Podcasts by Deconstructing Comics
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#791 Daniel Clowes’“Monica” from 2023-12-13T13:00:53
Monica is Dan Clowes’s richest and most rewarding book in years, combining the surrealism of early works like Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron with the multi-genre anthology approach of his more re...
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#790“Social Fiction”by Chantal Montellier from 2023-12-06T13:00:50
Chantal Montellier‘s Social Fiction, published by New York Review Comics with a translation by Geoffrey Brock, is a collection of comics fueled by political anger, hauntingly farsighted satire and ...
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#789 Jack Kirby’s“Capt. America and the Falcon”#193-194:“Madbomb” from 2023-11-29T13:00:29
When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel in 1975, the first series he worked on starred the character that was one of Kirby’s earliest claims to fame: Captain America, created in 1940 by Kirby and writer...
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#291“MONSTER”(Justifiable Homicide? pt 2) from 2023-11-22T13:00:12
FLASHBACK! Planning a murder that you think will prevent future murders? That’s the premise — or, at least, one of the premises — of Monster, Naoki Urasawa’s 18-volume series. Set in Germany, the s...
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#290“NEXUS”(Justifiable Homicide? pt 1) from 2023-11-15T13:00:49
FLASHBACK! We begin a two-review series on comics that ask hard questions about whether murder can ever be justified. This week, Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus. Beginning in the early ’80s, Baro...
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#788 Alan Moore’s“1963” from 2023-11-08T13:00:05
In 1993, the Image revolution was underway, itself a result of the 1986 earthquake brought about by Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. Moore was on a mission to count...
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#462 Usagi Yojimbo from 2023-11-01T12:00:10
FLASHBACK! Originating out of the same ’80s black-and-white/anthropomorphic boom that brought us the Ninja Turtles, Usagi Yojimbo is one of the few comics of that batch that are still going today. ...
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#787 Jack Kirby’s“OMAC”: The World That’s Going from 2023-10-25T12:00:04
The run of Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps was bright but short, lasting only through eight bi-monthly issues. This time Tim and Emmet discuss issues 5 through eight, covering a shocking, bri...
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#786 Jack Kirby’s“OMAC”: The World That’s Coming from 2023-10-18T12:00:59
One of Kirby’s late efforts at DC was OMAC: One-Man Army Corps, which focuses on “the world that’s coming”: what miracles, and horrors, technology would bring. Of course, some of it seems ridiculou...
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“Black Panther”(2018) from 2023-10-11T12:00
Paul of “To the Batpoles” joins Tim and Mulele to discuss 2018’s “Black Panther” film, trying to separate political filmmaking from good filmmaking, and having different experiences based on whethe...
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#785“Berserk”: The Prosaic Past from 2023-10-04T12:00:30
After covering the first four volumes of Kentaro Miura’s Berserk a few months back, Tim and Kumar decided to keep going. In volumes 5 and 6, the lengthy (volumes 3 to 14!) flashback to Guts’s origi...
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#784 Jack Kirby’s“Kamandi”: Wipeout from 2023-09-27T12:00:48
There’s a new sheriff in town in post-Great Disaster Earth: Gerry Conway took over as writer in Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth issue 38. Jack Kirby stayed on as artist for issues 38-40 before leavi...
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#783 Jack Kirby’s“Kamandi”#35-37: Off the deep end from 2023-09-20T12:00:06
Jack Kirby reaches the end of his writing run on Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth. After top-shelf stories about a Soviet spacecraft and an “eviction battle” in a resort hotel with crocs in the pool,...
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#782 Ninja Turtles:“Mutant Mayhem” from 2023-09-13T12:00:50
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first appeared in 1984 as a violent, gory homage to/parody of Frank Miller’s Daredevil, among other popular mainstream titles of the tim...
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#781“The Hard Switch”and“Pet Peeves” from 2023-09-06T12:00:08
This time we look once again at new books coming from British publisher Avery Hill Press. Owen D. Pomery’s The Hard Switch is a nice slice of indy sci-fi; Tim and Kumar review. Then, Emmet joins Ti...
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#548 Jaime Hernandez interview from 2023-08-30T12:00:30
FLASHBACK! Love and Rockets continues to impress, and in this episode Koom asks creator Jaime Hernandez some burning questions. Hernandez talks about writing Maggie and Hopey, the dynamics of worki...
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#780 Jim Shooter interview from 2023-08-23T12:00:41
Jim Shooter was Marvel Editor-in-Chief from 1978 to 1987, the era of Frank Miller’s Daredevil, Chris Claremont’s X-men, Secret Wars (written by Shooter himself), the West Coast Avengers and more. T...
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#440“The Love Bunglers” from 2023-08-16T12:00:11
FLASHBACK! Did you think Love&Rockets was over?! Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez continue to release new work about once a year, and in this episode Kumar and Matt sit down and discuss some of it, with...
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#305“Love&Rockets”: Gilbert Hernandez from 2023-08-09T12:00
FLASHBACK! In episode #300, we took a look at the sometimes wacky and cartoony Love&Rockets work of Jaime Hernandez. This week, Tim and Kumar are again joined by Tom Spurgeon to look at the somewha...
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#300“Love&Rockets”: Jaime Hernandez from 2023-08-02T12:00:28
FLASHBACK! The series Love&Rockets, featuring individual works by the Hernandez brothers, started in 1981 as a self-published magazine, but was quickly picked up by Fantagraphics. Over the last 30 ...
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Critiquing Comics #233:“The World of Tomorrow”and“Prism Stalker” from 2023-07-26T12:00:29
In this edition, we rejoin The World of Tomorrow, a comic we discussed the first issue of five years ago! This is the one about an actor in, roughly, the 1950s, who stars in a space ranger TV show ...
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#779 Jack Kirby’s“Kamandi”#32-34: Big Action Issue(s)! from 2023-07-19T12:00:33
No longer just a look at Earth AD, Kamandi issues 32 through 34 introduce us to an alien who’s literally a ball of energy! Dr. Canus finds a way to give the alien a human body – but just what form ...
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#778 K. Briggs’“Macbeth” from 2023-07-12T12:00:41
Flush with dark and mysterious symbolism, K. Briggs‘ adaptation of Macbeth from Avery Hill publishing is a challenging and visually exciting piece of work. Kumar and Emmet discuss the comic’s appro...
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“Thor: Ragnarok”(2017) from 2023-07-05T12:00:25
“Tim Catches Up with the MCU” continues to roll as Tim and Mulele reach Thor: Ragnarok. It has perhaps the most humor of any MCU movie up to this point; is that a good thing? Also, Tim experiences ...
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#777 Jack Kirby’s“Kamandi”#29-31:“Up, up, and away!” from 2023-06-28T12:00:04
As we continue through Jack Kirby‘s 1970s issues of Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, Tim and Emmet keep slowing down! In this episode, nearly 30 minutes go into discussing Kamandi’s encounter with S...
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#776 Emily Carrington reveals“Our Little Secret” from 2023-06-21T12:00:29
Openly discussing being sexually abused, particularly if it was during childhood, is not easy. Emily Carrington has stepped forward with her memoir of being abused as a teenager, Our Little Secret,...
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#775 Rina Ayuyang draws (on) her Filipino heritage from 2023-06-14T12:00:30
Rina Ayuyang has called on her Filipino heritage in her graphic novels Blame This On the Boogie and, just out, The Man in the McIntosh Suit. This time, Adam talks with her about using historical ph...
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Critiquing Comics #232:“Sons of Thunder”and“The Lamb” from 2023-06-07T12:00:29
Critiquing Comics is back, with discussions of two interesting comics from listeners. Stephen Grow sent us Sons of Thunder, a one-panel cartoon aimed at Christians and reflecting life in a small-to...
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#774 Jack Kirby’s“Kamandi”#24-28: Havin’a look-see for some fight-fight from 2023-05-31T12:00:12
While Kamandi‘s exorcism story in issue 24 leaves something to be desired, never mind that: the subsequent four issues, as discussed in this episode, deliver the kinds of interesting concepts we’ve...
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#773 Jack Kirby’s“Kamandi”#19-23: On to Monster Lake! from 2023-05-24T12:00:19
In this segment of Jack Kirby’s Kamandi series, we visit a version of 1920s Chicago that seems to be drawing on, or prefiguring, various other pop culture stories, and then move on to Monster Lake,...
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#772 Evan McGorray and a translation about being trans from 2023-05-17T12:00:53
Translation is a topic seldom covered on this show (Kumar has talked about it several times, most notably here). This time Emmet talks with French-to-English comics translator Evan McGorray about t...
