Comics commentary from our podcast regulars.
Luke Healy’s How to Survive in the North presents two different early-20th-century expeditions to the Arctic, and how they were connected. Well, except some of the connections are unclear, and Tim and Kumar both had the same misunderstanding about the book the first time through! Yet the book does present some amazing people and incidents. Here’s our review.
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Join Kumar and Koom as they discuss Alan Moore’s run on the palladium paragon, the alabaster avenger, the archetypical archetype: Rob Liefeld’s Supreme. Kumar tries not to lose it over the Image era ‘artwork’ while Koom attempts to reconcile supremium with revisionist theory. Supreme was Moore’s last outing with a true blue superhero in the classical mould. Both postmodern and nostalgic for lost comic values at the same time, this run sits Janus-like between Moore’s early work and his modern period.
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FLASHBACK! Richard Thompson passed away on July 27, 2016. As his strip Cul de Sac ended four years ago, Tom Spurgeon joined Tim to bid it a fond farewell, and this week we re-present that episode in memory of Thompson.
We discuss some favorite moments of Cul de Sac, compare it with other classic strips such as Peanuts, examine what Thompson (and any other relatively new creator of newspaper strips) was up against as technology and economics teamed up against print media, and — Hey! Watch out for the UH-OH BABY!!
Originally published September 17, 2012
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The epic space opera Queen Emeraldas from Kodansha is the first release of manga in English by legendary cartoonist Leiji Matsumoto since 2002. Kumar and fellow Matsumoto advocate Ryan Cecil Smith dig into the recently-released first book of the 2-volume series and discuss Matsumoto’s relative obscurity in the West, the brutal morality of life in space, and potato heads on the sea of stars.
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FLASHBACK! Tim and Brandon give their thoughts on Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang, DVD movie Justice League: The New Frontier, Spider-Man One More Day, and Writing for Comics with Peter David!
Originally published March 24, 2008
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Late-1940s boxer Harry Haft learned his trade under harrowing circumstances: he was a Jew who was made to box other prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp. The former Hertzko Haft showed a determination to get through the experience alive, no matter what, and Reinhard Kleist shows this beautifully in his biographical graphic novel The Boxer. Tim and guest reviewer Juan Mah y Busch discuss.
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The Fade Out is Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Elizabeth Breitweiser‘s nuanced, subtly told, complex story of Hollywood in 1948, revolving around a secret deal between a writer who can’t write because of PTSD sustained in the war and another writer who’s been blacklisted as a communist. We touch on some of our favorite little-noted details in the story.Why is Brubaker repeatedly attracted to “noir”-type stories? While Sean Phillips’ art is great, and he digests photo reference into his art better than some do, do some of the limitations of that method still show through? Tim and Brandon discuss. |
| Kumar journeyed so San Diego for the Comic-con this year, for the first time in twelve years. How has the event changed in that time? Who did Kumar get to meet this year? How did he work around the crowds? We get his report. | |
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A fantastically undermanned operation is laying the groundwork to take over the world — starting with Fukuoka, Japan! That’s the premise of Rikdo Koshi’s Excel Saga, which ran in Japan from 1996 to 2011, and started in North America in 2003, where three volumes made it into the top 50 graphic novels chart. But now, with the manga boom long past, it seems to have faded to obscurity. Tim and Kumar take a look at the first three volumes to decide whether its current obscurity is fully deserved.
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Once Upon a Time in Morningside, by Sean Michael Wilson and Hanna Strömberg, is the latest book from Big Ugly Robot Press. The book shows how “OK” places become “great” in retrospect, based on the things you remember happening there years before, and also how looking back on those things can teach you something new.
At MoCCA, Tim picked up A.T. Pratt‘s Papa Pratt’s Popup Popout Miggy Mouse Horror House Super Secret Special Surprise and Miggy Mouse’s Sweets and Treats, two books with a great approach to constructing a book (see below), but how is the experience of reading them?
Tim and Mulele discuss.
(Click the images to enlarge)
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This week (and next), we turn the mic back on ourselves. What, in terms of comics, are we doing?
First up, Paul, To the Batpoles co-host and occasional DCP contributor, talks about his book Frank Miller’s Daredevil and the Ends of Heroism , which will be out soon! In it, Paul reflects on how Miller’s Daredevil changed comics — and Paul.
Then, Mulele catches us up on The Mindgator — soon to be Kickstarting volume 2 — and the new edition of his black cat comic Elbis!
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