#355 Give ’em enough (Eu)rope: “Nemi” and “Blacksad”

Nemi and Blacksad

In more than seven years of doing this podcast, our coverage of European comics has been, um… underwhelming. This week, Tim tries to change that, discussing two European comics with European co-reviewers!

First, Nemi, the overzealous goth girl from Norway, whose eponymous strip by Lise Myhre has become popular in numerous European countries. Norwegian Line Olsson (of the Boston Comics Roundtable) joins Tim to discuss.

Then, the second Blacksad installment, “Arctic Nation”, by animators Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido. Is racism the point of this noirish “furry” tale, or is it just the framing device for something else? Eugenia Koumaki in Athens co-reviews with Tim.

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#354 Expanding comics’ audience, pt 2: Manga

The 2000s have been thought of as a “manga boom” in the US. Well, that’s true in comparison to the ’90s, but North American manga sales have never come close to the numbers in Japan. Sales of manga — and books in general — have dropped the past few years, but there are signs that the market has stabilized.

Deb Aoki, who writes about manga for About.com, joins us again this week to discuss the reasons why publishers hesitate to put out new manga titles, why Jmanga died and Manga Reborn’s business model is imperfect, and what bright spots there are for the future.

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Editorial Cartoonist in Beijing: An interview with Luo Jie

On my recent trip to Beijing, I talked to Liu Jing for the podcast. I had hoped to also speak with China Daily editorial cartoonist Luo Jie, but unfortunately he was out of town when I was there. As it happened, his preference was to do the interview in written form, anyway, so here’s my conversation with him:

—Did you grow up reading comics? Making comics?

Like the vast majority of Chinese children, my growth process was accompanied by reading comics. I was born in 1978; in that era, there were few decent comic book publications. It was very common that many children would have to share one comic book. Relative to the shortage of comic books, I preferred watching cartoons on television. There were a lot of animated cartoons, whether Chinese or foreign.  I was very willing to copy some favorite cartoon characters in “Saint Seiya” and “Transformers”. That was the greatest pleasure of my childhood.

—What were/are your favorites?

US editorial cartoons are my favorite.  I like funny comics too, especially nonsensical comics, just like those drawn by Japanese cartoonist Rumiko Takahashi.

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#353 Chinese history in comics form

Understanding China through ComicsElectronic publishing has made it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world, to make their work available to millions of people. Chinese graphic designer and sometime comic creator Liu Jing is one of them. He’s using modern technology to put out his comics history of one of the world’s oldest civilizations: Understanding China through Comics. Tim talks to Jing about his book, as well as Chinese comics, copyright enforcement, censorship, and more.

(Thanks to MandMX.com for their help in getting in touch with Jing!)

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#352 “Lulu”: Staging a classic on paper

Many classics have been presented as comics, but Frank Wedekind’s “Lulu” plays have, as far as we know, not made it to the page until now; occasional Deconstructing Comics contributor John Roberson has recently released Book One of his adaptation. He talks to Tim about including the level of sexual frankness Wedekind may have intended, censorship, self-publishing, and more.

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#351 Two Wolverine Milestones

WolverineYet again, Kumar and Dana go all nationalistic to discuss another Canadian icon: the best there is at what he does, th’ ol’ Canucklehead, Wolverine, bub. First on the chopping block is Wolverine (1982) by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, a comic which tries to not be paint-by-numbers, but ends up being little else. And, Barry Windsor-Smith’s Weapon X, which was apparently spawned from a universe in which neither paint nor numbers exist.

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#350 “The Sixth Gun”

If you haven’t read The Sixth Gun, by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, you may think it’s just a Western. Well, it’s a 19th-century western U.S. setting, but the crux of the story is less “High Noon” and more “Hellblazer”. Tim is joined by Eugenia to discuss this ongoing Oni Press series. We also take note of Brian Hurtt’s source of photo reference, Shorpy.com.

We’ll also hear about what Eugenia‘s doing lately, and this weekend’s Comicdom Con

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#349 Expanding comics’ audience, pt 1

Recently asked on our Facebook group: What would you do if you controlled Marvel and/or DC? This led to another question: How can comics, particularly in the US, gain a larger audience?

No one’s really sure of the answer to the second question, but its a good springboard for podcast discussion of comics evangelism and the state of the industry in general. What role will digital comics play? In the first installment of an occasional series, Tim bounces these questions off our friend Tom Spurgeon.

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#348 Shotaro Ishinomori: Man or manga-making machine?

Shotaro Ishinomori was a very prolific creator of manga, a number of which became staples of live-action children’s TV, such as the Power Rangers and Kamen Rider. Many of his series deal with the relationship between technology and humans, and this week Tim and guest reviewer Deb Aoki discuss two such series, Cyborg 009 and Kikaider — both recently released in English via Comixology.

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