Category: Podcast

Deconstructing Comics Podcast, published every Monday, features comics creator discussion and comics reviews.

#371 “Nana”: Don’t hate it because it’s shojo

nana“What?!” I hear you say. “Deconstructing Comics doing a whole show on a girls’ manga?” Ye of little faith! Have we ever steered you wrong? It may look like nothing but a sappy romance comic, but Ai Yazawa’s Nana features realistic, conflicted characters who deal with romance, infidelity, coming of age, fame, and rock & roll from all angles. It also boasts some fantastic storytelling techniques, so there’s plenty here for comics fans of all stripes to enjoy. Tim and Kory discuss.

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#370 Greeks bearing comics: “Falling for Lionheart” and “Amala’s Blade”

lionheart-amalaGreek comics creators are taking the English-speaking world by storm! … well, OK, maybe not. But Eugenia in Athens has pointed out there are at least two recent examples of comics by Greeks that have been released by American publishers. This week she talks with Tim about two of them: Falling for Lionheart by Ilias Kyriazis, and Amala’s Blade by Steve Horton and Michael Dialynas.

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Critiquing Comics #052: “Super Inc, Villians’ Edition”

Super Inc

Listener Aghori Shaivite asked us to look at his comic, Super Inc. Villians’ Edition, which explores the lives of the villians he has created for his superhero comics. Unfortunately, Tim and Mulele have identified a number of problems with the writing…

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#369 “Krazy Kat”: Show me the bricks

Krazy Kat

One of the most highly-regarded English-language strips of all time is George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat,” featuring the odd love/hate triangle of Krazy, Ignatz, and Officer Pupp. Why was Krazy so gender-ambiguous? How did Herriman’s (somewhat mysterious) racial background influence the strip? Tim and Kumar discuss this and much more.

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Critiquing Comics #051: “Black Alpha”

Black AlphaIn Deconstructing Comics #303, Tim talked to Tom Rasch about how he was monetizing his comics project Black Alpha, a superheroes-in-space story. Now he’s asked Tim and Mulele to critique the first issue. They find that, while it’s a nice-looking comic, it has some issues…

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#368 Sweating the details with “Cursed Pirate Girl”

Cursed Pirate GirlWaaay back in episode 250, Tim talked to Thomas Negovan about the Kickstarter project for a comic called Cursed Pirate Girl. Negovan was the publisher of the single issues of the series, and was handling media inquiries while the comic’s creator, Jeremy Bastian, put all his time into the comic’s insanely detailed art.

The first three issues are now out in a fancy hardcover from Archaia, and this time Jeremy himself comes on the show to talk to Tim about what’s happened since the successful 2010 Kickstarter project, and what to expect from here.

Plus, Tim and Brandon review the book!

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Critiquing Comics #050: “Shattered with Curve of Horn”

shatteredwithcurveWhat happened on that night eight years ago? An experimental drug was tried by four friends, leading to widely contrasting outcomes for each. That’s the premise of Shattered with Curve of Horn, by Max Miller Dowdle. Tim and Mulele critique.

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Critiquing Comics #049: “Utopiates”

utopiatesA near-future scenario where contractor-employed soldiers are administered a certain drug before going into battle… Tim and Mulele take on Utopiates by Josh Finney and Kat Rocha. Will they get addicted, or have a bad trip?

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#367 Cartooning! Or, is it “Comics Drawing”?

brunettiIt’s a 15-week comics course in 78 pages! Ivan Brunetti’s Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice is about comics creation, but it’s less about technique or how-to than about shoving aside any preconceived notions and looking at the very basic pieces of sequential storytelling – or even boiling down an entire novel into a non-sequential single panel. Tim and his brother Paul use the book as a launching pad for discussing various comics-philosophy ideas, like: is there a difference between a “cartoonist” and a “comics artist”? What can you learn from a “bad” artist? Is it valuable to learn comics creation, or anything else, the old, low-tech way before digging into the modern, digital way?

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#366 “Paying For It”

Paying For ItKumar and Dana get together — in the same room! — to discuss Paying For It, Chester Brown’s chronicle of his decision to punt “love relationships” and hire, er, escorts instead. What does the book have to say about relationships? Is love simply a social construct? Is Brown persuasive in his arguments for decriminalizing prostitution?

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