#266 Jamie Delano: The Accidental Writer

Hellblazer 1Jamie Delano never set out to be a comics writer. His high school friend, a bloke by the name of Alan Moore, was big into comics, but Delano was not a comics reader. It was only at Moore’s suggestion, many years later, that Delano tried out, doing some work for Marvel UK, then landing the job writing Moore’s John Constantine character in the Hellblazer title as it launched in 1987. The rest is history. Delano is nice enough to give some of his time to Tim for an interview.

Jamie Delano’s site

#265 Indy comics critiqued, con-going advice given

In the tradition of our Web comics critiques, this week Tim and Mulele pick out a few interesting stories from indy anthology comics sent to us by Mike Kloran.

From Supertalk #1 (at the bottom of the linked page):

From Rabid Rabbit #10:

Also, Tim asks Mulele for some con-going advice for his upcoming trip to Emerald City!

#264 Lars Martinson

Tonoharu -- The zebra is killing me over hereIn the years of doing this podcast, we’ve encountered many comics from Japan, but not many about Japan. One in the latter category is “Tonoharu”, about an American teaching English in Japan (an occupation that some of us on this podcast know a bit about!); the second installment of the four-book series was recently released.

This week Tim calls up creator Lars Martinson to pick his brain on such questions as, is it jarring for some readers to see a comic about Japan that doesn’t look like manga? What was the inspiration for the style you did choose? And just how long does it take to draw all those lines?! A great discussion ensues.

Lars Martinson blogs on Creating “Tonoharu”

#263 Adrian Tomine’s “Shortcomings” … and our own

Shortcomings“Shortcomings” is a relationship story that mixes in issues of race and gender, and features a rather unlikeable character as its protagonist. Some say it’s Adrian Tomine’s masterwork, others say it’s more of the same from him. Tim (battling a cold that’s bestowed on him the voice of a frog) and Kumar (with a mic that keeps going on the fritz) overcome their own shortcomings to discuss the book.