Critiquing Comics #187: “Bear With Me”

A retro-style daily strip about a talking bear! This time Tim is joined by comics colorist Jeremy Kahn to discuss Bob Scott‘s strip Bear With Me.

Critiquing Comics #184: “R.U.N.” volume 2

Way back in 2014, Tim and Mulele discussed the first volume of R.u.N. (Remember Ur Nature), a comic in shonen manga style about the sport of parkour. Now, at last, volume two is available, and Tim is joined by a new voice, Ryan Carey of SOLRAD, to discuss the book (by Kariofillis Chris Hatzopoulos, Rafail Voutsidis, Luis Figueiredo, Roberto Fernandes De Oliveira, and Vasilis Fotsinos). The comic is a spot-on imitation of shonen manga made in Japan — but is it good?

Critiquing Comics #180: “SpiderForest Webcomic Anthology 4”

Spider Forest

Last episode, we mentioned how writing a short, tight story can be more challenging than writing a sprawling epic. Right on cue comes Spider Forest Webcomic Anthology 4, an engaging collection of short comics by 17 creators of web comics. Tim and Mulele discuss which are the best (and which are merely good!), and whether perhaps some of these stories are a little too short.

Spider Forest Kickstarter – beginning October 12, 2020

Critiquing Comics #177: “Genius Animals?”

Back in the early days of the podcast, artist Jun-Pierre Shiozawa was one of our first interviewees. He recently resurfaced as artist on a comic written by sitcom writer and producer Vali Chandrasekaran called Genius Animals?, a comedy story about conspiracy theories. In this episode, Tim talks to the two of them about how they met and the origins of the script, and then Tim and Mulele critique the comic.

#658 John Allison talks “Giant Days” and more

Giant Days

John Allison has been a significant presence on the web comics radar for more than two decades. In 2013, he made the jump to traditional publishing with the fantastic Giant Days series from BOOM! Box, and also switched to only writing, while a selection of top-notch artists (for most of the series, Max Sarin) took over the visuals. Recently he put out the five-issue Steeple from Dark Horse, and started other projects—but now the printing presses, along with everything else, have ground to a halt in the COVID-19 era. The up side is that it means he has time to talk to us about his work, so this week, Tim calls him up!

Critiquing Comics #170 “Moon You”

Moon You

You’re trapped on the moon and you believe that everyone on Earth is dead. Who’d have believed that was the setup for a gag manga? Cho Seok pulls it off in style with Moon You, a hilarious comic that also has heart and some tension, and, yes, a few missteps as well. Tim and Mulele discuss.

Also, what our Patrons said when we asked them what type of podcast content – critiques? superhero movie review? comics industry talk? – we’re the best at presenting.

 

#650 Our favorite comics of the 2010s

Our favorite comics

This week, Emmet, Patrick, Tim, and Chuck Coletta talk about their favorite comics of the past decade! If you’re looking for good comics that you might have missed from the 2010s — from superhero to comedy, historical to horror — we’ll give you plenty of titles to look up!

(All titles below are linked to Amazon – to help support the show, pick up any titles you’re interested in through these links!)

EMMET

Finder: Talisman HC by Carla Speed McNeil

Love In Vain: Robert Johnson 1911-1938, The Graphic Novel by Jean-Michel Dupont and Mezzo

I Love This Part: Hardcover Edition by Tillie Walden

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris (DCP 613)

Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui

Gast by Carol Swain

Giant Days and Steeple by John Allison

Providence by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows

Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett

Julio’s Day by Gilbert Hernandez

 

Orc Stain Volume 1 by James Stokoe

Sally Heathcote, Suffragette by Mary M. Talbot, Bryan Talbot, Kate Charlesworth

The Abaddon by Koren Shadmi

The Experts by Sophie Franz

Surface Tension by Jay Gunn

Special Exits by Joyce Farmer

SNARKED: Forks and Hope by Roger Langridge

Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard

Henni by Miss Lasko-Gross

 

PATRICK

Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga by Jiro Kuwata, translated by Sheldon Drzka (To the Batpoles! 64)

Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics Of The 1950s edited by Greg Sadowski and John Benson

Rover Red Charlie by Garth Ennis and Michael Dipascale

Dungeon Quest: Book One by Joe Daly

The Bulletproof Coffin by David Hyne and Shaky Kane

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour

Richard Stark’s Parker series by Darwyn Cooke

Hawkeye by Matt Fraction and David Aja

Moon Knight by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey

Madman In Your Face 3D Special by Michael Allred & Laura Allred

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton (DCP 222)

H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories by Go Tanabe (Tanabe’s take on Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness is discussed in DCP 641)

Providence by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows

Rachel Rising by Terry Moore

Afterlife with Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla, and Jack Morelli

Harrow County by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook

Frontier #6 by Emily Carroll

 

TIM AND CHUCK

Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan and Karl Kerschl

Daredevil by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martin (Brief mention!) (audio version of issue 1 discussed in DCP 313)

Scooby-Doo Team-Up by Sholly Fisch and Dario Brizuela

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (DCP 609)

Life With Archie: The Married Life by Paul Kupperberg, Michael Uslan, Norm Breyfogle, Andrew Pepoy, and Joe Rubenstein (Archie in general is discussed in DCP 338)

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (DCP 596)

Seconds by Brian Lee O’Malley (DCP 419)

The Superior Spider-Man by Dan Slott and various artists (Dan Slott’s earlier Spider-Man work is discussed in DCP 275)

#649 Wandering “Through the Woods”

Through the Woods

Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods (2014) collects a number of her horror web comics. Kumar and Emmet review the book in this episode, and now they believe: a comic can be scary. And they wonder: Is the task of making a comic scary better suited to women?

#640 Kristin Tipping

Evil Witch Allie

This week, Critiquing Comics favorite Kristin Tipping talks about the background to Evil Witch Allie and A Book for Sad Pets. Why did her art style change on Evil Witch Allie, and why did volume two seem more confident than volume one? Why is the tone of A Book for Sad Pets so desperate? Plus, her experience in going to school to make comics, and more.

#636 Dan Mishkin on “Warren Report,” “Amazon Academy,” and Ernie Colon

Warren Commission Report

In part two of Tim’s interview with longtime comics writer Dan Mishkin, Dan talks about writing Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation into the Kennedy Assassination with artists Ernie Colon and Jerzy Drozd; explores the reasons for Marvel’s breakout success in the 1960s, and compares working for DC vs working for Marvel; explains the concept of his web comic with Jerzy Drozd, Amazon Academy; and remembers working with the late Ernie Colon.