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“Spider-Man: Homecoming”(2017) from 2023-05-10T12:00:22
Spider-man is a longtime favorite of Tim’s, in terms of comics reading, but how does he feel about Spider-Man: Homecoming? Particularly in light of the fact that it’s the first live-action Spider-M...
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#771 Jose Villarrubia on restoring Richard Corben from 2023-05-03T12:00:29
Colorist Jose Villarrubia had trouble getting work from Marvel because his style was “too artistic” — but then other creators started asking for him, and he’s colored many Marvel titles since then....
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#770 Jack Kirby’s“Kamandi”#11-18: Kliklak forever from 2023-04-26T12:00:03
This week we continue our look at Jack Kirby’s run on Kamandi, another of the DC properties he created. Tim and Emmet find that issues 11 through 18 include a giant insect, a violent horse race, an...
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#769 Tracy Butler on“Lackadaisy”–the animated cartoon! from 2023-04-19T12:00:14
Back in 2009, Tim talked with web cartoonist Tracy Butler about her beautiful, sepia-toned 1920s-with-cats strip Lackadaisy, and whether she’d ever quit her day job to focus on the strip. Since the...
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#768“Berserk”v. 1-4 from 2023-04-12T12:00:09
Berserk abruptly ended when creator Kentaro Miura died two years ago, later resurrected by Miura’s assistants and his friend Kouji Mori. Neither Tim nor Kumar had read this violent, complex manga, ...
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#767 Jack Kirby’s“Kamandi”#1-10: It’s a knockout! from 2023-04-05T12:00:26
If you can’t get the rights to Planet of the Apes, do the next best thing: get Jack Kirby to come up with a concept that’s Apes-adjacent! That was DC Comics’ strategy in the early ’70s. What result...
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#766“Time Breakers” from 2023-03-29T12:00:46
In most time travel stories, there’s an imperative to fix any paradoxes created by the time travel. But in Rachel Pollack and Chris Weston’s Time Breakers, paradoxes are embraced rather than explai...
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Critiquing Comics #231:“Pimp Killer” from 2023-03-25T12:00:21
When it comes to truth in advertising, the title of this comic is an award winner: Ghezal Omar‘s Pimp Killer (with art by Ayhan Hayrula and lettering by Phillip Ginn) is about a woman named L.A. Jo...
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#765“The Re-Up”#2 and“Megillah Sunday Funnies” from 2023-03-22T12:00:55
This podcast continues to be a booster of Chad Bilyeu (“Chad in Amsterdam“), and he’s been busy lately! In addition to releasing the second issue of The Re-Up, his recollection of that time when he...
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Critiquing Comics #230:“Thready”#2 and“Tales from the Interface”#4 from 2023-03-15T12:00:15
Sometimes the topics of Critiquing Comics episodes come back for seconds – or thirds! We look at a couple of these repeat submitters this week: Thready #2, “Tuesday,” by Brandon Hayes with art by J...
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#764“Past Tense”, Tough Translation, and Audio Drama from 2023-03-08T13:00:06
In the year 2038, invisible drones are sent to the past to pick up any event you want to see, if you have the money to pay for it. One woman using the service discovers a secret that puts her in da...
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#763 Graffiti and Comics from 2023-03-01T13:00:49
This time Tim finds some intersections of comics and the world of graffiti. First, Argentine graffiti artist and animator Cof talks about his cartoonish art style, the difference between a graffiti...
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#762 MCU Phase 4: Why so much complaining? from 2023-02-22T13:00:33
Marvel’s “Phase Four” block of movies and TV shows has wrapped up, and it’s occasioned a lot of annoyance online for all sorts of reasons. Are the complaints legitimate? Is it ginned-up anger just ...
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#761 A disturbing visit to“2120” from 2023-02-15T13:00:58
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 w...
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#760“The Third Person” from 2023-02-08T13:00:30
What’s it like to be trans AND have Dissociative Identity Disorder? What’s it like to have a therapist who doesn’t have enough training to really help you? Emma Grove has experienced this and has p...
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Critiquing Comics #229:“Christiania” from 2023-02-01T13:00:30
Christiania, a silent comic written by 13-year-old Abi Behe, is a take on the ills of social media by someone who has never lived in a world without online culture. But silent comics can be a story...
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Critiquing Comics #228:“Galacto: Pit Fighter”#2“Requiem for a Humanzee” from 2023-01-28T13:00:13
Kirt Burdick is back with the second issue of his hyper-violent science fiction comic Galacto: Pit Fighter, “Requiem for a Humanzee.” It’s good and bloody, but is it bloody good? Tim and Adam criti...
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#759 Kirby’s Fourth World(?):“Captain Victory, Graphite Edition” from 2023-01-25T13:00:24
After he left DC Comics, but before he returned to produce Even Gods Must Die and The Hunger Dogs, Jack Kirby produced a sort of substitute Fourth World story called Captain Victory and the Galacti...
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Critiquing Comics #227:“Mayfield Eight”#1-#4 from 2023-01-18T13:00:54
“A biker revenge tale” isn’t a story pitch that appeals to everyone, but any kind of story can get a thumbs up if it’s well-done! This time Tim and Adam discuss the first four issues of Mayfield Ei...
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Critiquing Comics #226:“Immortalis”#1 and #2 from 2023-01-11T13:00:54
A few weeks back, Tim and Jason discussed Sean Lewis’ Immortalis— issue 3. This time, we’re reading the first two issues, and grasping, in some ways, why he made issue 3 first. But if you need to s...
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#758“Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands” from 2023-01-04T13:00:33
What happens when a group of people must work in the middle of nowhere, with virtually no supervision or accountability? Generally it’s not a good situation, as Kate Beaton, now well-known as the c...
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Critiquing Comics #225:“Holy West”#1 from 2022-12-28T13:00:19
A supernatural western, Holy West, captivates Tim and Adam in this episode. The comic features smart writing by Seth Jacob and beautiful art by Daniel Irizarri. Now that we’ve given away whether we...
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“Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2”(2017) from 2022-12-21T13:00:35
“TIM CATCHES UP WITH THE MCU” continues: Peter Quill (whose name we both blanked on while recording the show!) and the gang are back (yeah, BACK in 2017) and Tim (feeling encouraged by being a mere...
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#757“Nemesis the Warlock” from 2022-12-14T13:00:36
Kumar and Matt E celebrate the life and work of Kevin O’Neill with a look back at his breakout work on Nemesis The Warlock in 2000 A.D. with writer Pat Mills. O’Neill’s art very style in itself is ...
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Critiquing Comics #224:“Immortalis” from 2022-12-07T13:00:37
Immortalis is the story of a 19th-century woman, transplanted to the 21st, who is expected to be the world’s savior in a war between gods. But how did she get to the 21st century? Who is this team ...
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#756“Tokyo Rose–Zero Hour” from 2022-11-30T13:00:04
If you’re at all aware of Tokyo Rose, it’s most likely simply as a woman heard over a radio in a movie set in World War II. But who was she, how did she end up in that situation, and what was the r...
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Critiquing Comics #223:“Here 2 Cypher” from 2022-11-23T13:00:47
Here 2 Cypher is an anthology of stories written by Brandon Hayes, whose story Thready Tim and Jason enjoyed back in January. Does this set of stories stack up against that book? The guys evaluate ...
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“Doctor Strange”(2016) from 2022-11-16T13:00:02
“Tim Catches Up with the MCU” discusses Doctor Strange — an enjoyable yet problematic movie, based on a 1963 origin story (in Strange Tales #110) whose ideas about race and gender roles are, at bes...
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#361 “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” marathon! from 2022-11-12T13:00:40
FLASHBACK! While this podcast has covered the odd League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book here and there, no one has dared think of trying to discuss all of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill‘s series in ...
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#755“Best of EC Stories, Artisan Edition” from 2022-11-09T13:00:38
EC Comics, a name that brings to mind Fredric Wertham and the coming of the Comics Code, also brings to mind some very well-done comics by the likes of Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Williamson, a...
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“Captain America: Civil War”(2016) from 2022-11-02T12:00:10
Tim Catches Up with the MCU continues as Tim and Mulele discuss Avengers 2.5, er, Captain America: Civil War! (Originally published on Patreon September 28, 2019.) Brought to you by: Checkered Past...
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#754“Peanuts”: Schulz’s Silent Sundays 1957-1961 from 2022-10-26T12:00:19
Charles Schulz’s Peanuts is a master class in how to do a comic strip. This week Kumar and Tim are focusing on a five-year period of Schulz’s career, 1957 to 1961, and 25 Sunday strips that demonst...
