#572 Barbara Schulz on MCAD’s Comic Art Program

Barbara Schulz

The number of schools offering comic art programs in the US is small but increasing. This time we look at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). John Bivens and Eliot Rahal give us some background, and then we talk to one of the primary faculty members teaching in their comic art program, Barbara Schulz. She gives us her thoughts on choosing the best comic art program for you, challenges facing anyone trying to get started in comics (such as self-promotion, unscrupulous publishers, and more.

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Critiquing Comics #120: “1985 Black Hole Repo #1”

1985 Black Hole Repo

It’s 1985, but the space race never slowed down, so space is busy with human activity. 1985 Black Hole Repo #1, by Seth M Sherwood, Michael Moreci, and John Bivens, is full of punk rock aesthetic and references to the real 1980s. Unfortunately, it can be a little tough to tell what’s happening in they story. Tim and Mulele explore this space.

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#571 Minneapolis’ World Monster Headquarters

This week we double back to the beginning of Tim’s summer trip around the US, and meet three of the many creators at the World Monster Headquarters studio in Minneapolis. We’ll meet Peter Wartman, creator of the graphic novel Over the Wall and currently working on the sequel, Stonebreaker. He talks about why Over the Wall is still on his web site, even though the book is out.

Then, Sean Lynch, currently working on his graphic novel The Zoo, which asks the question, does “choice” really exist?

Finally, Lupi McGinty, creator of the web comics Lolly Poppet and Bantam Returns. She tells us about the live action Calvin and Hobbes movie she made as a kid!

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#570 Body Positivity and Free Speech

This week, Tim presents two interviews from his time in Portland, Oregon!

First, Lacy Davis and Jim Kettner talk about their first graphic novel, Ink in Water: An Illustrated Memoir (Or, How I Kicked Anorexia’s Ass and Embraced Body Positivity), about Lacy’s battles with anorexia. They talk about the process of making the book, the challenges of collaborating with your spouse, and the nature of eating disorders, which have both physical and mental effects.

Then, a front-porch chat with Charles Brownstein, Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. What is the organization’s mission and how did it come to be based in Portland? What have been its biggest victories and defeats? What’s the difference between censorship by the government or by private companies? The difference between comics that show drawings of kids in sexual situations, versus actual child pornography? Also, the rise and fall of the Comics Code. Were comics EVER really “just for kids”?

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Critiquing Comics #119: “The Ferocious Five”

The Ferocious Five

Our friend Kristin Tipping is back, this time as the artist on a graphic novel written by Jason Vandervort called The Ferocious Five. Their recent attempt to Kickstart the project failed; what should they do differently next time?

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#569 A Toast to London and Comics! with Amrit Birdi, Ram V, and Neil Gibson

This week Koom wraps up London Super Comicon with more interviews.

First, TPub Comics’ Neil Gibson talks about the publisher’s ongoing series Twisted Dark (a series discussed in Critiquing Comics episodes 59 and 85!).

Then, Amrit Birdi (at left in above photo) and Ram V talk about the attraction of comics, the relative merits of various books on the medium, and how (or whether) being from India affects their comics work.

 

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#568 Getting “Trashed” with Derf Backderf

Trashed - Derf

Derf Backderf, author of My Friend Dahmer and a onetime garbage man, is back with Trashed, a book that defies pigeonholing. Part history, part awareness-raiser, part fictionalized reminiscence, part gross-out humor fest (and a few other “parts” as well), Trashed seems like a book that shouldn’t work, but does. In this episode, Tim interviews Derf about Trashed, the Dahmer movie, and more; plus, Tim and Kumar review Trashed!

Derf will be headlining at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus later this month!

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#567 Paul Gravett

Koom with Paul Gravett

At London Super Comicon last month, Koom got to sit down with Paul Gravett, a comics journalist and exhibition curator. Gravett is currently preparing the touring Asian comics show Mangasia, which will debut in Rome next month. This is a guy who’s read a lot of comics; do they all become a blur after a while? Koom asks him about avoiding burnout, the amount of progress comics have (or haven’t) made toward being accepted by the “art world”, and much more.

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#566 David Roach

This time, Koom travels to Cardiff, Wales, to talk to David Roach, an artist who’s done work for 2000 AD, Dark Horse, and DC, and is currently working on Dr. Who Magazine in the UK. He’s also a comics archivist and historian, and has written several books about Warren Comics artists of the ‘70s, and one about great British comics creators. He tells Koom what inspired him to be an artist and how he broke into comics, and whether living the dream has lived up to the hype.

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#565 “Mister Miracle” and comics journalism hype

Mister Miracle

DC recently launched a new Mister Miracle series, by Tom King and Mitch Gerads. Well and good, thought Emmet, but then he saw a certain CBR headline that set him off. “King and Gerads have redefined comics”? Hyperbolic much?

So Emmet recruited Kumar to review both Mister Miracle #1 and the hype surrounding it. Is the use of suicide in the story meaningful? Hackneyed? How accessible is this comic to readers who don’t know the character? And, why does everything in comics have to be super-hyped nowadays?

Donate to the Ed Siemienkowicz Memorial Scholarship (Choose it from the pulldown menu)

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