistas with LGBTQ characters often denied their own presence in those places, artist Melanie Gillman has become a standout talent in YA webcomics and graphic novels. Tasha Lowe-Newsome examines two of their works.
“Comics For Fun And Comics For Love And Comics To Be Funny!”: The Freak Interview
RJ Casey is back with a freewheeling chat starring the California Bay Area’s Freak Comics, a trio of young artists pursuing their own visions of art in an inclusive group setting. PLUS: See a man’s skin cut right off his body!
Flunkin’ And Bunkin’ School – This Week’s Links
What if… I GOT TIRED OF NEWS. I drop to the floor. But then I hear your claps, your cheers… I rise to my feet… one hand to my ear…
A Brief Interview With United Workers of Seven Seas
Ian Thomas offers this brief chat with United Workers of Seven Seas, a group of workers endeavoring to unionize the popular manga-in-English publisher.
The Enigmatic, The Essential… Kyo Machiko
Manga artist Kyo Machiko is a true 21st century talent, moving fluidly from social media cartooning to traditional magazine serialization. Now, in the era of COVID, she has begun a series of bilingual books depicting the mysteries of the everyday. Matthew Hill presents an interview with the artist, followed by excerpts from her newest book, Essential My #stayhome Diary 2021-2022.
Remembering Justin Green
An extraordinary group of artists, friends and admirers has been gathered by John Kelly to pay tribute to the great Justin Green, one of the most influential and powerful storytellers of the underground generation.
“Bring Your Artistic Perceptions To Any Subject, Whether Political Or Not”: Speaking with Angela Bocage
Angela Bocage is a longtime artist and editor for underground and alternative era comics, including the epochal Wimmen’s Comix and Real Girl, one of the most dynamic sex-positive anthologies of the 1990s. Here she sits down with Edward Dorey to discuss her long and varied journey.
Putting Out The Fire With Gasoline – This Week’s Links
It’s vacation season! For you, NOT for the links. Get ready to pour this smoothie of blended information directly into your brain.
The 1974 Neal Adams interview
In this pre-Journal Word Balloons fanzine interview, Neal Adams talks to Martin Pasko about drawing character expression, the Marvel method, and his take on artists such as Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Joe Kubert.
Crawling from the Wreckage – Judge Dredd at 45
In which Tom Shapira examines the long-lived UK action strip, and its increasing fascination with its own history, through two recent stories written by its co-creator, John Wagner.
Giacomo Nanni: Narrator of All
Starting the month off right, Matteo Gaspari debuts a new series of in-depth articles about contemporary Italian cartoonists who deserve greater recognition, both in Italy and abroad. First up: Giacomo Nanni, who gives narrating life to trees, cats, earthquakes and more.
Giving Comics a Middle Grade: Investigating Children’s Comics Made for the Book Market
Not one interview but three, as Brian Nicholson investigates the wide world of middle school graphic novels. A publisher, an artist and a librarian sit down with Brian to discuss this booming area of commercial comics.
Suburban Trees, Suburban Speed – This Week’s Links
Further brief relief from the mind’s ache of the everyday.
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!