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#753 Kirby’s Fourth World:“Old Gods and New” from 2022-10-19T12:00:46
John Morrow is co-founder of Two Morrows Publishing, a company that owes its start to John’s interest in Jack Kirby. His Kirby fan newsletter grew into the company that’s now publishing his history...
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Critiquing Comics #222:“Berserker Monk” from 2022-10-15T12:00:50
Berserker Monk is a violent, but slightly humorous, comic that’s been pitched as “Tarantino meets The Last Airbender.” The creators — Josh Thompson, Gabriel Roldan, Leland Bjerg — are currently kic...
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#752 Shanti Rai’s“Sennen” from 2022-10-12T12:00:13
What are the people like on the other side of the mountain? Are there any there? Where does the stuff, the objects, the food we enjoy in our daily lives come from? These questions are central to Sh...
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#751 Rachel Pollack’s“Doom Patrol” from 2022-10-05T12:00:19
In the mid-’90s, Grant Morrison’s innovative run on Doom Patrol was followed by that of Rachel Pollack, who took advantage of Morrison’s legacy, the greatest variety of sexual minority characters o...
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#750 Jack Kirby’s“The Demon” from 2022-09-28T12:00:22
After leaving DC’s Jimmy Olsen book, Jack Kirby needed something else to keep his monthly page count up to the level he had contracted for. One of the books he came up with was The Demon, the resul...
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Critiquing Comics #221:“Steamgear Inc.” from 2022-09-21T12:00:17
Alexandra (her friends call her “Ax”) is trying to get in touch with hero team Steamgear Defenders; she wants to become a member. But will they turn out to be all they’re cracked up to be? Will she...
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#749 Marta Chudolinska:“An insider and an outsider” from 2022-09-14T12:00:14
Marta Chudolinska (who-doh-lean-ska), the child of Polish immigrants to Canada, makes comics and other art in Toronto. Koom talks with her about her ongoing project Babcia, about her grandmother an...
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Critiquing Comics #220:“Amazing Tales”#5 from 2022-09-07T12:00:20
This time, we critique the fifth installment in David Dye‘s “Amazing Tales” anthology series. In the main story, we again join the troops of Dropship Fifteen, in a story that gets a bit harrowing… ...
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#748 Elizabeth Sandifer on Netflix’s“Sandman” from 2022-08-31T12:00:37
While Netflix’s Sandman series has gone over well with many fans, not everyone is pleased. This week Emmet talks with comics commentator Elizabeth Sandifer, who has found the series to be vastly in...
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#747“Suzanne: The Jazz Age Goddess of Tennis” from 2022-08-24T12:00:53
Suzanne Lenglen was a trendsetting tennis star in the 1920s, among the first to challenge the notion that tennis players had to be amateurs, running themselves into debt to keep competing, in order...
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#746 Manga Mermaid Madness! from 2022-08-17T12:00:53
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) mermai...
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#745 Noah Van Sciver and“Joseph Smith and the Mormons” from 2022-08-10T12:00:19
Joseph Smith and the Mormons is an objective look at the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Author and artist Noah Van Sciver took a bit of heat from the church for not por...
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#744“Fist of the North Star” from 2022-08-03T12:00:34
If you’re looking for over-the-top — way, way over — action and violence, then Fist of the North Star, by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, is the comic for you! Kumar and Jordan breathlessly recount their...
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Critiquing Comics #219:“Rougarou”and“The Poet and the Flea” from 2022-07-27T12:00:29
This week, a Critiquing Comics double feature: During the U.S. Civil War, a confederate soldier is changed into a dangerous creature by a mysterious woman. His comrade, now a marshal, tracks him af...
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#743“Stray Bullets” from 2022-07-20T12:00:38
David Lapham’s Stray Bullets “humanist crime” series began in 1995 and shows a number of characters interacting between the 1970s and 1990s, with the stories told nonsequentially. Kumar and Matt do...
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#742“Crisis on Infinite Earths” from 2022-07-13T12:00:19
Crisis on Infinite Earths was an attempt by Marv Wolfman and George Perez to clean up DC Comics continuity and make the publisher’s line more reader-friendly. The story showed the Anti-Monitor tryi...
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“Ant-Man”(2015) from 2022-07-06T12:00:25
It’s another episode of TIM CATCHES UP WITH THE MCU, in which we wrap up Phase Two with Ant-Man. When this movie was released in 2015, some thought this might be where Marvel Studios would finally ...
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Critiquing Comics #218:“A Lungful of Brine” from 2022-06-30T12:00:14
This time, Jason introduces us to his former student Dan Tappan‘s first Kickstarter project, a nautical horror anthology with the appropriately horrifying title A Lungful of Brine. Tim joins him fo...
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#741 Anneli Furmark from 2022-06-29T12:00:03
Anneli Furmark is a Swedish illustrator and comics creator whose latest book is Walk Me to the Corner, in which two married middle-aged women become attracted to each other. Anneli talks with Koom ...
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#740 Gary Spencer Millidge (“Strangehaven”) interview from 2022-06-22T12:00:13
Strangehaven is a series started by Gary Spencer Millidge in 1995. As he does everything himself (including publishing, for the first 18 issues), it has come out on an irregular schedule, but the c...
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Critiquing Comics #217:“Scion of Night”#1 from 2022-06-18T12:28:24
A man in Portland, Oregon, finds himself turning into some kind of neck-biting monster (a blue vampire who doesn’t mind sunlight?), but he can’t remember anything about who he is. What’s causing th...
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#739 Kirby’s Fourth World:“The Hunger Dogs” from 2022-06-15T12:00:47
Jack Kirby’s final Fourth World story is the 1984 graphic novel The Hunger Dogs, which continues some of the themes we saw in Even Gods Must Die, such as the encroachment of technology. Tim and Emm...
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#738“The Re-Up” from 2022-06-08T12:00:14
One of our favorite indie creators has long been Amsterdam-based Chad Bilyeu, who’s back with the start of a new series, The Re-Up. Chad tends to deal in nonfiction and memoir, and this time is no ...
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Critiquing Comics #216:“Bran Bionic: The Sable Peril” from 2022-06-04T12:00:28
Longtime web cartoonist Don Ahé has asked us to look at his new story Bran Bionic: The Sable Peril, about a boy with some bionic body parts who’s stranded on an island. Tim and Adam looked around o...
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#737 Kirby’s Fourth World:“Even Gods Must Die” from 2022-06-01T12:00:09
In 1984, ten years after the last of Jack Kirby‘s Fourth World books was canceled, Kirby was brought back to do a brand new New Gods story in the final issue of a series that had been reprinting th...
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Critiquing Comics #215:“Usher of the Dead”#1 from 2022-05-28T12:00:50
Blood Moon Comics has sent us another of their titles: Usher of the Dead #1 by Keith Rommel and Samir Simao. Will Tim and Jason find as many problems with it as they did with Blood Moon’s previous ...
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#736“Batman and the Outsiders”vol. 1 from 2022-05-25T12:00:33
One of DC’s most fondly remembered ’80s series is Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo‘s Batman and the Outsiders. Tim, always a Marvel true believer, is just now reading it for the first time, but he’s recr...
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#735 Kirby’s Fourth World: “Mister Miracle” #13-18 from 2022-05-18T12:00:48
Jack Kirby‘s Mister Miracle continued on for a year or so after his other Fourth World books had been canceled. This may be why much of issues 13-18 seem disconnected from the typical Fourth World ...
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#734 Ron Randall,“Trekker,”and Decompressed Storytelling from 2022-05-11T12:00:03
What’s creator Ron Randall been up to since we talked with him last? He’s continuing his comic Trekker, now 35 years since its inception, and is up to his seventh Kickstarter for the series. He’s b...
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#733 Kirby’s Fourth World:“Mister Miracle”#7-12 from 2022-05-04T12:00:42
Tim and Emmet continue their read through Jack Kirby’s Fourth World comics with Mister Miracle issues 7 through 12. Is there as much meaning in these books as there was in the first six, or is it b...
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Critiquing Comics #214:“The 9 Circles”#1 from 2022-04-30T12:00:04
A drifter in the Old West gives confession to an alcoholic priest. Demons attack and the drifter, who has special powers, dispels them. That’s the opening to The 9 Circles: Marshal Law Issue One fr...
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#732“The Immortal Hulk” from 2022-04-27T12:00:06
The Immortal Hulk won a fair amount of praise, including for Al Ewing‘s writing (although also censure for the hate speech hidden in Joe Bennett‘s art). Is the praise earned? Or is the book interes...
