Comics commentary from our podcast regulars.
Written by: James Roberts
Art by: Alex Milne
Colors by: Joana Lafuente
Letters by Shawn Lee
IDW Publishing, August 2011
If you had told me 25 years ago that I would one day be reading a Transformers comic about senatorial politics, I would have said, “What’s senatorial politics?!”
by Aline Kominsky Crumb
M Q Publications, 2007.
I was trying to think of a way to describe Aline Kominsky Crumb’s art, and then she went and described it perfectly herself:
I […] draw, erase, and scratch out some tortured looking image that clearly shows how much I am struggling with the medium. I honestly don’t think this makes my work less interesting, just very expressionistic and often very ugly.
In fact Crumb is so aware of her own work as an artist that I could skip reviewing the book and just pull quotes out of it to do the same job.
At a panel at San Diego Comicon last month, Dan DiDio (bottom picture at left) caused a stir by seeming belligerent when a fan asked why the DC reboot included fewer female creators — even fewer than had worked on for DC pre-reboot. DiDio seemed to think there were hardly any female comics creators he could consider. Hear it here
Jake Ekiss was probably not alone in expressing disapproval of this sentiment — in this case, on Twitter. So Tim invited him to come on the podcast and discuss it here. (Jake’s comic is Solomon Azua.)
Joining Tim and Jake is one of those female comics creators the mainstream isn’t hiring, EK Weaver, creator of the Web comic The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal (that’s Amal in the top picture at left). We discuss why women are so much further out of the comics mainstream in the US than they are in, oh say, Japan.
Also this week, Tim’s former day-job office mate Cassey, now based in Anchorage, joins Tim to discuss Bryan Lee O’Malley’s pre-Scott Pilgrim work Lost at Sea, the coming-of-age story of 18-year-old Raleigh (middle picture).
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written by JM DeMatteis, art by Seth Fisher
DC Comics, 2011.
If the idea of Green Lantern as a giant disembodied floating head who can’t even speak because he’s got his mouth full with a buxom six-armed bartender, an alien beatnik, and an angel in cutoff jeans and a t-shirt sounds appealing, then, boy, is this the comic for you!
Continue reading Review: DC Comics Presents Green Lantern: Willworld
Planning a murder that you think will prevent future murders? That’s the premise — or, at least, one of the premises — of Monster, Naoki Urasawa’s 18-volume series. Set in Germany, the series focuses on the unintended consequences of Dr. Kenzo Tenma’s good deed; he saved the life of a boy who turned out to be a remorseless killer. Tim and guest reviewer Natalie Nourigat discuss.
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Written by Nick Spencer. Pencils by RB Silva, inks by DYM.
DC Comics, May 2011.
Let me tell you about my second favorite Jimmy Olsen story. Continue reading Review: Jimmy Olsen #1
We begin a two-review series on comics that ask hard questions about whether murder can ever be justified. This week, Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus. Beginning in the early ’80s, Baron’s philosophical writing and Rude’s increasingly polished art presented the story of a the far future in which a man kills mass-murderers not out of revenge, but because he feels forced to “in self-defense.” Tim and Paul review.
Baron & Rude interviewed (May 2007)
Steve Rude recalls making Nexus (video)
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by Various.
IDW Comics.
This is issue 2 of an anthology tribute to Dave Stevens’s The Rocketeer. An homage to Dave Stevens’s homage to the 30s and 40s. I bet you can guess my review is going to be about how the creative energy here is diluted. Continue reading Review: Rocketeer Adventures #2
by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon.
Hill and Wang, 2010.
So, why does a publisher which doesn’t normally deal in graphic novels / comics decide to put out a book like this?
1) It’s a way to re-publish existing material. This is especially true for The Anne Frank Center whose mission it is to perpetuate her story.
2) They assume – mostly incorrectly – that graphic novels are currently trendy.
3) They assume that kids are too slow / callous to appreciate a prose presentation of the same material.
Continue reading REVIEW: Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography
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A creepy, rainy night. Mysterious red scars appearing on animals and people. Vicious wild pigs roam the streets. Justin Randall’s “Changing Ways” Book 1, published by Gestalt, reviewed by Tim and Brandon. |
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Heroic: A Womanthology, an anthology of comics created by women (some famous, others not yet) is currently in development and expected later this year from IDW. Tim talks to Athens-based participant Eugenia Koumaki, and IDW editor Mariah Huehner, about the background of and expectations for this project. |
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