Jules Feiffer’s Sick Sick Sick began appearing in the Village Voice in 1956, satirizing both the kinds of people he met in New York, and politicians and the military-industrial complex. Feiffer remains a highly influential creator, with a new graphic novel coming out later this year. Tom Spurgeon, former editor of The Comics Journal, joins Kumar and Tim to discuss Sick Sick Sick and Feiffer’s work in general.
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Joe Sacco is surely THE trailblazer in the area of using comics as a medium for journalism; his work reads like a documentary film, or a remote report on the evening news. At his best, such as in Safe Area Gorazde, he not only gets you much more emotionally involved than the evening news ever could, he takes advantage of the medium to communicate in ways that video can’t. At the same time, he pulls back the curtain on how the presence of a journalist affects the actions of those around him.
Tim and Kumar examine Gorazde and also the anthology collection Journalism.
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Jim Woodring doing kids’ books!? That was apparently the thought behind Trosper, a 2001 release from Woodring that came with a Southwest Asia-influenced music CD by Bill Frisell. A baby elephant-like creature runs from things that go bump in the night. Maurice Sendak would be proud.
Going further back, Daniel Clowes’ early ’90s comedy/nightmare graphic novel Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron also has a musical soundtrack (sold separately), from Victor Banana. The book is a lesson in controlled chaos; the CD, a commentary on it. Tim and Kevin explore the audible and visual aspects of both these comics.
PLUS: Ritz Crackers! Jimmy Durante! The Brady Bunch! This one has it ALL! (including spoilers!)
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From 1942 to 1966, many of the Donald Duck comic books published by Dell Comics were written and drawn by Carl Barks. Like most comic book creators at the time, his name was unknown; the Duck comics were all credited to Walt Disney. Fans only knew that his work was by the GOOD duck artist. Barks created Scrooge McDuck and many of the other duck characters that are taken for granted as part of Disney canon today.
What made Barks the standout Duck artist? Were they meant to be satirical, or simply enjoyable stories? Tim, Kumar, and Tom Spurgeon discuss Barks’ work, particularly the Fantagraphics volume “Lost in the Andes.”
Comics Journal review of Lost in the Andes
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FLASHBACK! Fletcher Hanks created some bizarre, sadistic superhero comics in 1939-1941. Tim and Kumar discuss the Hanks collection I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!, edited by Paul Karasik.
Also: Comic Book Comics #2!
(Originally published October 27, 2008)
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Up until the late ’60s, Japanese girls’ comics were mainly done by men, and could often be formulaic and sappy. But then several female creators broke into the field and revolutionized the genre. One of them was Moto Hagio, whose stories (even when they had science fiction aspects to them) dwelt on not fitting in, losing what you love, and other themes that could be depressing, but were usually expressed in innovative and compelling ways. Little of her work is available in English, but Fantagraphics released an overview of her work, A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, two years ago. Tim and Kumar review.
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Jacques Tardi writer and artist.
Fantagraphics Books, 2011.
This is a 64 page graphic novel that collects material that Tardi originally created and released in 1972 with the French title Le Démon des glaces. It was translated and released in early 2011.
The first thing an interested reader encountering this volume in a bookstore or library will notice is the art. Tardi’s draftsmanship is truly a wonderful thing to behold and this book features his work with scratchboard. This medium allows for a woodcut effect with an added dimension of shading and depth applied to the art and allows texture and shadow to be applied to the image. The result is a classic text illustration effect that pairs well with the Jules Verne/H. G. Wells inspired story.
Continue reading REVIEW: The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi
In episode #300, we took a look at the sometimes wacky and cartoony Love & Rockets work of Jaime Hernandez. This week, Tim and Kumar are again joined by Tom Spurgeon to look at the somewhat darker, more violent and yet rather hard-to-pin-down work of Gilbert Hernandez in his stories of (or, sometimes merely tangentially related to) the isolated Mexican village of Palomar.
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The series Love & Rockets, featuring individual works by the Hernandez brothers, started in 1981 as a self-published magazine, but was quickly picked up by Fantagraphics. Over the last 30 years, the brothers’ work has continued to develop & astound. This week Tim and Kumar take a look at the Love & Rockets work of Jaime Hernandez, with special guest (and former Fantagraphics employee) Tom Spurgeon!
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I like the art of Adam Hughes very much, but this statue is bad:
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/03/24/batgirl-statue-adam-hughes/
Not comics, but this seems to be the season for Leiji Matsumoto movies:
CG Captain Harlock — http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-03-24/captain-harlock-new-cg-pilot-images-staff-revealed
Live Action Uchu Senkan Yamato (a.k.a. Star Blazers in the US) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jExoH_JjMZg
Galaxy Express 999 is one of my all-time favorite manga. Some day we are going to cover it on the podcast, I swear.
When you are not listening to Deconstructing Comics, I highly recommend you check out Gary Groth’s interview with Todd McFarlane from the early days of Image. Hilariously and predictably, within months of this interview McFarlane began engaging in various business practices which contradicted much of what he states here. He did, however, stand firm by his word that there was no point in him trying to improve as an artist:
Finally, Fantagraphics has a preview up of their new CAPATIN EASY book, one of my all-time favorite newspaper strips:
KS