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#731“Judge Dredd” from 2022-04-20T12:00:30
Judge Dredd, created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, first appeared in 1977 and is as mainstream in the UK as Marvel and DC are considered to be in the US. Until recently, Kumar h...
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#730 Kirby’s Fourth World:“Forever People”and“New Gods”end from 2022-04-13T12:00:03
Jack Kirby‘s big plans for his four Fourth World books were cut short when DC abruptly cancelled all but one of them. The Forever People and New Gods both ended with their 11th issues, dated April ...
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#729 Nancy Collins’“Swamp Thing” from 2022-03-30T12:00:06
While Kumar read Swamp Thing by Alan Moore and other ’70s and ’80s versions of the character well after they were published, his first “real time” reading of swampy was the early ’90s run written b...
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#728 Kirby’s Fourth World:“Mister Miracle”#1-#6 from 2022-03-23T12:00:59
Our journey through Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” books now takes us to the first six issues of Mister Miracle, a change of pace from the other three books, giving us a more straightforward narrative...
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#727 Kirby’s Fourth World:“New Gods”#1-#6 from 2022-03-16T12:00
While the Forever People are (mistakenly, in our view) seen by many as “cheesy,” Jack Kirby’s New Gods has been a relatively well-regarded member of the Fourth World stable — if only for its focus ...
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#726 Kirby’s Fourth World:“The Forever People”#2-#8 from 2022-03-09T13:00:39
After reading Jack Kirby‘s wacky Jimmy Olsen run, Tim and Emmet weren’t sure what to expect from the first six issues of his Forever People series. What we found was, yes, ideas and concepts by the...
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#725 Jim Rugg on“Street Angel”“Hulk: Grand Design”and more! from 2022-03-02T13:00:47
Jim Rugg is known for his indy hit Street Angel, for being half of the duo hosting the super-prolific Cartoonist Kayfabe videos series, and for illustrating other works such as Cecil Castellucci’s ...
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#724“Young Shadow” from 2022-02-23T13:00:38
Superheroes are the stuff of kids’ fantasies. Who among us hasn’t fantasized about having powers, putting on a costume and fighting crime? Ben Sears’ graphic novel Young Shadow is a presentation of...
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#723 “EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest” from 2022-02-16T13:00:04
EC Comics are most commonly associated with the horror stories that shocked parents and U.S. Senators in 1954. But EC Comics also had something to say about prejudice against racial or ethnic group...
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#722 Kirby’s Fourth World:“Jimmy Olsen”pt 2 from 2022-02-09T13:00:13
The second half of Jack Kirby‘s run on Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen continues to throw out idea after mind-blowing idea. These comics are crazy, and somewhat exhausting. But how do they stand up as s...
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Critiquing Comics #213:“Bric-A-Brac” from 2022-02-02T13:00:30
This time, a Christmas-themed comic. Isn’t it a little late for that? A seasonal comic may be a rather odd choice, especially one that has more military maneuvers in it than good cheer. But it’s ap...
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#721 Kirby’s Fourth World:“Jimmy Olsen”pt 1 from 2022-01-26T13:00:43
By the end of the 1960s, Jack Kirby had had enough of Marvel. He felt that the company had not treated him well enough for him to justify introducing the new characters and concepts he’d been toyin...
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Critiquing Comics #212:“Second Place” from 2022-01-19T13:00:16
Weight training is very big in space. At least, on the planet Cankee, where Earth-style weightlifting has caught on like wildfire. That’s the setup for Second Place, by Ben Goldsmith, Ed Smith, and...
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Critiquing Comics #211:“Thready” from 2022-01-15T13:00:13
Thready is a comic about a week in the life of a character who is bipolar. That’s him in the picture, although we suspect that appearance is symbolic of how he feels. This time, Tim and Jason discu...
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#720“The Other 1980s” from 2022-01-12T13:00:01
There were several landmark comics titles in the 1980s (do we really need to name them?), but unfortunately they tend to overshadow much of the other interesting work of the decade. Brannon Costell...
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#719“Demon Slayer” from 2022-01-05T13:00:09
The latest manga sensation is Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer. Both the manga and the anime have broken records (including in theaters in Japan, during a pandemic) around the world, including in th...
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“Avengers: Age of Ultron”(2015) from 2021-12-29T13:00:49
“Tim Catches Up with the MCU” moves on to the second Avengers movie, Age of Ultron, and Tim reveals something that’s been bothering him all along about one of the actors in these movies… Brought to...
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#718“No One Else” from 2021-12-22T13:00:18
After years of putting her life on hold to care for her father, her father passes on. How does she react? What about her son, who feels his grandpa’s death may be his fault? R. Kikuo Johnson’s No O...
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#717“Chad in Amsterdam”#6 from 2021-12-15T13:00:02
Chad Bilyeu, an American living in Amsterdam, has been a favorite of ours over on Critiquing Comics for the past several years. With the sixth issue of his Chad in Amsterdam series, we’ve promoted ...
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Critiquing Comics #210:“Epic Tavern’s Tales from the Fantastical Crimes Unit” from 2021-12-11T13:00:17
Epic Tavern’s Tales from the Fantastical Crimes Unit gives us a noir-type detective on the case of a kidnapped centaur woman. What’s that? You’ve never heard of Epic Tavern? You didn’t know it’s a ...
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#716 1950s“World’s Finest”might be world’s goofiest from 2021-12-08T13:00:23
If you’re not into the drama of the past few decades of DC Comics, come with us back to the 1950s, when the exploits of Batman and Superman in World’s Finest Comics made the ’60s Batman TV show loo...
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#715 Comics adaptations:“Dune”(1984) and“Bram Stoker’s Dracula”(1992) from 2021-12-01T13:00:37
Sometimes comics adaptations of movies can have as much, or more, significance than the films themselves. Marvel‘s 1984 adaptation of David Lynch‘s Dune film, for example, marked Bill Sienkiewicz‘s...
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#714 Debbie Jenkinson from 2021-11-24T01:00:21
Ghosting is about a bus driver in a budding relationship with a woman who suddenly disappears from his life. Has he simply been ghosted? Or is there more to it? Emmet was captivated by the book (wi...
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Critiquing Comics #209:“Producing the End of the World” from 2021-11-17T13:00:19
Anthologies have traditionally been something of a bear to critique, especially if they’re not very good. Producing the End of the World has solved that problem — both by sending us a media preview...
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#713“Second Coming”Comes Back from 2021-11-10T13:00:27
Mark Russell&Richard Pace’s Second Coming stirred up controversy before it even came out, because it was a comic book pairing Jesus Christ with a superhero. But once it did hit the stands, the revi...
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Critiquing Comics #208:“Amazing Tales”#4 from 2021-11-03T12:00:14
David Dye has been one of our favorites here on Critiquing Comics; Tim and Mulele even interviewed him once. He’s back now with Amazing Tales #4, in which he takes a turn toward horror. Jason joins...
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#712 San Diego Comic-Con Begins from 2021-10-27T12:00:57
San Diego Comicon has always been about more than comics! That’s the contention of producer and journalist Mathew Klickstein, who joins Tim this week to tell us all about his audio documentary podc...
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“Guardians of the Galaxy”(2014) from 2021-10-20T12:00:49
“Tim Catches Up with the MCU” continues with our look at “Guardians of the Galaxy.” How does it rank in Tim and Mulele’s MCU viewing so far? Also, are we each using different criteria to evaluate t...
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#609“Saga”(a non-gushing review) from 2021-10-17T06:40:48
FLASHBACK! Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, has been a bestselling book for Image Comics for years, and fawned over by critics and readers alike. While Emmet finds a fair number of thin...
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#711 Tom Scioli’s“Kirby” from 2021-10-13T12:00:22
Tom Scioli’s Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics is a bio in comics form and written in the first person, from Kirby’s perspective. Why did Scioli handle it that way, and does it work? ...
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Critiquing Comics #207:“Texas Tracts” from 2021-10-06T12:00:50
Texas Tracts, by Rachelle Meyer, is a series of three short comics, modeled in format after the Christian evangelical “Chick Tracts” by Jack Chick. Rachelle’s well-drawn comics, in contrast, reflec...
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“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”(2014) from 2021-09-29T12:00:53
In this episode of “Tim Catches Up with the MCU”, Tim and Mulele discuss the political thriller “The Winter Soldier”. Brought to you by: The Quarter-Bin podcast Our supporters on Patreon
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#710 Naoki Urasawa’s“Pluto” from 2021-09-22T12:00:50
You’re probably aware of the Osamu Tezuka character Astro Boy (called Tetsuwon Atom in Japan). Starting in 2003, Naoki Urasawa (the creator of Monster) began his own take on a particular Astro Boy ...
