#270 “Big Numbers”: Adding it all up

How often do you hear of two creators at the top of their medium, who set out to create their “magnum opus” and never complete it? Big Numbers is a famously unfinished comics project by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz from 1990. The theme of the project seemed to be chaos theory, symbolized by the fractal Mandebrot set (shown at right).

Meant to span 12 issues (or, rather, volumes, since the format is more paperback book than magazine), it only reached number two and then ceased publication. Rumors have flown since then about possibly existing third and fourth issues that never saw the light of day. Recently, new information has come out regarding the state of those unpublished episodes. Tim and Kumar sift through the rubble and speculate on just where Moore was going with this idea…

Wikipedia on Big Numbers

Bill Sienkiewicz explains the demise of Big Numbers

Scans of Big Numbers #3

Part of the script of #3

On Eddie Campbell’s take (from Mindless Ones)

What Al Columbia did with Big Numbers #4 (from CBR)

Sienkiewicz talks chaos theory on an episode of Prisoners of Gravity in 1991 (YouTube)

#269 Emeralds & Giants

Brandon’s back in Japan (and yes, we’re OK following the earthquake!), and he and Tim discuss I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura. In approaching an emotional topic through fantasy, blurring the lines between the two, is it effective or confusing?

Also, part 2 of Tim’s report on Emerald City Comicon! Notes and links below the jump.

Continue reading #269 Emeralds & Giants

#268 Emerald City 2011, pt 1!

Armed with an awesome press pass, Tim walks the floor of Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon! It’s his first time attending a con, and as everyone keeps telling him, for a first-con experience, you can’t beat Emerald City. As he gathers material for future episodes of this podcast, Tim collects quick interviews, with creators known and unknown! All the names and links are below!

Tim’s Emerald City photo album on Facebook!

Continue reading #268 Emerald City 2011, pt 1!

#267 Writer’s Old Fashioned and the Future of Comics

In San Francisco! Tim finally meets in person some of the Writer’s Old Fashioned folks who have been on the podcast before– (L-R) Matt Silady, Steph Godfrey, Jason McNamara–and meets Matt’s co-teacher, Justin Hall. We catch up on what they’ve been doing comics-wise, and get their thoughts on creating comics, including keeping yourself going after finishing a project, keeping genre fiction interesting, and how the move to digital comics might pan out.