Comics commentary from our podcast regulars.
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An interview with Naif al-Mutawa, creator and co-writer of “The 99,” a comic based on Islamic archetypes and with a target audience of “the world”! |
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Tim and Brandon review the book “Persepolis 2” and the movie “Persepolis”, both by Marjane Satrapi. How does the movie, as an adaptation of a comic, compare with “The Watchmen”? |
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FLASHBACK! Discussion of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (part 1), Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, and the second Fear Agent trade paperback, by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena — with side discussions on Taro Gomi, Lynda Barry, and the reasons why Tim’s comic was rejected by a publisher. Tim and Brandon discuss.
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6/8/09 The World of Steve Ditko
While he’s never stopped working, Steve Ditko’s most celebrated work was done decades ago, and he’s slammed the door on many opportunities for further success. If sticking to your principles prevents fame and fortune, is your career a failure or a success? Tim and Paul discuss the Fantagraphics coffee table biography “Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko” by Blake Bell.
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So many comics on the Web. What’s worth reading and what isn’t? Tim and Mulele critique four Web comics, pointing out what’s good and bad about each — from a reader’s perspective, as well as a creator’s.
| Evil Diva | Go KC |
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5/18/09 “Ghost in the Shell”: What in the hell?!
Masamune Shirow’s future tale “Ghost in the Shell” reads like someone’s private comic that wasn’t meant for public consumption. Tim, Mulele, and Kumar find that they can’t so much consume the story as gag on it uncomprehendingly… although the pictures are nice.
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4/13/09 Drawn to the Road: Travel memoir graphic novels
After a long time away, Brandon is back to discuss with Tim the travels of Guy Delisle (“The Burma Chronicles”) and K. Thor Jensen (“Red Eye, Black Eye”).
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3/13/06 It’s a Bird, Spider-man Blue, Hulk Gray
FLASHBACK! Way, way back to the early days of the podcast: three guys sitting in a room, talking comics. Tim, Mulele, and Brandon discuss Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen’s “It’s a Bird”, and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s “Spider-man Blue” and “Hulk Gray”. (Regarding sound quality: in those days, I purposely downgraded the sound to keep the MP3 file small!)
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The Essential Howard the Duck vol. 1 collects all of Steve Gerber’s 1970s writing for Marvel’s Code-approved Howard the Duck comic. Tim and Kumar talk about what Gerber got away with in spite of the code, and how HTD differs from most ’70s Marvel books.
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For a long time I’ve been an avid reader of Rumiko Takahashi’s “Inuyasha.” I originally was reading it in Japanese, but there was just a bit too much that I had to “bleep” over; since it mostly takes place in 16th century Japan, the old language threw me off. So I’ve been reading Viz’s English version in trade paperback form. But until now I hadn’t read any of Takahashi’s older stuff.
For reading during my vacation I picked up the first book of her “Ranma 1/2” (and also the “Evangelion” I reviewed earlier). Ranma, which ran in Japan (in Shonen Sunday) from 1987 to 1996, focuses on the relationship between the titular boy character and Akane. Their fathers have decided that the two teenagers should be married, but neither particularly likes the other.
The twist is that Ranma, during martial arts training in China, fell into a pool which was cursed after a young girl drowned in it. When Ranma is hit with cold water, he becomes a girl; hot water changes him back to a boy.
Obviously, he gets hit with cold water at all kinds of inopportune times. Some writers would play this predictably for “Three’s Company”-style “misunderstanding” yawner plotlines, but Takahashi does more interesting things with the device.
While there is some sexual titillation to this, including some exposed breasts, the main point of the series seems to be exploring gender roles and expectations. While Ranma physically becomes a girl, Akane has sometimes been chided for acting too much like a boy. At the same time, she’s jealous that female-form Ranma has a bigger bustline than she does.
I laughed out loud a number of times at the first volume. This is more of a comedy than the tense adventures of Inuyasha. While I still enjoy Inuyasha, I’m definitely going to be picking up more Ranma!
Just read the first book in the Neon Genesis Evangelion series by Funino Hayashi (English version published by ADV). I found it a little creepy, probably intentionally so.
It’s an interesting mix of a standard teenage soap-opera and science fiction. I suspect there’s more SF to come in subsequent volumes; this one is mainly teen soap, except for the suggestion that the class the main characters all find themselves in is not a coincidental mix: they’re all being groomed for some purpose and are all being called into a lab for exams.
I found this creepy because it suggested they were going to be experimented on, although the attraction page for Volume 2 revealed that it’s not quite that creepy after all. Seems as though they’re all going to be controlling giant robots or something. Whatever the story is on an SF level, the dynamics set up among the characters in the first volume promise to keep the teen-soap element in play.
The main characters are Shinji and his female friend Asuka, who insists she has no romantic interest in Shinji — but then flashes hot with jealousy when a transfer student, Rei, reveals that she’s falling for Shinji. Other subplots are in a similar vein.
It’s fairly standard manga material, but it kept my interest enough that I’m planning on picking up the second volume.
