Deconstructing Comics Podcast, published every Monday, features comics creator discussion and comics reviews.
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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Tim and Kumar meet in person for the first time! This calls for a podcast, but… what to review? We discuss the movie Crumb, which features not only the expected discussion of R. Crumb’s work (including an objective look at the question of whether some of the … discomfiting subjects of his work should really have been published as “art”), but also a fascinating portrait of the dysfunctional family he grew up in.
Then, Tim and Brandon clash over Sean Murphy’s Punk Rock Jesus, in which a former Irish Republican Army member acts as a bodyguard in a reality show claiming to be creating the clone of Jesus Christ. Is it objective and well-written, or a promo brochure for atheism?
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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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In Patrick Yurick’s Hipster Picnic, being a zombie serves as a metaphor for… what, exactly? Having anger issues? Does the metaphor work? Tim and Mulele discuss.
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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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What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas… but how much is really happening in this comic that’s set there? Tim and Mulele discuss Bullets and Angels, by Brian Lee Byrd, Sarah Hollis, Saint Yak, Robert Nugent, and HdE.
Also up for discussion in this extended episode: Why are we having trouble lately finding new comics that we like?
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This time we examine issues 2 and 3 of the Aussie anthology magazine Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!
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While early 1950s anti-comics hysteria eventually resulted in the cancellation of nearly all their books, EC Comics still had one thing going for them: MAD! Written by Harvey Kurtzman and drawn by some of the best comics artists of the age, this parody comic set the template for much that came after it. But can the humor still be appreciated today? What are we to think of some of the attitudes on display toward, say, women or certain ethnic groups? Tim and Kumar discuss.
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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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