#268 Emerald City 2011, pt 1!

Armed with an awesome press pass, Tim walks the floor of Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon! It’s his first time attending a con, and as everyone keeps telling him, for a first-con experience, you can’t beat Emerald City. As he gathers material for future episodes of this podcast, Tim collects quick interviews, with creators known and unknown! All the names and links are below!

Tim’s Emerald City photo album on Facebook!

Continue reading #268 Emerald City 2011, pt 1!

#267 Writer’s Old Fashioned and the Future of Comics

In San Francisco! Tim finally meets in person some of the Writer’s Old Fashioned folks who have been on the podcast before– (L-R) Matt Silady, Steph Godfrey, Jason McNamara–and meets Matt’s co-teacher, Justin Hall. We catch up on what they’ve been doing comics-wise, and get their thoughts on creating comics, including keeping yourself going after finishing a project, keeping genre fiction interesting, and how the move to digital comics might pan out.

#265 Indy comics critiqued, con-going advice given

In the tradition of our Web comics critiques, this week Tim and Mulele pick out a few interesting stories from indy anthology comics sent to us by Mike Kloran.

From Supertalk #1 (at the bottom of the linked page):

From Rabid Rabbit #10:

Also, Tim asks Mulele for some con-going advice for his upcoming trip to Emerald City!

#263 Adrian Tomine’s “Shortcomings” … and our own

Shortcomings“Shortcomings” is a relationship story that mixes in issues of race and gender, and features a rather unlikeable character as its protagonist. Some say it’s Adrian Tomine’s masterwork, others say it’s more of the same from him. Tim (battling a cold that’s bestowed on him the voice of a frog) and Kumar (with a mic that keeps going on the fritz) overcome their own shortcomings to discuss the book.

#260 The Rocketeer

RocketeerDave Stevens’ The Rocketeer was part of the early ’80s wave of indy comics that brought us American Flagg! and others. It features a ’30s setting, an un-heroically motivated protagonist, and enough cheesecake to fill a bakery. Tim and Kumar evaluate the value of the work 30 years on.

#044 “Superman: Red Son” and “The Truth”

FLASHBACK! Brandon has nothing but praise for Mark Millar’s Superman: Red Son; Tim’s feelings about the Dark Horse graphic novel The Truth are somewhat less adulatory…(Originally published October 9, 2006)

#258 The Tokyo Censorship Law

CensorshipThe Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly recently passed a law that further limits minors’ access to “Any manga, animation, or pictures (but not including real life pictures or footage) that features either sexual or pseudo sexual acts that would be illegal in real life, or sexual or pseudo sexual acts between close relatives whose marriage would be illegal, where such depictions and / or presentations unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate the activity.” Perhaps understandable, but without clear guidelines for determining what is OK and what is not, there are fears of a slippery slope. Could this become defacto, outright censorship? Tim, Kumar, and Mulele discuss the new law, and how this situation compares to the events in the U.S. that led up to the creation of the comics code.

Dan Kanemitsu’s Paper Trail — many good blog postings on the topic

Editors’ defiant comments

Publishers boycott anime convention

“My publisher has banned school uniforms” — (visuals on this site are NOT SAFE FOR WORK)

Child sex in manga: Art or Obscenity? — The Japan Times

JL Roberson touts Deconstructing Comics

#001 “Superman Returns” “Revelations” “Hellboy”

FLASHBACK: THE PULSE-POUNDING ORIGIN! We revisit the very first time, more than five years ago, that Tim, Mulele, and Brandon recorded their comics discussion and put it up on the Net. The episode was originally published Dec. 5, 2005. Topics include the trailer for Superman Returns, Revelations by Paul Jenkins & Humberto Ramos, and Mike Mignola passing off art duties on Hellboy. Oh, and, of course, Star Wars.

#257 “The Birth Caul” and “Snakes and Ladders”

Besides being one of the most highly regarded writers in the comics biz, Alan Moore has also, on several occasions, given artsy poetic readings. Two such readings that he gave in the late ’90s were turned into comics by Eddie Campbell. The text alone is dense enough with meaning, but Campbell’s images add yet another layer. Listen to Moore’s voice recordings of the works as you read and you have a full-on audio-comics experience. Tim and Kumar fawn and praise.

These two comics, plus a Moore interview, were later collected as A Disease of Language.

Another review, by page45.com.