Comics commentary from our podcast regulars.
Though Asterios Polyp made the point that comics and (written) music are similar, doing a comic about music is not such an easy task. But Reinhard Kleist beautifully presents the music, and life, of a country music legend in Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness, recently released in English. How does it compare with the Cash biopic Walk the Line? Tim and Paul review.
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Reviews of Asterios Polyp blanket the Internet; why need we pile on? Well, for starters, to counteract all the reviewers who think that giving a story synoposis = explaining what the book’s about. That approach falls far short with Polyp, so Tim and Kumar are here to explain what they feel David Mazzucchelli’s masterwork graphic novel is really about!
Stumptown annotations of Polyp
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Is having your work illegally downloaded the worst thing that can happen to a comics artist? If you work for a major, perhaps not, but every download can have a noticeable effect when you’re trying to make a living drawing comics that are less widely purchased. One such freelancer, Jake Ekiss of Dallas, Texas, joins Tim and Mulele to talk about the prevalence of comics downloading and the feeling among many struggling comics artists that their time and effort are undervalued. What about those downloaders who later buy? What about those who download because they can’t afford the product?
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A recent Comics Reporter article by Ng Suat Tong on “Writing, Collaboration, and Superheroes” (and a rebuttal to it from Chris Allen Online) got us to thinking: Do modern writers give sufficient instruction to artists? How much of what you see on the page came from the writer, and how much from the artist? Are some artists not carrying out the writer’s suggestions, and is that because the artist had a better idea, because the writer’s instructions were impractical, or because the artist is simply, um, not that good?
To explore these questions, Kumar, Mulele, and Tim chose four scripts from the Comicbook Script Archive site, and read them alongside the finished comics that resulted from them: Punisher Max #39, by Garth Ennis and Leandro Fernandez; Y: the Last Man #18, by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra; Daredevil 28, by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev; and (the ringer of the lot) Batman: the Killing Joke, by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland. Here’s the resulting discussion!
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 Tim and Mulele are joined by Mike Kloran, a Deconstructing Comics listener and artist based in northern Japan. Creating educational comics is discussed, and Mike interviews Tim and Mulele. Also, what are Mike’s thoughts on this podcast itself? |
 Then Tim and Mulele discuss two books by Ken Dahl, “Welcome to the Dahl House” and “Monsters”. |
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Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist combines the “steampunk” aesthetic with well-developed characters and a story that explores themes of war and hope, and highlights how any skill and any belief system can be used for good or ill. Tim and newcomer Hiroyuki (our first-ever Japanese guest!) roll up their sleeves, go through the first 19 volumes, and give this manga the scholarly treatment it deserves.
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Emily the Strange began life as a character that appeared on merchandise, but lately she’s been fleshed out with a Dark Horse comics series and much more. Tim and Mulele talk about the first two trade paperback collections, and the controversy surrounding her origins.
Also, if you’re looking for a comics-creator “scene”, what’s the best city to go to? Some possibilities.
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Osamu Tezuka’s “Apollo’s Song” came out in 1970, about the same time as “Ode to Kirihito”. It explores issues of love, sex, and death. How does this “adult” work of Japan’s God of Comics stack up against the masterwork “Kirihito”? Tim and Kumar review.
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FLASHBACK! Osamu Tezuka is Japan’s “God of Manga.” Ode to Kirihito may be one of the reasons. Tim and Kumar review.
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11/23/09 Magical Mystery Podcast
Tim and Mulele sit in a restaurant in Shinjuku, turn on the recorder, and see what develops. Topics include: Creator time management, Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, Hope Larson’s Gray Horses, Caveman Science Fiction, the casting of the Popeye movie, podcast promotion, Mulele’s epiphany about his slow productivity the past three years, and the status of his current comic Elbis.
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