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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At last month’s Toronto Comicon, Koom got a chance to sit down with Gerhard, most famous for drawing backgrounds and environments for (and NOT inking!) Dave Sim’s Cerebus. Koom talks with him about working with Dave Sim and navigating some of Sim’s more controversial moments; the ergonomics of comics creation; working with Grant Morrison on “Smile of the Absent Cat” in Heavy Metal; and more.
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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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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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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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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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Since we often don’t see the people who make the comics we read, we may not realize just how many African-American comics creators there are. Craig Rippon is gathering their thoughts and opinions in a documentary film called Black Ink. This week, Tim gets the scoop from Craig on who has been interviewed so far and the plan going forward, the pros and cons of publishing a “multicultural” line of comics, the state of black heroes at Marvel, his motivation to keep going on the film, and more.
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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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