Love and Rockets continues to impress, and in this episode Koom asks creator Jaime Hernandez some burning questions. Hernandez talks about writing Maggie and Hopey, the dynamics of working on something with your brother, why he gravitates toward female characters, his influences and art style, and more.
Also, Tim and Mulele discuss the current state of the US comics market and Marvel’s recent problems.
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This week we cross over with Shortbox Showcase, of the Relatively Geeky podcast network! Professor Alan and daughter Emily join Tim to fill us in on their comics-reading and podcast-making background, and then to discuss Power Man and Iron Fist v.1 by David Walker, Sanford Greene, and Flaviano — with digressions into differences between Marvel and DC, how society surely must work in the Marvel Universe, and more!
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Over the decades, Captain America has changed his name, changed his costume, changed his mission, and been temporarily replaced by others. These changes, and other story developments, have often reflected changes in the national mood, such as post-Watergate malaise or the struggle to understand why 9/11 happened and how the U.S. should respond to it.
In this episode, Emmet O’Cuana talks with Neal Curtis, of the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Neal recently presented the paper “Captain America: Patriotism, Nationalism, Fascism” and is the author of the book “Sovereignty and Superheroes“. He talks here about how Cap has reflected changes in America, from World War II to the age of Trump.
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While we’ve talked before with Austin Tichenor and John Roberson about adapting comics to the stage, we’ve never talked about (or even thought about!) adapting the lives of comics creators to that stage! But Lenny Schwartz has done it, and more than once, writing and directing “Co-Creator” (about Bill Finger and his claim to the Batman legacy) and “The Man Who Saw Snoopy” (about Charles Schulz, of course!). And he has another in the works on Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko.
This week Lenny tells Tim about writing these plays, just how much credit Bob Kane and Stan Lee may actually deserve, how Schulz used Peanuts as his diary, and much more.
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Irene Strychalski makes her fourth appearance on the podcast — this time as a full-time freelancer getting work from Marvel! We’ll talk about her depressing early comic, drawing from her own scripts vs. someone else’s, things people say to her when she draws in cafes, and more.
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This week (and next), we turn the mic back on ourselves. What, in terms of comics, are we doing?
First up, Paul, To the Batpoles co-host and occasional DCP contributor, talks about his book Frank Miller’s Daredevil and the Ends of Heroism , which will be out soon! In it, Paul reflects on how Miller’s Daredevil changed comics — and Paul.
Then, Mulele catches us up on The Mindgator — soon to be Kickstarting volume 2 — and the new edition of his black cat comic Elbis!
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Yes, somehow it’s been ten whole years since Tim, Brandon, and Mulele sat down together and recorded the first episode of Deconstructing Comics! Rather than get the gang back together again, this time we present eleven past DCP interviewees all answering the same question: “Name an important development you see happening in comics now, good or bad, and say why you think it’s important.” Tim gets answers to this question from Stephen Bissette, Shaenon Garrity, Dan Jurgens, Chris Bachalo, Natalie Nourigat, and many more! (see entire list below)
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Time travel is a fascinating topic to many, and Fred Van Lente‘s current Ivar, Timewalker series from Valiant is timesurfing at both its most fun, and most scientific, with nods to Stephen Hawking’s writings on the subject. Van Lente did his own time jump to the past a couple years ago in The Comic Book History of Comics. This week Tim discusses both these works with him, along with Spider-Man, Archer & Armstrong, reassessing Fredric Wertham, and more.
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Remember the ‘90s? Remember gold foil covers and mutants with huge guns and toothpick feet? If so, then perhaps you also remember Malibu Comics, the company that originally served as Image Comics’ publisher. After Image broke off on its own, Marvel bought Malibu, only to shut it down when the comics industry imploded. Roland Mann was an editor at Malibu (on the Ultraverse titles, among others) and has also written a number of comics (including Cat and Mouse). This week Tim talks with Roland about the ‘90s and what he’s been doing since then, including a new comic, Citizens, that he’s working on with Terra Kaiju artist Joe Badon!
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In the world of corporate comics, creators are challenged to put together a run on a given book that will stand out against everything that’s come before in that book, and leave a mark on the series that will last well beyond their run. Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run, from 2001 to 2004, met that challenge. In the ten years since he left the book, several characters and situations he set up have endured, including Fantomex, the Stepford Cuckoos, and Scott Summers’ relationship with Emma Frost. Morrison had a good handle on all his characters, old and new, and introduced the new ones in a way that made us care about them, something that certain comics writers have failed to do.
Of course, it’s not perfect. The X-men going public seemed to be the biggest event of the run — somehow overshadowing the slaughter of six million mutants on Genosha. The art was inconsistent — great when Frank Quitely was on it, but questionable some other times. This week Tim and Kumar examine Morrison’s run, particularly the initial “Cassandra Nova” arc.
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