This week, a collection of cut paper comics, each one better than the last. We critique Monarch Monkey and Other Stories, by Brad DeRocher, Dan Mazur, and Hyun Supul.
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Critiquing Comics #036: “The Oswald Chronicles”
A lushly-drawn, colorful fantasy tale of a powerful mouse. What could possibly go wrong? Well, our recording software, for one thing! Tim and Mulele brave technical difficulties to critique J.D. Calderon’s The Oswald Chronicles.
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#338 Everything’s Archie!
It’s been more than 70 years now since the debut of Archie comics, featuring (though not quite from the beginning) America’s favorite love triangle of Archie, Veronica, and Betty. Along with Jughead, Reggie, and the rest of the gang, these characters keep us coming back for more, changing with the times while still presenting an idealized America where drugs, booze, and sex seem not to exist. This week Tim talks with Archie ubercollector (and Coliseum of Comics Back Issue Manager) Jack Copley about what keeps Archie interesting, some of his favorite stories and creators, and “The Archie Room”!
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Critiquing Comics #035: “Fashionable Nonsense”
Benji Ratliffe sent us his four-year-old unpublished work Fashionable Nonsense for critique. It’s a somewhat supernatural tale with a Scott Pilgrim tone. He wrote the script and hired an artist. While it does indeed have some problems — with clarity of the story, as well as storytelling and inking — why not put it out anyway? Tim and Mulele extol the virtues of putting your work out, even if you’re not 100% satisfied with it.
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#057 Tokyo Comics Market
FLASHBACK! On December 31, 2006, Tim visited the Tokyo Comic Market event, and gives his impressions. Also: A Mulele update, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, and Brandon’s review of the movie Eragon! (Originally published January 8, 2007)
Photos below the jump (complete with admittedly goofy captions written in 2007)…
Continue reading #057 Tokyo Comics Market
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#337 Mulele, Jordan, and New York Comicon
Mulele is back from New York Comicon! While he can’t talk about what might have transpired in terms of getting work (which is a whole lot better than saying “nothing happened”!), he has plenty to say about the experience of being there & his impressions of the comics industry, how his thoughts about it changed, and about New York, the city.
While at the con, he ran into Jordan Kotzebue, creator of Hominids, who Tim met at Emerald City 2011. Tim calls him up this week to catch up on his progress, including how our own critique of Hominids changed his approach to the comic.
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#336 “A Drunken Dream”
Up until the late ’60s, Japanese girls’ comics were mainly done by men, and could often be formulaic and sappy. But then several female creators broke into the field and revolutionized the genre. One of them was Moto Hagio, whose stories (even when they had science fiction aspects to them) dwelt on not fitting in, losing what you love, and other themes that could be depressing, but were usually expressed in innovative and compelling ways. Little of her work is available in English, but Fantagraphics released an overview of her work, A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, two years ago. Tim and Kumar review.
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#335 Teenage Love, Middle-age Lust
An experiment with magic brings a mummy to life! And… wow, is he a hunk! Dan Jolley and our friend Natalie Nourigat bring us Wrapped Up in You!
John is 40, in his second marriage, and still dealing with the fallout from the first, especially where his daughters are concerned. With a baby and two cats, he’s dealing with a lot of, er, poop — both literally and figuratively. Will he keep it together, or is that cute singer going to tempt him to mess up his life more? It’s Joe Ollmann’s Mid-Life!
Tim and Brandon discuss both books this week.
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#334 “Magic Knight Rayearth”
In the early ’90s, girls’ comics in Japan took a superheroesque turn with the appearance of Sailor Moon. It was shortly followed by CLAMP’S Magic Knight Rayearth, featuring three 14-year-old girls in a world that reminded them of RPGs.
A few years later, Tokyo Pop and other US publishers took the risk of releasing girls’ comics stateside, with unexpected success. Yes, American girls WILL read comics!
Manga critic Shaenon Garrity joins Tim to talk about the ’90s evolution of shojo manga and its debut in the States, and the place of Magic Knight Rayearth part 1 in that mix.
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Critiquing Comics #034: “Peony Trivet”
Tim and Mulele check out the smooth, sexy Peony Trivet #1, by Ed Greene and Jeff Sims.
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