#515 Box Brown talks “Tetris”

TetrisIn his new nonfiction graphic novel Tetris: The Games People Play, Box Brown explores not only the amazing story of the creation of the popular game and the fight over the rights to it, but the larger point of how and why humans began to play games.

In this episode, Box Brown also talks with Tim about his publishing imprint, his earlier book on Andre the Giant, and more.

Critiquing Comics #097: Observatory

ObservatorySubmitted for your approval: a web site that asks the question: What if The Twilight Zone was a series of one-page comics? Tim and Mulele discuss Observatory, by Laszlo Tamasfi and various artists.

#514 “How to Survive in the North”

Dogsled

Luke Healy’s How to Survive in the North presents two different early-20th-century expeditions to the Arctic, and how they were connected. Well, except some of the connections are unclear, and Tim and Kumar both had the same misunderstanding about the book the first time through! Yet the book does present some amazing people and incidents. Here’s our review.

#513 Alan Moore’s run on “Supreme”

SupremeJoin Kumar and Koom as they discuss Alan Moore’s run on the palladium paragon, the alabaster avenger, the archetypical archetype: Rob Liefeld’s Supreme. Kumar tries not to lose it over the Image era ‘artwork’ while Koom attempts to reconcile supremium with revisionist theory. Supreme was Moore’s last outing with a true blue superhero in the classical mould. Both postmodern and nostalgic for lost comic values at the same time, this run sits Janus-like between Moore’s early work and his modern period.

Critiquing Comics #096: “Wins and Losses”

Wins and LossesWe’re back! Tim and Mulele sit down for some pizza and a football-related comic with an emotional gut punch: Adam Pasion’s “Wins and Losses”.

#331 The End of the Road for “Cul de Sac”

culdesacFLASHBACK! Richard Thompson passed away on July 27, 2016. As his strip Cul de Sac ended four years ago, Tom Spurgeon joined Tim to bid it a fond farewell, and this week we re-present that episode in memory of Thompson.

We discuss some favorite moments of Cul de Sac, compare it with other classic strips such as Peanuts, examine what Thompson (and any other relatively new creator of newspaper strips) was up against as technology and economics teamed up against print media, and — Hey! Watch out for the UH-OH BABY!!

Originally published September 17, 2012