#761 A disturbing visit to “2120”

2120

George Wylesol’s 2120 is a choose-your-own-adventure horror graphic novel that blocks your progress and punishes the reader for cheating. Kumar and Emmet found it disturbing and fascinating. This week, they present their review.

Wylesol interview from The Migratory

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#746 Manga Mermaid Madness!

Merfolk

Patrick Ijima-Washburn (a.k.a. “Patrick W.”) has been doing some deep research on certain themes used in manga. Last year, he told us about scary cats in manga; this time it’s (mostly scary) mermaids — or, to be gender neutral, “merfolk.” Thinking it would be a topic easily covered, he was soon caught in a tsunami of manga fish-people, from adaptations of “The Little Mermaid,” to creepy human-like creatures that live in the water, Creature of the Black Lagoon style. He shares his findings here, focusing on merfolk in the works of (clockwise from left) Kazuo Umezu, Rumiko Takahashi, and Osamu Tezuka.

Patrick’s video about mermaids in manga

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#650 Our favorite comics of the 2010s

Our favorite comics

This week, Emmet, Patrick, Tim, and Chuck Coletta talk about their favorite comics of the past decade! If you’re looking for good comics that you might have missed from the 2010s — from superhero to comedy, historical to horror — we’ll give you plenty of titles to look up!

(All titles below are linked to Amazon – to help support the show, pick up any titles you’re interested in through these links!)

EMMET

Finder: Talisman HC by Carla Speed McNeil

Love In Vain: Robert Johnson 1911-1938, The Graphic Novel by Jean-Michel Dupont and Mezzo

I Love This Part: Hardcover Edition by Tillie Walden

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris (DCP 613)

Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui

Gast by Carol Swain

Giant Days and Steeple by John Allison

Providence by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows

Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett

Julio’s Day by Gilbert Hernandez

 

Orc Stain Volume 1 by James Stokoe

Sally Heathcote, Suffragette by Mary M. Talbot, Bryan Talbot, Kate Charlesworth

The Abaddon by Koren Shadmi

The Experts by Sophie Franz

Surface Tension by Jay Gunn

Special Exits by Joyce Farmer

SNARKED: Forks and Hope by Roger Langridge

Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt by Kieron Gillen and Caspar Wijngaard

Henni by Miss Lasko-Gross

 

PATRICK

Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga by Jiro Kuwata, translated by Sheldon Drzka (To the Batpoles! 64)

Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics Of The 1950s edited by Greg Sadowski and John Benson

Rover Red Charlie by Garth Ennis and Michael Dipascale

Dungeon Quest: Book One by Joe Daly

The Bulletproof Coffin by David Hyne and Shaky Kane

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour

Richard Stark’s Parker series by Darwyn Cooke

Hawkeye by Matt Fraction and David Aja

Moon Knight by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey

Madman In Your Face 3D Special by Michael Allred & Laura Allred

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton (DCP 222)

H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories by Go Tanabe (Tanabe’s take on Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness is discussed in DCP 641)

Providence by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows

Rachel Rising by Terry Moore

Afterlife with Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Francesco Francavilla, and Jack Morelli

Harrow County by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook

Frontier #6 by Emily Carroll

 

TIM AND CHUCK

Gotham Academy by Becky Cloonan and Karl Kerschl

Daredevil by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martin (Brief mention!) (audio version of issue 1 discussed in DCP 313)

Scooby-Doo Team-Up by Sholly Fisch and Dario Brizuela

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (DCP 609)

Life With Archie: The Married Life by Paul Kupperberg, Michael Uslan, Norm Breyfogle, Andrew Pepoy, and Joe Rubenstein (Archie in general is discussed in DCP 338)

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (DCP 596)

Seconds by Brian Lee O’Malley (DCP 419)

The Superior Spider-Man by Dan Slott and various artists (Dan Slott’s earlier Spider-Man work is discussed in DCP 275)

#649 Wandering “Through the Woods”

Through the Woods

Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods (2014) collects a number of her horror web comics. Kumar and Emmet review the book in this episode, and now they believe: a comic can be scary. And they wonder: Is the task of making a comic scary better suited to women?

#641 A Manga “At the Mountains of Madness”

At the Mountains of Madness

Horror writer H.P. Lovecraft understood that it was more upsetting to let the reader imagine the horrific thing, than to actually show it. So, can one really do Lovecraft in comics effectively?

In volume 1 of his comics adaptation of Lovecraft’s H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Volume 1 (Manga), Gou Tanabe (so far) hasn’t spoiled the reveal in the way some other comics creators have, in other Lovecraft-based comics. Emmet and Kumar discuss.

Plugs

Kumar’s novel: Tanuja Ramachandran: Hunter-Seeker

Emmet’s short comics story: Something Wicked 2019

Critiquing Comics #143: “Radio Silence” and “1000 Nightmares”

"Radio Silence" and "1000 Nighmares"

In this episode, Tim and Mulele discuss these comics, submitted by their creators:

  • The members of a rock band in the UK cope with interpersonal issues and the problems of fame in Vanessa Stefaniuk’s Radio Silence.
  • Horror, from the fantastical, and maybe even a little humorous, to the totally factual, in writer Bill Richardson’s 1000 Nightmares (with various artists).

Critiquing Comics #133: “The Old Man of the Mountain” and “On Syntaphore”

Old Man of the Mountain issue 1, by Tom Rapka and Ariez Hernandez, includes an execution-style murder and three teens getting brutally, graphically cut to pieces. And yet, somehow it feels like it’s not meant to be a horror series. What is this comic trying to do?

That question goes double for On Syntaphore, by Lion’s Lips, because, while the art is attractive, the story is hard to discern — and even the reason for that isn’t quite clear.

Tim and Mulele discuss both, and also some listener mail, and Mulele’s upcoming trip to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival!

#288 “Changing Ways” and “Heroic: A Womanthology”

Changing Ways FLASHBACK! A creepy, rainy night. Mysterious red scars appearing on animals and people. Vicious wild pigs roam the streets. Justin Randall’s “Changing Ways” Book 1, published by Gestalt, reviewed by Tim and Brandon.
The Womanthology Heroic: A Womanthology, an anthology of comics created by women (some famous, others not yet) is currently in development and expected later this year from IDW. Tim talks to Athens-based participant Eugenia Koumaki, and IDW editor Mariah Huehner, about the background of and expectations for this project.

This episode was originally published August 1, 2011.

Critiquing Comics 021: “War Within” and “Zombie Headhunter”

Critiquing Comics returZombie Headhunterns! Along with it, the work of Guy LeMay (“Z-Blade XX”) also returns, as he gives us a look at his more recent work. Listen to find out how Tim and Mulele evaluate “War Within” (written by Marcus Jones) and “Zombie Headhunter” (written by Guy and Tamey LeMay), both released under Guy’s Strong Guy Comics imprint!

Critiquing Comics 013: Geist

GeistA society infested and defined by smokelike spirits, and high school factionalized by the issue, make up L.S. Zwarenstein’s “Geist”. Tim and Mulele critique.