Deconstructing Comics » Podcast: Episodes
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
A Japanese girl has an altercation with a panda cub at the zoo! That’s the setup for this Asia-themed, mangaesque comic. Fresh off its successful Indiegogo crowdfunding project, Yuki vs. Panda faces its next test: a critique by Tim and Mulele! Will it survive?!
English-speaking manga fans are probably familiar with the name Deb Aoki. She covers Japanese comics for about.com, and is deeply into manga and anything remotely related to it. Deb made a manga geek pilgrimage to Japan recently, and Tim had a chance to sit down and talk with her about Japan, the changing ...
FLASHBACK! Fletcher Hanks created some bizarre, sadistic superhero comics in 1939-1941. Tim and Kumar discuss the Hanks collection I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets!, edited by Paul Karasik. Also: Comic Book Comics #2! (Originally published October 27, 2008)
The Boston Comics Roundtable is a thriving group of creators who have weekly meetings and put out anthology books of their work, including Show & Tell; a Collection of Comics about Teaching & Learning; and The Greatest of All Time. This week Tim talks to anthology co-editor (and comics creator) ...
You’ve probably heard of Helen Keller, one of the first (but not the first!) blind & deaf Americans to become educated. If so, then you probably also know the name Annie Sullivan – Helen’s teacher. Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, by Joseph Lambert, is a graphic novel ...
Three kids, regarded as troublemakers who’ll never amount to anything, are the stars of Roland Harrison‘s Black Mountain Elementary. Will a zombie apocalypse in the lunchroom allow them to redeem themselves? Tim and Mulele critique.
Occasionally our friend Dale Wilson in L.A. sends Mulele some comics he’s come across, and we like to talk about them on the show. This episode’s batch tends to lean violent…including two involuntary arm removals. Mulele and Tim comment on: Ted McKeever’s Mondo #1 Jonathan Way$hak’s ...
In Chris Reynolds’ “Mauretania” comics, characters bake interesting pies, delight in eerie shops, join trendy police forces, and report on events they will never remember. Stories drift from point to point like dreams. School starts and a kid on summer vacation somehow doesn’t ...
When you think of ’80s comics, Berke Breathed’s Bloom County is one that belongs in the pantheon with Watchmen and Dark Knight. It pushed many boundaries on the ever-conservative funnies page, from modern dating to issue advocacy, balancing cumudgeonliness with exuberance and hope. But how ...
If you’re into conspiracy-theory comics, “Order” sounds good on paper: a secret society covering up the existence of a gate to Hell near Denver. Unfortunately, Tim and Mulele find the Truthful Comics take on this concept comes up short. Listen and find out why.
The two main components of a comic are, of course, story and art. Your comic needs to be on point with both to work. This week’s comic totally brings one, and largely wings the other. We discuss Zombuu by Curtis “Artzuu” Hamilton.
A sexy, geeky female superhero? The concept has possibilities, but Tim and Mulele find some problems with Sam Johnson’s Geek Girl…
Waaaay back in July 2010, Tim talked to David Steinberger of ComiXology about the emergence of digital comics. Since then, simultaneous release of digital with paper has become the norm. And, guess what – flying in the face of earlier fears of some in the industry, digital comics have actually ...
We start the year off right with a critique of Irish creator Mark Egan’s comics statement about call centers, Back Office!
Dave Sim’s massive “Cerebus” series creates a dilemma for a comics reviewer. It contains some fantastic cartooning, hilarious scenes, and spot-on dialog. And yet… other parts feature highly misogynistic views and out-of-whack text-to-pictures ratios, both of which make it “hard ...
Tim & Brandon discuss “Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman” by Ron Marz and Igor Kordey! Also: Brandon talks about an online figure-drawing class he took, and we different philosophies of how to become a versatile artist. Is it better to start with figure-drawing training, or is it better ...
Two astronauts battle their own ship’s computer. Sound familiar? No, it’s not 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s Lee Milewski’s”With the Earth Above Us“. Not unlike Kubrick’s movie, this one strikes Tim and Mulele as being a bit hard to follow…