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Critiquing Comics #206:“Root and Branch” from 2021-09-18T12:00:02
Root and Branch is a comic that flirts with the fantasy genre, but is more concerned about a clash of cultures: a traveling elf meeting humans for the first time. This is a web comic, created by Pi...
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#709“Air Gear” from 2021-09-15T12:00:42
Shonen manga are known for putting their protagonists in systems that they must work their way up through in a series of competitions. In Air Gear, by Ito Ougure under the name Oh! Great, the compe...
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Critiquing Comics #205:“Honeymoon in the Afterlife” from 2021-09-11T12:00:36
Is Matt Canning‘s Honeymoon in the Afterlife about dying? Is it about life? Unlike some inscrutable comics we’ve discussed recently, this one isn’t frustrating; it’s intriguing, layered, and nuance...
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#708 Aaack!“Cathy”is still relevant! from 2021-09-08T12:00:10
Cathy Guisewite‘s longrunning comic strip Cathy is still a topic of discussion, 11 years after it ended. While it may sometimes seem as if topics like sexual harassment and body image are new field...
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Critiquing Comics #204:“Purgatory” from 2021-09-04T12:00:22
Purgatory, by Don Juan Mancha III, anubisazp, and nikokosi, is an unusual comic in that most of the character in it claim to be dead. But in most cases, it’s unclear if they really are. Or is it a ...
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#707 Joe Dator and“Inked” from 2021-09-01T12:00:40
After fifteen years of cartooning for The New Yorker, Joe Dator has a deep catalog of published work – and a pretty deep catalog of UNpublished work as well (it’s a competitive business!). So in hi...
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#706“Ping Pong” from 2021-08-25T12:34:37
Prolific manga creator Taiyo Matsumoto’s Ping Pong is, nominally, a sports manga, but it doesn’t stick to the tropes. It presents table tennis matches that take place in a small town, not at a majo...
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Critiquing Comics #203:“Midnight Highway” from 2021-08-21T12:00:51
Midnight Highway is a horror comic on which all the creators are firing on all cylinders. Well, most of them. Tim and Jason discuss the first issue of this comic by Mike Tener, Alex Maday, Dave Len...
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“Thor: The Dark World”(2013) from 2021-08-18T12:00:11
This week, from our archive of Patreon podcasts, Tim and Mulele discuss the movie Thor: The Dark World in another edition of “Tim Catches Up with the MCU”! It’s one of the lowest-rated MCU movies o...
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Critiquing Comics #202:“Theatrics” from 2021-08-14T12:00:57
Neil Gibson is back! Tim and Mulele have discussed his Twisted Dark anthology series more than once, and Koom once interviewed him for DCP at a London con. His new two-part graphic novel Theatrics,...
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#705“Lights, Planets, People” from 2021-08-11T12:00:27
You may be puzzled by a book titled Lights, Planets, People; we certainly were. But when we read it, we found that Molly Naylor and Lizzy Stewart’s graphic novel is a story with multiple levels, co...
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Critiquing Comics #201:“Adora and the Distance” from 2021-08-07T12:00:16
Although it’s currently only available digitally, Adora and the Distance, by Marc Bernardin, Ariela Kistantina, Bryan Valenza, and Bernardo Brice, has garnered a fair amount of mainstream attention...
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#704“Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee” from 2021-08-04T12:00:04
Continuing with “How Much Stan Can You Stand?”, this time Tim and Emmet take on Stan Lee’s 2002 memoir (with George Mair), Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee. How does it differ from his later...
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#703“Far Sector” from 2021-07-28T12:00:57
NK Jemisin and Jamal Campbell‘s Far Sector takes the Green Lantern concept (it’s published by DC) to comment on race relations and the police. Emmet and Kumar discuss the book’s storytelling strate...
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Critiquing Comics #200:“.357 Magnum Opus” from 2021-07-24T12:00:57
Two bounty hunters are recruited for another job. A woman is seen topless, numerous people get their brains blown out, men and women get amorous on a hair-trigger, and quips and oddball observation...
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#702“Black Widow”: is the MCU losing the magic? from 2021-07-21T12:00:19
It’s been a long time since Tim “caught up with the MCU” in our Patreon podcast series with Mulele; certainly longer without an MCU film than anyone intended it to be! But at last, Black Widow is o...
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Critiquing Comics #199:“Amazing Grace” from 2021-07-14T12:00:38
Amazing Grace is a Webtoon comic by Shane Berryhill and Mike Salter, featuring sword fights with Dracula, women with plunging necklines, and, sometimes, chapter endings that lack punch. Tim and Ada...
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#701 Barry Windsor-Smith’s“Monsters” from 2021-07-07T12:00:19
A story originally conceived as an Incredible Hulk tale in — really — the 1980s, Barry Windsor-Smith‘s Monsters has finally seen the light of day. How is it? Kumar and Dana find it a joy to look at...
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#700 Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible….Nostalgic from 2021-06-30T12:00:45
“How much Stan can you stand?” Tim and Emmet’s look at books on Stan Lee continues with The Man’s graphic novel-memoir Amazing Fantastic Incredible, by Stan Lee, Peter David, and Colleen Doran. Can...
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Critiquing Comics #198:“Rex Radley, Boy Adventurer” from 2021-06-26T12:00:02
Winston Gambro’s Rex Radley: Boy Adventurer is an all-ages comedy adventure series. Tim and Adam discuss.
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#699“How to Be Happy” from 2021-06-23T12:00:20
In this episode Kumar Sivasubramanian (psst our Eisner nominated member of the Deconstructing Comics team) and Emmet O’Cuana discuss Eleanor Davis‘s comics. Focusing mainly on her collection How To...
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#698 Tony Stark, Futurist from 2021-06-16T12:00:41
In the 21st century, Tony Stark (alter ego of Iron Man) has been evolving into an Elon Musk-type “futurist.” What are the reasons for this change? Has it done anything to expand the kinds of storie...
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Critiquing Comics #197:“Galacto Pit-Fighter” from 2021-06-12T12:00:22
Comics can surely be violent, but can the sheer audacity of the violence make it, intentionally or not, funny? Tim and Adam discuss one of the most over-the-top comics ever critiqued on our show, K...
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#697“Everyone is Tulip” from 2021-06-09T12:00:29
Most people have some dreams of fame and fortune. A certain portion of those people make their way to Hollywood in hopes of getting that big break. But how much are you willing to give up to achiev...
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#696 Sequential Potential and“Minamata” from 2021-06-02T12:00:28
Comics, of course, are not just for entertainment. They’re a great medium for educating. This week we feature two examples: Sequential Potential is a company which helps academics get their points ...
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Critiquing Comics #196:“Tales from the Interface”#3 from 2021-05-29T12:00:37
Three years ago, Tim&Mulele discussed the first issue of Tales from the Interface by Emmanuel Filteau. We thought it was well done, even though we didn’t quite understand what was happening! Emmanu...
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#695 Zander Cannon talks“Smax”! from 2021-05-26T12:00:32
A comics series that’s sadly hard to find these days is Smax by Alan Moore, Zander Cannon, and Andrew Currie. Emmet has been waxing nostalgic for this spinoff of Moore, Cannon, and Gene Ha’s Top Te...
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#694“True Believer” from 2021-05-19T12:00:33
How much Stan can you stand? That’s the question Emmet and Tim are asking as we review an undetermined number of Stan Lee biographies! In episode 692, we covered Spurgeon and Raphael’s 2004 entry; ...
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Critiquing Comics #195:“Circle 7”#1 from 2021-05-12T12:00:13
Our critique candidate this time is an unusual one: an artist who asks us to critique a comic he drew 26 years ago! The book is Circle 7 issue 1 (story by Joshua Lauber, pencils and inks by Daniel ...
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#693 Manga’s Scary Cats! from 2021-05-05T12:00:37
There’s a history of horror manga featuring cats, especially humans with cat features. What are some of the prominent titles in this genre? Where does this come from? Patrick has been studying this...
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Critiquing Comics #194:“Realm of Owls” from 2021-04-28T12:00:11
Part comic, part children’s storybook, Realm of Owls is heavy on world building and a bit light on characters, at least in the early going. How does it stand up as a reading experience? Tim is join...
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#692“Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book” from 2021-04-21T12:00:34
Tim and Emmet begin a series on Stan Lee biographies with the 2003 book Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book by Jordan Raphael and the late, great Tom Spurgeon. What’s the tone...
