Deconstructing Comics

FLASHBACK! Autobiographical comics are par for the course, but in 1972, Justin Green broke ground for the genre when he published Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary. Some of that broken ground hasn’t been trod since; how many autobiographical comics about a battle with mental illness have you seen done as wacky parody comics? … Continue reading #372 “Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary”: Painful Personal Memoir as Wacky Comedy!

Daredevil: Born Again, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, is one of those comics stories that continues to attract attention decades after it was published. Chris Ryall, co-founder and current publisher at Image imprint Syzygy Publishing, is the author of a new book on that story. He talks with Koom in this episode about the … Continue reading #860 Chris Ryall on “Daredevil: Born Again”

Jason Shiga is creator of the four-volume series Demon as well as many interactive comics. This week, Koom interviews Jason about his page layout strategy, his connections to Adrian Tomine, the pros and cons of comics where the reader gets a choice of paths through the story, his intriguing new project, and more. Jason: Shigabooks.com … Continue reading #859 Jason Shiga: Choosing his own path

Our first episode was released on December 5, 2005. After 20 years of changes in focus, format, and personnel, as well as Tim self-teaching audio editing, this time we look back at some of what’s changed. Also: In our first episode, Tim, Brandon, and Mulele discussed the teaser trailer for Superman Returns; this time, Tim, … Continue reading #858 Celebrating 20 years by reviewing a 20-year-old film (“Superman Returns”)

Longtime comics creator Carol Tyler went through a horrific stretch in her life where she lost numerous loved ones, from her parents, to a neighbor, to her dog, in just a six-year stretch. Many other things of varying levels of horribleness happened within that time, too. Her response is not so much to tell us … Continue reading #857 Carol Tyler’s “The Ephemerata”: Making sense of the worst of all possible stretches

Jim Keefe is a longtime comics creator who has worked on the Flash Gordon (art and story) and Sally Forth (art) newspaper strips as well as being King Features’ staff colorist. He has also done lettering and retouching for English editions of various manga, and more. This week he talks with Tim about all of … Continue reading #856 Jim Keefe interview

Jack Kirby wraps up his run on Captain America and the Falcon with issue 214, the rather underwhelming conclusion of the Night Flyer story. But wait! Kirby also did a couple of annuals, so we dig into annual #3 from 1976. Yeaahhhh, that’s the stuff! If you haven’t been getting enough PULSE-POUNDING ACTION in your … Continue reading #855 Jack Kirby’s “Captain America” 214 & Annual 3: Cap vs the Space Vampire!

FLASHBACK! If you’re into American comics at all, you undoubtedly know how Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others changed the industry with their work in the 1960s, and set the template for kinds of stories Marvel still publishes today. That’s just part of the story that Sean Howe researched for his 2012 book … Continue reading #410 Marvel Comics: Telling the Untold Story

Roy Beckwith and the Cursed Continent is a western series by Nick Patch, Jarret Katz, and Fabi Marques. It looks great but it runs at a breakneck pace and seems to be introducing a few too many elements. Tim and Jason discuss. A French Expat in the U.K., by Agathe Montagnon, was sold through the … Continue reading Critiquing Comics #246: “Roy Beckwith and the Cursed Continent” and “A French Expat in the U.K.”

Last summer’s Superman movie was a welcome improvement over many recent films featuring the character, and over much of the recent superhero film entries in general. Kumar and Emmet this week discuss how it comments on Zach Snyder’s take, on internet culture, anti-immigrant sentiment, and more. They also address such topics as how the film … Continue reading #854 “Superman” (2025): Its commentary on other supermen