Critiquing Comics #209: “Producing the End of the World”

Producing the End of the World

Anthologies have traditionally been something of a bear to critique, especially if they’re not very good. Producing the End of the World has solved that problem — both by sending us a media preview with only four of the collection’s stories in it, and by, well, being very good. Tim and Adam discuss a book containing some of the more fun stories about the end times that we’ve seen.

Producing the End of the World on Kickstarter

Critiquing Comics #206: “Root and Branch”

Root and Branch

Root and Branch is a comic that flirts with the fantasy genre, but is more concerned about a clash of cultures: a traveling elf meeting humans for the first time. This is a web comic, created by Pink Pitcher, that’s still going strong in its seventh year, and currently has a Kickstarter going. Tim and Adam critique.

Critiquing Comics #203: “Midnight Highway”

Midnight Highway #1

Midnight Highway is a horror comic on which all the creators are firing on all cylinders. Well, most of them. Tim and Jason discuss the first issue of this comic by Mike Tener, Alex Maday, Dave Lentz, Alexander Malyshev, Hedwin Zaldivar, and Alex Monik!

Critiquing Comics #197: “Galacto Pit-Fighter”

Comics can surely be violent, but can the sheer audacity of the violence make it, intentionally or not, funny? Tim and Adam discuss one of the most over-the-top comics ever critiqued on our show, Kirt Burdick’s Galacto Pit-Fighter!

Critiquing Comics #193: “The Zombie Game”

The Zombie Game

At what was ostensibly a rave, some kids are turned into zombies. How do the remaining kids deal with it? And– why didn’t THEY get turned into zombies? That’s the scenario of The Zombie Game, by Dan Bridges, Gary Ambrosia, Pablo Ayala, Lucase Gattoni, and Emily McGuiness (currently on Kickstarter). Tim and Jason try to make their way out of the house.

Critiquing Comics #190: “Duplicant”

In a world where a pandemic is causing people’s organs to fail, the company that makes synthetic organs wields a lot of power – especially if the patient doesn’t have the funds to pay for the surgery. In this episode, writer Jason McNamara joins Tim to talk about Duplicant, from Karla Nappi, Marianna Strychowska, Carlos M. Mangual, Josh Reed, Leila Del Duca, and Owen Gieni.

Duplicant #4 Kickstarter

#681 “The Last Tide” and “Breakwater”

The Last Tide and Breakwater

Isekai is a genre, named in Japan, in which a character from our earth is suddenly transported to “another world.” This concept goes back at least to Alice in Wonderland, but these days the “other world” is often the inside of a computer game. Although it’s not explicitly stated (so far), that seems to be the case in The Last Tide, a book from new publisher Cloudscape and created by Pirateaba, Shane Sandulak, and Matias Zanetti. Our patron Gabe joins Tim to review.

Avery Hill, publisher of Zoe Thorogood’s The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott, has really gotten on our radar lately. This time, Tim and Emmet discuss a graphic novel called Breakwater by Katriona Chapman. The story takes place among employees of a movie theater, but it could (and does) happen in any situation.

 

#676 “Ballyskillen”: An augmented reality comic

Ballyskillen

Over the years there have been some attempts at augmented reality comics — where a smartphone app pointed at a comics page will reveal a bit of animation. One issue with these projects is that they’re labor-intensive, and require several different skill sets to produce. Sam Noir and Andrew Dorland are Kickstarting an augmented reality comic called Ballyskillen, and Andrew has multiple necessary skill sets for the endeavor, which he’ll apply to the project in proportion to the amount of money raised. In this mini-episode, Tim talks with Sam and Andrew about the project, and also about Sam’s series of comics anthologies called Cauldron.

 

Critiquing Comics #180: “SpiderForest Webcomic Anthology 4”

Spider Forest

Last episode, we mentioned how writing a short, tight story can be more challenging than writing a sprawling epic. Right on cue comes Spider Forest Webcomic Anthology 4, an engaging collection of short comics by 17 creators of web comics. Tim and Mulele discuss which are the best (and which are merely good!), and whether perhaps some of these stories are a little too short.

Spider Forest Kickstarter – beginning October 12, 2020

#672 “Pulp” and Publishing Your Book

Pulp and comics publishing

The words “Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips” have essentially become the name of a genre, a certain kind of noir-ish crime story. The latest entry in this “genre”, an original graphic novel called Pulp, is in this vein but also features elements of the western. b joins Tim to review the latest by this renowned team.

Jason’s Kickstarter for Ghost Band

Then Tim talks to attorney and writer Gamal Hennessy about his Kickstarter-funded book The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing, avoiding the three mistakes many comics creators make when publishing their first book, and the general state of the American comic book industry.

Another interview with Gamal at Practicesource.com