Man And Superman – This Week’s Links
If I was in Angoulême, I feel like I’d just know the language. It would simply occur to me.
Article Archive
So Buttons #10-12
So Buttons (the title comes from the fact that all of its stories begin with writer Jonathan Baylis saying “So…”) is a strange and persistent little beast. Baylis and his contributing artists, mostly comics industry folks on the indie side of the spectrum, as well as a handful of relatives and friends, have been putting… Read more »
Fat Jack’s Comicrypt
Zach Rabiroff speaks to the manager of one of the oldest comic book shops in the US about the impact the economic downturn and the pandemic have had on their business.
Art
Bob Levin reckons with the career and comics of Art Spiegelman in response to Breakdowns, newly released in paperback.
“Storytelling Is Controlling The Emotions You Want To Evoke”: An Interview with Deena Mohamed, artist of Shubeik Lubeik
Author and essayist ML Kejera chats with Deena Mohamed, who recently translated her own graphic novel series Shubeik Lubeik, a new take on the tales of djinn, into English for an all-in-one collection from Pantheon.
Midnight in a Perfect World – This Week’s Links
What’s open at midnight around here? The gas station cafeteria… and TROUBLE.
Dancing with Death in Laila Starr
A passionate and very close reading of one of the standout comic book serials of recent years, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr.
A Very British Scandal – The Missing Writer of the Captain Britain Omnibus
Tom Shapira takes us back to an early moment in the career of Alan Moore, the man superhero comics can’t get over… and shows us some of the people who did.
Illuminations
By the time I started reading comics, Alan Moore had already made plenty of history; and, in the eyes of that side of comics I so adored at first, he had already become history. New comics by him were infrequent enough for each new outing to be an Event, a grand statement to be heard… Read more »
Remembering Michael Dougan
A few days ago, posts began to appear on social media reporting the death of cartoonist Michael Dougan, a longtime presence on the Seattle scene who had moved to Japan in recent years. A much-loved contributor to anthologies such as Weirdo and Real Stuff, in addition to the solo books East Texas: Tales from Behind… Read more »
Below Ambition
Simon Hanselmann has become unstuck in time. But rather than reeling from childhood to the horrors of war to a far-off alien future, with Below Ambition, the perfectly-titled new collection from one of the most prolific and talented cartoonists of the present day, he’s taking us on a stumbling, reeking, absolutely shit-faced journey through every… Read more »
“Nobody Gets Into Comics to Get Rich”: Joe Quesada on Movies, Marvel, and the Future of Comics
Former Marvel head honcho & inveterate Batman illustrator Joe Quesada is neck deep in another dream career: movie director. In addition to talking about his short film FLY, he talks to us about times he wishes he hadn’t talked to the press, and questions why so many in the comics industry always seem obsessed with the comics industry ending.
Let’s Kick Some Ice – This Week’s Links
I can’t begin to tell you how sustainable I am feeling right now.
Taniguchi Jirō and His Gekiga Years
Japanese publishers have launched a massive series of reprints spanning the career of the late Taniguchi Jirō, with many supplemental essays. Today we present a 2022 item from Natsume Fusanosuke, laying out a theory of gekiga’s evolution via Taniguchi’s collaboration with the writer Sekikawa Natsuo.
Fend
Nick Pyle’s Fend is an appealing addition to the sci-fi western stable, variously evoking Leone-style standoffs and Dragon Ball Z. Readers follow Arkin, a blank-eyed mystical maybe-android dressed like a western dandy, and Tober Helm, an armored heavy with a Santa beard and high-tech visor, as they travel through a mountain-fringed desert and a crystalline… Read more »
Big Bang Comics
Ireland’s Big Bang Comics reports to Zach and TCJ about the changes they’ve seen in the old school single-issue comics retail model, and whether a periodical-focused store has an economic future.
Earthman & Torch
Earthman & Torch, a new release from Floating World Comics and Power Comics, isn’t what one would first expect in the bins of a comics shop. Drawn by the now 92-year old Robert Nunn, primarily in the 1970s while he worked as a welder in St. Louis, the collection expresses many of the cultural tensions… Read more »
“It’s Going To Take However Long It’s Going To Take”: An Interview With John Vasquez Mejias
Alex Dueben sits down with self-publishing veteran John Vasquez Mejias, whose 2020 book The Puerto Rican War one of the standout small-press comics of recent years… and he’s got much more going on.
Journey of the Sorcerer – This Week’s Links
“I’ve finally mastered my spell to end the news!” God sent a lightning bolt to shatter my mirror; a shard of glass fell in a maiden’s eye. Her journey begins. (Also, there was news.)
Dialogue Balloons: Getting Medieval On These Cartoons
In this month’s installment of Dialogue Balloons, Jason is heading out to academia to talk about monks, and then back to cartoonists to talk… the Bauhaus!
Men I Trust
There aren’t any trustworthy men in Men I Trust, which may lead some to wonder whether the title of Tommi Parrish’s colorful rumination on modern queer relationships is playful, sardonic, or simply esoteric. Perhaps it is all three. Within these pages you will find a thoughtful and specific treatise on the ways people find one… Read more »
Men I Trust
Tommi Parrish’s Men I Trust is less a narrative than an illustrated dialogue between two women recovering from bad relationships—with ex-partners, with alcohol, with codependency. There is Eliza, a poet trying to raise her young son on her own and Sasha, a fan who attempts to befriend her. Though only a few years apart in… Read more »
Zerocalcare: An Introduction to Italy’s Top Man of Comics
Yiannis Papadopoulos presents a brief primer on the works of Zerocalcare – one of the the most popular contemporary Italian cartoonists, whose recognition is growing worldwide.
December 2022: Los Angeles Bound
Last month, Los Angeles played host to the Hernandez Brothers, the 4th Permanent Damage show and Bill Sienkiewicz – and Chris Anthony Diaz was there to document it all!
