Say Goodbye to Classical Reality – This Week’s Links
A pregnant pause, staring through the other side of the mirror.
Article Archive
Sergio
Tegan pays tribute to a living legend of cartooning, the indefatigable Sergio Aragonés.
Maurice Horn, June 28, 1931 – December 30, 2022
Ambitious, pugnacious, opinionated – Maurice Horn was a massive personality in early American comics studies, an editor of behemoth tomes filled with arcana and dotted with errata. Andrew Farago memorializes this complicated talent, who died last December.
These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Matt Seneca read so many comics that a capsule column was demanded. After all, if you can’t put wordless NYRC books next to Ben Grimm, where will your Yokoyama references find a home?
Joe Kessler and The Gull Yettin
Cartoonist and film director Dash Shaw catches up with cartoonist, art director and designer Joe Kessler in a sprawling conversation about the intersections of fine art and comics, the challenges and restrictions of the medium, and what their ideal reader might think of Kessler’s upcoming The Gull Yettin.
Premium Rush – This Week’s Links
My sister sent me a Snapchat reading BEST POST-IT NOTE EVER. It was a sheet of paper reading “This is my life now.”
Rachel Pollack, 1945-2023
Remembering Rachel Pollack: a lifelong traveler in the arcane, the esoteric, and the revelatory.
Black Cat Comics
It’s off to Salt Lake City to speak with Greg Gage about back issues, what it’s really like to deal with all those new distributors, and how companies like Marvel & DC might get things back on track: the answer probably isn’t in a movie theater!
Ed Koren: An Appreciation
Paul Karasik pays tribute to Ed Koren, the beloved New Yorker cartoonist who died last week at the age of 87.
“My Imperative Was To Get My Family Through This”: Catching up with Stephen R. Bissette
Jason Bergman catches up with Stephen R. Bissette – writer, artist, critic, editor, publisher and educator, feeling a sense of vigor about the future.
Three Comix and Reflections Thereon
Bob grapples with three comics—all with varying degrees of venom within—and questions whether or not having a point is required, or if a point of view is enough.
Al Jaffee, 1921-2023
An obituary for Al Jaffee, one of the last of the legends, and a truly beloved American cartoonist.
“It’s Like Putting Together A Puzzle”: An Interview With Daria Tessler
Risograph and scratchboard, handmade and silk-screened – Daria Tessler’s direct approach to comics making has seen her release all sorts of work over the last few years, and it looks like publishers are starting to catch on. She and Jake Grubman sit down to discuss comics – how to read them, how to make them, and how to navigate surviving them.
And Now I’m Fourteen Stories High – This Week’s Links
This post is your internet Easter bonnet. Put it on your head.
The Ruins of Space Battleship Yamato: An Essay on Matsumoto Leiji and War
The manga artist Matsumoto Leiji died this past February, leaving a wide and varied body of work behind him – though he is perhaps best remembered for his lyrical SF comics. In this excerpt from a 1997 book, Natsume Fusanosuke considers how the famous Space Battleship Yamato represented the idea of war for a generation too young to have seen it for themselves.
Mile High Comics
Zach speaks with one of the most well-known comics retailers in the world, Chuck Rozanski, who has refused to let capitalism, right-wing zealots, a coal-covered floor or a brain bleed stop him from doing what he loves: running Mile High Comics.
Joe Giella, June 27, 1928 – March 21, 2023
Andrew Farago pens an obituary for one of the key inkers of the Silver Age of superhero comics, and a longtime artist—credited or otherwise—on serial newspaper strips. Beloved by his peers, Joe Giella died last month at the age of 94.
Fantasy Baseball: Gina Wynbrandt and the Making of a Meme
What’s it like to become a meme? To have a piece of your work picked up and excerpted, quoted, evoked in a place far removed from comics? RJ Casey chats with Gina Wynbrandt over just such an episode.
“Stories Can Live On Their Own”: An Introduction to, and Exploration of, MMYOPE
Ryan Carey explores some of the most mysterious comics to emerge from NYC in a while – the allegorical, often-wordless graphic novels of MMYOPE.
Cartoon Networking: A New Cartoonist Cooperative is the Latest Group of Creators to Seek Strength in Numbers
Zach Rabiroff talks to the founders of the Cartoonist Cooperative, a new organization seeking to provide community aid for comics artists in the midst of a hazardous economic environment.
“The Political Aspect Of My Work Is Asserting That Comics Like Tits & Clits Do Have Social Value”: A Discussion with Sam Meier
Edward Dorey speaks to the editor of the new Tits & Clits compendium about academia, feminism, and the shifting historical reputation of comics.
A Sociocultural Oral History of Tits & Clits
Among the comic book titles of the underground era, few were as memorable as Tits & Clits. On the occasion of a new omnibus collection, Edward Dorey sits down with editor/co-founder Joyce Farmer, editor Mary Fleener, and latter-day publisher Ron Turner to hear the story of this groundbreaking erotic anthology for women.
