Brian Schirmer, a comics educator in San Francisco and writer of Ultrasylvania and the forthcoming Image series Black Jack Ketchum, joins Tim this week to talk about the difference between writing screenplays and writing comics; how he turned his comics script into a for-credit class for artists; tips that have led him to have both successful crowdfunding projects and good sales at conventions; and more.
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As long as there has been erotic reading material, there have been people trying to make it harder to find. We might have expected that the brave new world of the Internet was going to make everything accessible to everyone whenever they wanted it, but as it becomes more controlled by certain big corporations, the situation has become more complicated. Our friends John Roberson and Dale Lazarov have both found that they seem to have more trouble with digital versions of their erotic (or even just semi-erotic) work getting pulled from digital comics stores than they’ve had with the print versions of their work!
So this week we hear from both of them about the issues they’ve faced, and then for the big picture, we’ll consult British author Tim Pilcher, whose two-volume history of erotic comics includes the work of both John and Dale! Tim discusses the ongoing problems for erotic comics in digital distribution, including seemingly capricious and inconsistent removals of some erotic works; the limitations to what the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund can do; and what both creators AND fans of these works can do to keep them available!
See below for Tim Pilcher’s BBC appearance discussing the child pornography law in Japan.
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Time travel is a fascinating topic to many, and Fred Van Lente‘s current Ivar, Timewalker series from Valiant is timesurfing at both its most fun, and most scientific, with nods to Stephen Hawking’s writings on the subject. Van Lente did his own time jump to the past a couple years ago in The Comic Book History of Comics. This week Tim discusses both these works with him, along with Spider-Man, Archer & Armstrong, reassessing Fredric Wertham, and more.
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On a world with two suns, a young couple leave their city in a bubble and go to live in a small rural community. Is it the freedom they’ve been looking for? That’s the premise of Sophie Goldstein’s graphic novel “The Oven”. This week Sophie talks with Tim about “The Oven”, readers who have varying interpretations of her work, her warning for budding comics creators, and more.
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Remember the ‘90s? Remember gold foil covers and mutants with huge guns and toothpick feet? If so, then perhaps you also remember Malibu Comics, the company that originally served as Image Comics’ publisher. After Image broke off on its own, Marvel bought Malibu, only to shut it down when the comics industry imploded. Roland Mann was an editor at Malibu (on the Ultraverse titles, among others) and has also written a number of comics (including Cat and Mouse). This week Tim talks with Roland about the ‘90s and what he’s been doing since then, including a new comic, Citizens, that he’s working on with Terra Kaiju artist Joe Badon!
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Artist Stephen Bissette is best-known for his work on Swamp Thing in the ’80s with Alan Moore and John Totleben, as well as 1963 and his solo project Tyrant. Currently he’s teaching at the Center for Cartoon Studies, and this week he joins Tim and Kumar for a wide-ranging discussion, including:
Steve’s list of artists who have taught at CCS
Continue reading #465 Stephen Bissette talks scary comics!
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Ogawa Burukku (a.k.a. Brooke Stephenson) has been enjoying great success with her magical-girl manga FaLLEN — both on the Web and in self-published books. This week she talks with Tim about her experience studying comics and being a manga studio assistant in Tokyo, why straight women get into a comic with nude women in it, why living in Japan is not like living in the future, tabling at Japanese comics events vs. American conventions, and more.
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Last year at the comics journalism panel discussion in San Francisco, we met Andy Warner, whose work has appeared mostly on newsy Web sites. This week, Andy fills us in on how he gets freelance work with these sites. Also, the golden age of US newspaper strips, time management, the need for more support for comics (and ALL media), and… the Legend of the Bunnyman!
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This week Tim travels just south of Tokyo to Yokohama to meet up with Chris Taylor (“Sketchfro”), creator of Relic Hunter: Riven, and James Stacey of Black Hook Press, which publishes Japanese translations of US and UK graphic novels. How do you prepare for conventions? Did you do comics differently back home? What’s different about tabling at German comics events? Why did Chris get in an argument with Archie Comics? That and more!
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When doing an autobiographical comic — a memoir, a travelogue, whatever — one problem to consider is how the people around you feel about appearing in your comic, especially if it’s getting published! This week Tim talks with Lucy Knisley — author of many such comics, including An Age of License — about this problem, as well as doing art for a living without losing the joy, getting career advice from Lynda Barry, and much more.
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