Vanessa Davis is an L.A.-based creator of autobio comics Spaniel Rage, Make Me A Woman and Out of Time. Koom has been an admirer of her work, and this week he talks with her in depth about whether she sees herself as part of a “movement”; the pitfalls of reporting in your comics on what your family members do (like that time with her mom in the museum…); how her parents affected the direction of her art; and much more.
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Jake lives near a bog along a lake, and the bog makes him uncomfortable. On Halloween night, he finds a little girl in a witch costume stuck in the bog and he rescues her. Is she really a witch? What’s going on a Jake’s neighbors’ house? Tim and Mulele are reading Evil Witch Allie, by Kristin Tipping, to find out!
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A couple years back we critiqued the first chapter of a Web comic called The Non-Seen, by John Allie. It’s a slightly creepy story about a mysterious book, and the protagonists are kids. Now chapter two is completed, and we’ve been invited to take a look at it. Is the promise of chapter one paying off? Has he changed anything that we found lacking the first time?
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Completing our look at Irrational Comics’ “PITCH” page, this time Tim and Mulele discuss Michael Norwitz’s “absurdist feminist heroine” Turtle Girl and Andre Mateus’ post-apocalyptic vampire story Wanderer!
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Last time we looked at the first of five comics concepts on Irrational Comics’ “PITCH” page. This time, we get some answers about exactly how these 12-page teasers came to be, and critique two more of them: “Good or Dead” (about a zombie apocalypse in Singapore) by Louis Png, and “Solus” (about a monster on a rampage in a spacecraft) by Dan Amariles.
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Irrational Comics sent us five comics that are in a competition to see which one can generate the most interest among readers and get published. This time, Tim and Mulele look at the first of the comics on Irrational’s “Pitch” page: Climb, a comic about a girl whose goal is to be the first to reach the top of an unusually-shaped mountain. Do we know enough about her and her quest to be intrigued?
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This week, Tim talks with with cartoonist Joey Alison Sayers. She’s done work for MAD magazine, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Nib, GoComics and more, plus a couple of books about her coming out as transgender. Why did she disappear for a few years? Why did she come back to comics? Plus the best advice she knows for new creators, and more.
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Three years ago we discussed Demon Archives, by Daniel Sharp and Sebastian Piriz. Recently, Daniel invited Tim and Mulele to take another look, as many more pages have come out since then. We did, and found that the comic has gone in some unexpected directions. Perhaps too many directions?
Also, we read a bit of listener mail, and mark the passing of Bunnies in Space creator and past critiquee Nick Dupree — someone we wish we’d met.
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The comedy/sci-fi web comic Power Nap takes place in a future where people take drugs to stay awake, and falling asleep isn’t socially acceptable. So what happens if you’re allergic to the drug? This week, Tim talks to writer Maritza Campos and artist Bachan about the comic, as well as the state of comics in their native Mexico, how the comics industry is likely to change, and more.
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Many of us are good at making our work (comics, podcasts, what have you), but not good at putting it out there, letting people know it exists. Mulele has been advising his friend Oscar, creator of the comic Kai (discussed in Critiquing Comics #100), on using social media and on choosing the best presentation style for a given book. This week, Tim talks with Oscar about his opening foray into comics, and Mulele talks about designing books and finding printers that can produce what he envisions.
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