Podcast – Page 50 – Deconstructing Comics

#543 Jeff Smith

Bone cousins

Jeff Smith wanted to do a newspaper comic strip, but he couldn’t sell his idea, so he ended up self-publishing it. Bone eventually caught on, and now it has a color edition from GRAPHIX and it might become a movie!

Jeff Smith joins Tim in this episode to talk about how he got started with self-publishing, why he decided to have Grandma Ben raise cows, why Bone became less funny in the later volumes, and more; plus, answers to some lingering questions from our review of his book RASL!

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Critiquing Comics #109: “Turtle Girl” and “Wanderer”

Turtle Girl and Wanderer

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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#542 “We’re family”: Luke & Danny, Alan & Emily

Power Man and Iron Fist

This week we cross over with Shortbox Showcase, of the Relatively Geeky podcast network! Professor Alan and daughter Emily join Tim to fill us in on their comics-reading and podcast-making background, and then to discuss Power Man and Iron Fist v.1 by David Walker, Sanford Greene, and Flaviano — with digressions into differences between Marvel and DC, how society surely must work in the Marvel Universe, and more!

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#541 Kyoto Manga Museum

Kyoto Manga Museum

Most people don’t equate the ancient city of Kyoto, Japan, with comics, but that happens to be the location of a museum and reading library of comics from Japan and around the world. Tim visited The Kyoto International Manga Museum recently, and this week he discusses it with Kobe-based comics creator Graeme McNee.

Also, a stopoff in Nagoya to chat with Adam Pasion, head of Big Ugly Robot Press, and co-organizer of the Comic Art Tokyo event.

Continue reading #541 Kyoto Manga Museum

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#540 Jim Zub

Wayward

Jim Zub loves Japan. He visited twice last year, including in October for the Kaigai Manga Festa. He set his Image series Wayward in Japan; it’s drawn by Yokohama resident Steven Cummings. In this week’s show, Jim talks about the effort to make Wayward‘s Japan feel as close to the real one as possible; playing in the sandbox of Marvel’s Thunderbolts, the harsh realities of the North American comics market, making yourself known in the industry, and more.

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Critiquing Comics #108: “Good or Dead” and “Solus”

Good or Dead/Solus

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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#539 “Captain Marvel and the Art of Nostalgia”

Captain Marvel

<br /> Brian W. Cremins, author of Captain Marvel and the Art of Nostalgia, discusses the Big Red Cheese as a symbol for the innocence of childhood and how creators Otto Binder and C.C. Beck expressly used the character we know as “Shazam” to explores these themes.

Cremins also discusses with Emmet O’Cuana the use of nostalgia, both in the original Fawcett comic books and in our remembering of the series, drawing on the theories of Svetlana Bohm and the writing of W.G. Sebald. In this wide-ranging discussion, Cremins addresses the Fawcett v National trial, Binder’s science fiction career, Alan Moore’s “Marvelman”, and the casting of The Rock in the upcoming “Shazam” movie.

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#538 “Patience”

Patience

Dan Clowes’ 2016 graphic novel Patience has elements of science fiction, mystery, and psychedelia. It’s an interesting mix, but… was the sci-fi part really necessary? Kumar and Dana give it their usual thorough review.

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Critiquing Comics #107: “Climb”

Climb

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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#537 Joey Alison Sayers

Joey Alison Sayers

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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