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Critiquing Comics #193:“The Zombie Game” from 2021-04-14T12:00:50
At what was ostensibly a rave, some kids are turned into zombies. How do the remaining kids deal with it? And– why didn’t THEY get turned into zombies? That’s the scenario of The Zombie Game, by Da...
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#691 Moore and Andrade’s“Crossed +100” from 2021-04-07T12:00:18
It’s debatable whether Garth Ennis’ series Crossed, about a disease that causes people to act in the most reprehensible ways possible, had any redeeming qualities, but when Alan Moore steps in to w...
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Critiquing Comics #192:“The Corona Bible” from 2021-03-31T12:00:22
Pier Dola has sent us another of his comics. Another of his very, very long comics, filled with very well-drawn grotesque images. This one is called The Corona Bible, and it’s about COVID and … oth...
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#690“Dragon Age: Dark Fortress”and“Haha” from 2021-03-24T12:00:48
Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, following up on their appearance in episode 653, are back on the show to discuss their upcoming miniseries Dragon Age: Dark Fortress. How does the Dragon Age f...
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Critiquing Comics #191:“Confederate Monster”#1 from 2021-03-17T12:00
A German doctor treats amputee Confederate soldiers in 1864 Virginia. But then his secret is found out by a desperate Southern army that will go to any lengths to get the doctor to do what they wan...
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#689 Priest’s“Black Panther” from 2021-03-10T13:00:51
In 1998, under the “Marvel Knights” banner, Christopher Priest began the first ongoing Black Panther title in nearly two decades. Panther was a relatively unknown character to many Marvel readers a...
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“Iron Man 3”(2013) from 2021-03-03T13:00:52
This week, from our archive of Patreon podcasts, Tim and Mulele discuss the movie Iron Man 3 in another edition of “Tim Catches Up with the MCU”!
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Critiquing Comics #190:“Duplicant” from 2021-02-27T13:00:40
In a world where a pandemic is causing people’s organs to fail, the company that makes synthetic organs wields a lot of power – especially if the patient doesn’t have the funds to pay for the surge...
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#688 Jed MacKay interview from 2021-02-24T13:00:42
Candian Jed MacKay is rising through the ranks at Marvel with some stellar books starring secondary characters — the Black Cat, Taskmaster — and now the Avengers in mech suits (Avengers Mech Strike...
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#687“Crowded” from 2021-02-17T13:00:24
Is it annoying or brilliant? A smart commentary on internet culture? Too trendy for the oldsters who make this podcast? Is it plausible enough to stand alongside the best in science fiction? Emmet ...
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Critiquing Comics #189:“FingerBang”#4 from 2021-02-13T13:00:20
A story about a pot-smoking superhero taking on a villain whose henchmen wear KKK robes. Is this OK?! Tim is joined by Ryan C. to discuss Ben Perone and Jer Gordon’s FingerBang #4.
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#686 Con Chrisoulis interview from 2021-02-10T13:00:43
Con Chrisoulis has been on the comics scene since 1996, releasing comics in his native Australia, in Greece, and in the UK, as well as comics on the web. He’s best known for Tales of the Smiths, Re...
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#685 Hilary Barta interview from 2021-02-03T13:00:36
Hilary Barta has been drawing (and sometimes writing) comics for decades, for nearly any publisher you can name. He even worked with the great Alan Moore on “Splash Branigan.” In this week’s show h...
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Critiquing Comics #188:“Jellied Feels” from 2021-01-30T13:00:46
We’ve discussed Joseph Hewitt’s work on the show before, and even met him at a comics festival. Now he’s back with a collection of well-chosen gems from his back catalog. DCP co-founder Brandon mak...
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#684 Joe Sacco’s“Paying the Land” from 2021-01-27T13:00:15
Comics journalist Joe Sacco is back, with an up-close look at the Dene people, of the western part of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Like many native peoples, their way of life was shattered by co...
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#683 COVID comics and graphic medicine from 2021-01-20T13:00:38
There have been plenty of comics made about the current COVID-19 pandemic, both instructional and autobiographical ones. In this episode Tim talks about about some of these with graphic medicine ex...
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Critiquing Comics #187:“Bear With Me” from 2021-01-16T13:00:05
A retro-style daily strip about a talking bear! This time Tim is joined by comics colorist Jeremy Kahn to discuss Bob Scott‘s strip Bear With Me.
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#682“John Constantine: Hellblazer” from 2021-01-13T13:00:37
The pandemic has caused a variety of entertainment content to go unreleased or even unmade. Unfortunately, that extends to the recent series John Constantine: Hellblazer by Simon Spurrier and Aaron...
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LOEE: Fullmetal Alchemist ch. 5 from 2021-01-06T13:00:29
The Law of Equivalent Exchange: We’ve arrived at the chapter that knocks us from our seats and tells us “This ain’t no ordinary manga!” It’s the shocking Chapter 5: The Alchemist’s Suffering! Manga...
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Critiquing Comics #186:“Holy Diver” from 2021-01-02T13:00:26
If you’re an American who grew up in a certain era, you may have a story about that time you ended up at a presentation about how “backmasking” was being used in your favorite music to subliminally...
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“Marvel’s The Avengers”(2012) from 2020-12-30T13:00:40
The time for “setup” is over! At last, Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, and Captain America meet! Tim and Mulele discuss 2012’s “Marvel’s The Avengers.” Join us on Patreon! Follow us on Twitter!
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“Captain America: The First Avenger”(2011) from 2020-12-23T13:00:50
Film buff Mulele prods Tim to get caught up on alllll the Marvel movies he’s missed. This time, they watch and discuss the first MCU appearance of Captain America. What changed from the comics, and...
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Critiquing Comics #185:“Wynter” from 2020-12-19T13:00:27
Liz Wynter isn’t special. She’s exactly like thousands of other people who have lived, with the same DNA, and she thinks in the same ways that they did, so the government can predict her every move...
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“THOR”(2011) from 2020-12-16T13:00:54
What do you do when you want to talk about the MCU movies, but no one around you has watched them? Bug your friends to watch them! That’s how Mulele finally got Tim to find time to “Catch Up with t...
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LOEE: Fullmetal Alchemist ch. 4 from 2020-12-09T13:00:59
The Law of Equivalent Exchange: Tim and Patrick discuss Fullmetal Alchemist chapter 4, which features both scary violence and violence for laughs. Why is Ed sleeping at his desk on the splash page?...
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Critiquing Comics #184:“R.U.N.”volume 2 from 2020-12-05T13:00:32
Way back in 2014, Tim and Mulele discussed the first volume of R.u.N. (Remember Ur Nature), a comic in shonen manga style about the sport of parkour. Now, at last, volume two is available, and Tim ...
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#681“The Last Tide”and“Breakwater” from 2020-12-02T13:00:25
Isekai is a genre, named in Japan, in which a character from our earth is suddenly transported to “another world.” This concept goes back at least to Alice in Wonderland, but these days the “other ...
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#680“Dorohedoro” from 2020-11-25T13:00:43
Is it comedy or violent action? Delivering fan service or gross-out scenes? Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Perceptions and expectations are constantly flipping in Q Hayashida’s Dor...
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Critiquing Comics #183:“Chad in Amsterdam”#5 from 2020-11-21T13:00:45
Chad Bilyue is on a roll! No sooner had he released issue 4 of Chad in Amsterdam than he was releasing issue 5 on its coattails. CIA 5 turns out to be a theme issue, on a bizarre and rather offensi...
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#679 Mark Russell from 2020-11-18T13:00:10
Mark Russell has been one of the standout comics writers of the past five years, in part because he’s possibly the only mainstream comics writer doing satire (or, he would argue, fables). Since he ...
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The Law of Equivalent Exchange:“Fullmetal Alchemist”chapter 3 from 2020-11-11T13:00:06
Tim and Patrick discuss the third chapter of Fullmetal Alchemist, “The Mining Town.” Why are alchemists hated as “the dogs of the military”?
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Critiquing Comics #182:“After the Fall”and“Organic But Not Mental” from 2020-11-07T13:00:55
Telling a story without dialogue can be difficult. Telling your story entirely with pictures takes excellent storytelling skills. What are the stakes? What are the characters’ motivations? What, ex...
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#678 Rumiko Takahashi’s first comedy,“Urusei Yatsura” from 2020-11-04T13:00:18
We’ve talked about several of Rumiko Takahashi’s manga series over the years, but this time we go back to the beginning with her first big hit, Urusei Yatsura, sometimes known in English as Lum. Ti...
