#280 Comics for Kids! No, really!

While comics continue to register in the American consciousness as being inherently “for kids”, conversely, the “Wednesday stack” crowd wring their collective hands about an apparent lack of comics readers under the voting age. There are comics out there for kids, but where can you find them? And, is anyone reading them?

Tim investigates these questions and more, with three guests: Buddy Scalera, author of Comics from Start to Finish and now a writer on the new Richie Rich title; Rashad Doucet, creator of My Dog is a Superhero; and Brent Erwin, Co-Publisher and General Partner at APE Entertainment.

#275 Slott Super Stories

Amazing Spider-Man 655This week we veer off into the superhero lane, as longtime webhead Tim compares notes on recent issues of The Amazing Spider-Man with Kumar, who hadn’t read ASM in years & wondered what all the fuss was about over Dan Slott’s ongoing run. Slott does his best to stick to the axiom that “every issue is someone’s first”, so you have to make the bones thrown to fanboys understandable to newbies; how did Kumar fare? Also discussed are the wisdom (or lack thereof) of trying to explain the unexplainable, e.g. “spider sense”, and other things that did or didn’t work for us in ASM 654-657.

Plus, a shoutout to Gerry Alanguilan, author of the newly published Elmer.

#269 Emeralds & Giants

Brandon’s back in Japan (and yes, we’re OK following the earthquake!), and he and Tim discuss I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura. In approaching an emotional topic through fantasy, blurring the lines between the two, is it effective or confusing?

Also, part 2 of Tim’s report on Emerald City Comicon! Notes and links below the jump.

Continue reading #269 Emeralds & Giants

#268 Emerald City 2011, pt 1!

Armed with an awesome press pass, Tim walks the floor of Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon! It’s his first time attending a con, and as everyone keeps telling him, for a first-con experience, you can’t beat Emerald City. As he gathers material for future episodes of this podcast, Tim collects quick interviews, with creators known and unknown! All the names and links are below!

Tim’s Emerald City photo album on Facebook!

Continue reading #268 Emerald City 2011, pt 1!

#267 Writer’s Old Fashioned and the Future of Comics

In San Francisco! Tim finally meets in person some of the Writer’s Old Fashioned folks who have been on the podcast before– (L-R) Matt Silady, Steph Godfrey, Jason McNamara–and meets Matt’s co-teacher, Justin Hall. We catch up on what they’ve been doing comics-wise, and get their thoughts on creating comics, including keeping yourself going after finishing a project, keeping genre fiction interesting, and how the move to digital comics might pan out.

#258 The Tokyo Censorship Law

CensorshipThe Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly recently passed a law that further limits minors’ access to “Any manga, animation, or pictures (but not including real life pictures or footage) that features either sexual or pseudo sexual acts that would be illegal in real life, or sexual or pseudo sexual acts between close relatives whose marriage would be illegal, where such depictions and / or presentations unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate the activity.” Perhaps understandable, but without clear guidelines for determining what is OK and what is not, there are fears of a slippery slope. Could this become defacto, outright censorship? Tim, Kumar, and Mulele discuss the new law, and how this situation compares to the events in the U.S. that led up to the creation of the comics code.

Dan Kanemitsu’s Paper Trail — many good blog postings on the topic

Editors’ defiant comments

Publishers boycott anime convention

“My publisher has banned school uniforms” — (visuals on this site are NOT SAFE FOR WORK)

Child sex in manga: Art or Obscenity? — The Japan Times

JL Roberson touts Deconstructing Comics

#001 “Superman Returns” “Revelations” “Hellboy”

FLASHBACK: THE PULSE-POUNDING ORIGIN! We revisit the very first time, more than five years ago, that Tim, Mulele, and Brandon recorded their comics discussion and put it up on the Net. The episode was originally published Dec. 5, 2005. Topics include the trailer for Superman Returns, Revelations by Paul Jenkins & Humberto Ramos, and Mike Mignola passing off art duties on Hellboy. Oh, and, of course, Star Wars.

#240 Kill “Shakespeare”

Approached by one of its co-authors, Tim, Mulele, and Kumar take him up on his suggestion to review “Kill Shakespeare” from IDW. However, we didn’t promise to like it.

Harvey Pekar, author of “American Splendor,” died recently at age 70. A remembrance of some of his work.

San Diego Comic-Con is over for another year. What are some things that we WISH would have been announced there?