Remember that time when…. No? You weren’t there? Or maybe you were there, but the memory just isn’t that special. It’s OK to draw on your memories for your story, but is it wise to simply make your memories be the story? Tim and Mulele discuss William Keops Ibanez’s Blazing Quantum. (More sample pages on Tumblr)
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Is this the sixties, or 2039?
In a time without superheroes, Batman sightings are reported. But isn’t he an urban legend? Paul Pope brings his unique, inventive style to the Batman of 2039 in Batman Year 100. While new characters stand in for Robin and Oracle, is there a reason there’s no Alfred analogue? Why do Paul Pope characters have big lips? Tim and Brandon discuss this and more.
From Batman 2039, we move to Batman 1966! When production of the Adam West Batman series was gearing up, Harlan Ellison (writer of the Star Trek episode “City on the Edge of Forever”, and much else of note) submitted a treatment for an episode featuring Two-Face. While the treatment was accepted, it never made it to the script stage. Finally, in 2014, DC released a comics adaptation of this story, Batman ’66: The Lost Episode, scripted by Len Wein and drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (cover by Alex Ross). Does it feel like the show? Who might have played Two-Face? What does this book tell us about the differences between making a TV show and making a comic? Tim and Paul slide down the Batpoles for a closer look.
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Originating out of the same ’80s black-and-white/anthropomorphic boom that brought us the Ninja Turtles, Usagi Yojimbo is one of the few comics of that batch that are still going today. Stan Sakai’s work combines historical drama, understated violence, light comedy, and even some explanations of 17th century Japanese culture — and he can pack a surprising amount of story into a few pages. Tom Spurgeon joins Tim and Kumar to talk about the long-eared samurai.
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Last year at the comics journalism panel discussion in San Francisco, we met Andy Warner, whose work has appeared mostly on newsy Web sites. This week, Andy fills us in on how he gets freelance work with these sites. Also, the golden age of US newspaper strips, time management, the need for more support for comics (and ALL media), and… the Legend of the Bunnyman!
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Richard Corben has repeatedly adapted the works of Edgar Allan Poe — in fact, he’s drawn some of the same stories several times! Most recently he’s done the work collected in Dark Horse’s Edgar Allan Poe’s Spirits of the Dead.
How do his different versions of such works as The Fall of the House of Usher compare to each other? How has Corben enhanced Poe’s stories? Is reading Poe adapted as a comic a substitute for straight-up reading Poe? In general, is it harder to be scary in comics compared to other media? Kumar and Dana discuss.
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This week Tim travels just south of Tokyo to Yokohama to meet up with Chris Taylor (“Sketchfro”), creator of Relic Hunter: Riven, and James Stacey of Black Hook Press, which publishes Japanese translations of US and UK graphic novels. How do you prepare for conventions? Did you do comics differently back home? What’s different about tabling at German comics events? Why did Chris get in an argument with Archie Comics? That and more!
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When doing an autobiographical comic — a memoir, a travelogue, whatever — one problem to consider is how the people around you feel about appearing in your comic, especially if it’s getting published! This week Tim talks with Lucy Knisley — author of many such comics, including An Age of License — about this problem, as well as doing art for a living without losing the joy, getting career advice from Lynda Barry, and much more.
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Michael Bangert’s Viking Sky Kings features a guy looking for work to support his wife and child. Each scene is a slice of life… but maybe a bit too thinly sliced. How do these slices fit each other? The site navigation of this Web comic is not helping matters… Tim and Mulele try to piece things together.
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What are some advantages and disadvantages of comics as a medium? How can you show lack of motion in a comic? Is the lack of sound in a comic ever an advantage? How do you keep yourself going when you’re afraid that your work isn’t good enough? This and more this week with three Tokyo-area artists: Grace Mineta, who’s having considerable success with her Texan in Tokyo comics and YouTube channel: Pei-in Wu, a Taiwanese artist who’s juggling comics with a day job; and Yu Ohmura, who self-publishes comics about his travel experiences.
Some samples of Yu Ohmura work:
On the left side of the photo below is the girl falling in the snow, described by Yu during our discussion of showing movement (or lack thereof)
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Actually, several questions. I’ve become a follower of Yugata’s career since meeting her at the massive Comic Market (“Comiket”) event in Tokyo last December. At that event and also at Comitia in May, I bought some of her work. The juxtaposition of cute high school girls and creepy insects is interesting, but the main attraction is not so much the subject matter as that it’s just drawn and colored so beautifully. This is a lady with real talent.
| I feel I’d like to show characters who are both scary and cute. Putting horror elements together with cute ones, I think I can create something new and interesting. — Yugata |
Stunned that this twentysomething artist is not already the toast of the Tokyo manga world, I’ve been wanting to spread the word about her. I first inquired about doing an interview in January. She has a lot going on, but finally found some time to sit down with me on June 21, 2015, in the Nakano area of Tokyo. What follows is a transcript, translated from Japanese and edited for length and clarity.
(Note: “Yugata” is a pen name; as is not unusual in Japan, she doesn’t put her real name on her work, at least in part because moonlighting is frowned upon. She also declined to let me take a photo of her; it’s your loss, I have to say.)
DCP: Is making comics your job?
YUGATA: Well, I really want it to be my job, and lately I’ve been getting some things published in magazines. Continue reading Yugata, I’ve got a question…