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#677“The Drifting Classroom” from 2020-10-28T13:00:13
Kazuo Umezu’s horror manga series The Drifting Classroom is a taboo-busting series: it was aimed at kids and employs kid logic and exaggeration to a story depicting outrageous violence being done t...
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#676“Ballyskillen”: An augmented reality comic from 2020-10-24T13:00
Over the years there have been some attempts at augmented reality comics — where a smartphone app pointed at a comics page will reveal a bit of animation. One issue with these projects is that they...
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Critiquing Comics #181:“Chad in Amsterdam 4” from 2020-10-21T13:00:06
The latest installment of our beloved Chad in Amsterdam is here! As always, Chad combines some incisive but casual observational and philosophical discussion with the work of his great artist frien...
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The Law of Equivalent Exchange: “Fullmetal Alchemist” chapter 2 from 2020-10-14T13:00:09
This week we present the second installment in a proposed new podcast series: The Law of Equivalent Exchange, a chapter-by-chapter discussion of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist. Tim and Patrick discu...
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Critiquing Comics #180:“SpiderForest Webcomic Anthology 4” from 2020-10-10T13:00:35
Last episode, we mentioned how writing a short, tightstory can be more challenging than writing a sprawling epic. Right on cue comes Spider Forest Webcomic Anthology 4, an engaging collection of sh...
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#675 Gaiman’s“Black Orchid”and“The Books of Magic” from 2020-10-07T13:00:33
This time, two books by Neil Gaiman: Black Orchid, with art by Dave McKean, and The Books of Magic, drawn by John Bolton and other artists. The challenge of Black Orchid can be to simply figure out...
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Critiquing Comics #179:“The Solar Grid” from 2020-10-03T13:00:48
In a flooded New York City of the future, a corporate whistleblower is in a hurry to skip town. Tim and Mulele wish they understood more about the plot of The Solar Grid issue 1, by Gazeer, but thi...
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#674 Introducing Zoe Thorogood! from 2020-09-30T13:00:15
Zoe Thorogood is a young British woman whose first graphic novel, The Impending Blindness Of Billie Scott, will be released in October. It’s the story of a young woman who’s just gotten her big bre...
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The Law of Equivalent Exchange: “Fullmetal Alchemist” chapter 1 from 2020-09-23T13:00:03
This week we present the first installment in a proposed new podcast series: The Law of Equivalent Exchange, a chapter-by-chapter discussion of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist. Tim and Pat...
Critiquing Comics #178: “Terminal Velocity” from 2020-09-19T13:00:28
Terminal Velocity is a comic by Barr...
#673 Kismet, Man of Fate from 2020-09-16T13:00:54
He first appeared in 1944, the Algerian super-hero who fought for the World War II Allies: Kismet, Man of Fate! The first known Muslim superhero, he appeared in all four issues of a seri...
#672 “Pulp” and Publishing Your Book from 2020-09-09T13:00:30
The words “Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips” have essentially become the name of a genre, a certain kind of noir-ish crime story. The latest entry in this “genre”, a...
Critiquing Comics #177: “Genius Animals?” from 2020-09-05T13:00:57
Back in the early days of the podcast, artist Jun-Pierre Shiozawa was one of our first interv...
#671 Derf’s “Kent State” from 2020-09-02T13:00:28
Fifty years ago, four students died when national guardsman inexplicably opened fire during an anti-war protest at Kent State University. The craziness of 2020 has hindered planned obser...
#670 Moore and Burrow’s “Providence” from 2020-08-26T13:00:32
Seemingly every time a horror comic comes up on our show, it seems to have some kind of connection to H.P. Lovecraft. In this case, it’s Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows‘ Provide...
#669 Chad, Live from Amsterdam! from 2020-08-19T13:00:02
Chad Bilyeu’s Chad in Amsterdam series has been a favorite of ours on our Critiquing Comics spinof...
Critiquing Comics #176: “Miskatonic High” from 2020-08-15T01:00:36
This time our comic is Miskatonic High, by Mike Shea and Ryan Mendoza. The comic features high sc...
#668 Baron and McNamara: Writing and Crowdfunding Comics in the “Corona” Era from 2020-08-12T13:00:02
A couple of past guests return to the show with new material! Mike Baron, best known as writer of the N...
Critiquing Comics #175: More from David Dye from 2020-08-08T13:00:10
This time we look at some of the latest work by one of our favorites, David Dye: The forthcoming Bush Fire, and two stories written by Roger Stitson, Listen
#667 Freelancer problems from 2020-08-05T13:00:26
Many of us have dreamed of getting paid to make comics. Except in rare cases, working in American comics means being a freelancer. While a creative career can be rewarding, there are plenty of down...
Listen
#666 “Animal Man”: Grant Morrison Plays God from 2020-07-29T13:00:09
Grant Morrison‘s DC Comics debut in 1988 was a run on Animal Man. Originally meant to be a four-issue mini, the series became an ongoing, prompting Morrison to turn it into a discu...
#665 Remembering Denny O’Neil from 2020-07-22T13:00:39
This week we take a look back at the career of Denny O’Neil, the longtime comics writer and editor who passed away June 11. Emmet discusses O’Neil’s legacy with Professor Listen
Critiquing Comics #174: “Caged Birds” from 2020-07-15T13:00:22
A couple of years back, we critiqued Caravaggio: A Light Before the Darkness, written by ...
Critiquing Comics #173: “Weasel” from 2020-07-08T13:00:58
Starting in 1999, Dave Cooper (accompanied at first by Patrick McEown) had a collection of work published by Fantagraphics as a magazine called Weasel. The magazine featured Cooper’...
#664 Matt Baker’s Art of Glamour from 2020-07-01T13:00:20
Matt Baker, one of the earliest African-American comics artists, worked in the 1940s and ’50s mainly on what’s known as “good girl” art. Good girl art went away w...
#663 Moon Knight Begins from 2020-06-24T13:00:22
It’s been some time since Moon Knight came anywhere close to being considered a top-tier Marvel character in terms of popularity. But in the early ’80s, he was riding high in...
Critiquing Comics #172 “Adventures of God” from 2020-06-17T13:00:46
All comedy comics about God are not created equal! Teo and Corey’s Listen
#662 Warren Ellis’ Three Pieces of ‘Watchmen’ from 2020-06-10T13:00:43
Warren Ellis’ Black Summer, No Hero, and Supergod are three separate stories, but if you put them together you’ve kinda got all the elements of Alan Moore’s Watchmen. B...
Critiquing Comics #171 “Mythic Creature Trainer” #1 from 2020-06-03T13:00:51
Last year we discussed Listen
#661 Hydra Cap (pt 2) from 2020-05-27T13:00:18
As leader of S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America has been put in charge of the U.S. military and law enforcement (and, seemingly, become president of the U.S.) following an alien invasion. But...
#660 Hydra Cap (pt 1) from 2020-05-20T13:00:59
The last two words that anyone expected to see in Captain America’s word balloon were “Hail Hydra,” but sure enough, that’s what happened in Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 in 2016. The outc...
Listen
#659 “Locke & Key” from 2020-05-13T13:00:14
This week, Kumar and Emmet review Locke and Key, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. There are a lot of murders in it, but is it a horror comic? They also discuss the series’ misste...
#224 Our Notes on “Death Note” from 2020-05-06T13:00:38
FLASHBACK! A bored, punk-dressing god of death and a genius high school boy are the main characters in Death Note, written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata. The boy, Light Yaga...
#658 John Allison talks “Giant Days” and more from 2020-04-29T13:00:24
John Allison has been a significant presence on the web comics radar for more than two decades. In 20...
Critiquing Comics #170 “Moon You” from 2020-04-22T13:00:43
You’re trapped on the moon and you believe that everyone on Earth is dead. Who’d have believed that was the setup for a gag manga? Cho Seok pulls it off in style with
Listen
#657 “Berlin” from 2020-04-15T13:00:09
Jason Lutes’ Berlin shows us scenes from the lives of many characters in Berlin as the Weimar Republic disintegrated and the Nazis rose to power. Historical events (including the f...
#656 “My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness” from 2020-04-08T13:00:43
Kabi Nagai’s My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, while it does include lesbian sex scenes of a sort, is less about sex than you might expect. It’s more about mental health...
#655 “The Incal” from 2020-04-01T13:00:19
The Incal, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius’ classic ’80s series (originally published in French magazine Métal Hurlant), was very influential on movies as well as comics. In...
#654 “Akira” from 2020-03-25T13:00:55
Considering how much Mulele talked up Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira back in the early days of the podcast, it’s strange that it’s taken us more than 14 years to actually disc...
#653 An Age of Dragons, and a Book of Magic from 2020-03-18T13:00:30
Dragon Age has been a successful video game series for over a decade, and the title has moved into a number of other media — including comics, most recently from Dark Horse. Nunzio...
#652 “Uzumaki” from 2020-03-11T13:00:40
Uzumaki is a 1998 horror manga by Junji Ito, unique in its capacity to make the reader simultaneously laugh out loud at its audacity and feel profoundly disturbed. In this episode, Kumar...
Critiquing Comics #169: “Zener: Master of the Mind” from 2020-03-07T13:00:13
A happy couple’s date is interrupted by a superhero’s fight with a purple monster. The boy is critically injured, and taken by the superhero to lab where he’ll be (pain...
#651 “Shazam!”: the movie from 2020-03-04T13:00:32
David F. Sandberg’s 2019 movie Shazam!, starring Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, and Mark Strong, was a a break from the relentless grimness of many recent DC movies, and yet, it did ha...
#650 Our favorite comics of the 2010s from 2020-02-26T13:00:28
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 —...
#649 Wandering “Through the Woods” from 2020-02-12T13:00:36
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. An...
#648 A Fresh “Second Coming” from 2020-02-05T13:00:16
In Second Coming, Mark Russell Listen
Critiquing Comics #168: David Dye interview from 2020-01-29T13:00:28
In our December 25 episode, we reviewed two more comics from David Dye. While we’ve generally been ve...
#647 Tom Spurgeon Remembered from 2020-01-22T13:00:51
Tom Spurgeon, a comics advocate, historian, and journalist, passed away on November 13, 2019. Tom w...
#646 “New Teen Titans”: a turning point for DC from 2020-01-15T13:00:40
While Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s New Teen Titans (1980-1988) goes over the top with purple-prose narration and unsubtle plot points, it represents a turning point for DC Comic...
#645 Rumiko Takahashi’s ghosts and monsters from 2020-01-08T13:00:56
For more than 40 years, Rumiko Takahashi has been one of Japan’s premiere manga creators...
Critiquing Comics #167: Amazing Tales 2 & 3 from 2019-12-25T13:00:32
David Dye’s first issue of Amazing Tales caught our eyes a couple of months ago, so David sent a...
#644 Bob Budiansky from 2019-12-18T13:00:54
Bob Budiansky was a writer, artist, and editor for Marvel in the 1980s and ’90s, after starting out majoring in civil engineering. How did that ch...
#643 Ann Nocenti from 2019-12-11T13:00:23
Ann Nocenti is a journalist and filmmaker who also has had quite a career in comics. She wrote Daredevil for several years and created the character of Typhoid Mary. In this interview wi...
#642 Klaus Janson and “Sacred Creatures” from 2019-11-27T13:00:38
Klaus Janson has a long and storied career, working for both Marvel and DC as a writer, penciller, and inker, including some famous collaborations with Frank Miller and John Romita Jr. H...
#641 A Manga “At the Mountains of Madness” from 2019-11-20T13:00:14
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 effec...
#640 Kristin Tipping from 2019-11-13T13:00:40
This week, Critiquing Comics favorite Kristin Tipping talks about the background to Listen
#639 Fionnuala Doran talks “Roger Casement” and more from 2019-11-06T13:00:02
Roger Casement is known in the UK and Ireland as a British diplomat who joined the Irish Nationalists and, in 1916, was convicted of treason and executed. But the rest of the world is le...
Critiquing Comics #166: Jorge Munoz and Illustrating Batman from 2019-10-30T12:00:48
Jorge Munoz has been a favorite of ours for a while. Recently he sent in several recent works (Longdog, Quin Reyes a...
#638 “Domu: A Child’s Dream” from 2019-10-23T12:00:49
In the manga world. Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira has Watchmen-like status. But, as with Alan Moore, the work that caused a sensation overshadows the creator’s excellent previous w...
Critiquing Comics #165: “Purgatory Pub” and “Amazing Tales” from 2019-10-16T12:00:31
Critiquing Comics returns to discuss the following comics:
* Gabriel Dunston’s Purgatory Pub presents an angel and a devil having a philosophical discussion. T...
#637 “Ghost World” haunts us still from 2019-10-09T12:00:04
Daniel Clowes’ 1990s series Ghost World became a movie in 2001. Will Weaver, a professor at John Carroll University, says that each version of the story was what it needed to be fo...
#636 Dan Mishkin on “Warren Report,” “Amazon Academy,” and Ernie Colon from 2019-10-02T12:00:52
In part two of Tim’s interview with longtime comics writer Dan Mishkin, Dan talks about writing Listen
The Spidey-Star Wars connection from 2019-10-01T14:30:13
Spider-Man is back in the MCU! Is it a coincidence that this anno...
#635 Dan Mishkin talks “Amethyst” from 2019-09-25T14:00:51
Dan Mishkin has worked on many different superhero properties, especially for DC — big names such as Batman and Wonder Woman, as well as characters that he helped to create, such a...
Critiquing Comics #164: “Collapse” and “Evil Witch Allie” from 2019-09-18T14:00:46
In this episode, Tim and Mulele critique:
* Collapse v 1: “Isolation,” in which a group of people emerge from an underground bunker 19 years after an apo...
#634 The End of “The Walking Dead” from 2019-09-10T23:00:58
Last July, with issue 193, Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and company abruptly ended The Walking Dead. In this episode, Emmet is joined by Bobsy (of the podcasts Listen
Critiquing Comics #163: “Read More Comix” and “Antfarm” from 2019-09-04T14:00:02
In this episode, we discuss:
* Read More Comix, by Robb Mirsky, James Spencer, ...
#633 “Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun” from 2019-08-28T14:00:58
Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun is a slim graphic novel by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Zosia Dzierzawska, about the titular famous Irish architect that most people have never heard...
MCU update: Spidey in, or out? from 2019-08-24T14:44:30
It’s been a topic of discussion all week: Is Sony really refusing to let Marvel/Disney handle Spider-Man in the movies anymore? What looked like a shocking middle-finger to the mou...
#632 Johnny O’Bryant’s Noir Caesar from 2019-08-21T14:00:33
Pro basketballer Johnny O’Bryant has long been a fan of manga. But he wanted to see manga-type stories showing people of other races, with characters he could more closely identify...
Critiquing Comics #162: “Monster Mashup” from 2019-08-14T14:00:02
Monster Mashup is a comics anthology in which public-domain characters meet classic monsters. Tim and Mulele review.
Also, a look at the announced (and rumored) content to come...
#631 Goodbye, MAD! from 2019-08-10T14:00:21
MAD Magazine is ending! Much handwringing has occurred — mainly among people who probably haven’t read it in ages but fondly recall it from their childhoods. Tim, a MAD reade...
#630 A Celebration of “SHAZAM!” from 2019-08-07T14:00:51
Captain Marvel — the one who shouts “Shazam!” to change from little boy to adult super hero — first appeared in Whiz Comics #2, dated February 1940, almost immedi...
Critiquing Comics #161: “Dog vs. Ultra-Dog” and “Chad in Amsterdam #3” from 2019-07-31T14:00:31
In this episode, we discuss:
* Dog vs. Ultra-Dog
Listen
#629 Mike Barr: My career with Batman from 2019-07-24T14:00:02
Mike Barr is perhaps best known for writing the late-’80s hit comic ser...
Critiquing Comics #160: “Shika-Machi Journals” & “Garage Band” from 2019-07-17T14:00:25
In this episode, we discuss:
* Listen
#628 Two viewpoints on “The Killing Joke” from 2019-07-10T14:00:22
Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke is a favorite of many, but also a tough read more many others. And perhaps there’s some overlap.
In this epi...
#468 Harvey Kurtzman’s MAD from 2019-07-05T14:36:37
FLASHBACK! In light of the recent announcement that MAD will be ceasing publication, we re-present this episode from October 5, 2015:
While early 1950s anti-comics hysteria eventually res...
Critiquing Comics #159: “A Book for Sad Pets” and “Spencer and Locke 2” from 2019-07-03T14:00:09
In this episode, Tim and Mulele discuss:
* A Book for Sad Pets, by Kri...
#627 Walt Simonson’s “Thor” from 2019-06-26T14:00:14
One of the most acclaimed Marvel runs of the 1980s was by Walt Simonson on The Mighty Thor. He began writing and drawing it with #337, continued through to #367 (with a ...