Deconstructing Comics

Jimmy Gownley is the award-winning creator of Amelia Rules , Tanner Rocks , The Dumbest Idea Ever , and more, as well as a co-host of the Unpacking Peanuts podcast. This time, he talks with Tim about why the earliest stuff sells the best (never mind how much his art has improved since then), ergonomics, putting comics on Substack for free , and, of course, Peanuts ! Brought to you by: Doomspeak po...

FLASHBACK! 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 quick break in the middle), then gave up art duties but continued writing through #382. This run set aside Dr. Don Blake, focused on mythical threats rather than earthly ones, and injected some humor into what had somet...

A love triangle. One member feels jilted and goes off the deep end. A gun is involved. Tim and Adam talk about the thriller Lovers Quarrel by Rob Capili, Ikos Karimlan, and Joy Mateo. Lovers Quarrel Kickstarter Buy the book on Amazon.com Meanwhile, Digital Bardos has returned! Hippie “digital god” Darren is selling the people on a technology that puts their minds in endless bliss while...

Ed Subitzky did a lot of cartooning for National Lampoon back in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Much of his work revolves around comics done under certain conditions or showing a certain situation (“Fortune-Telling Comics” “Dull Comics” “Poor Reception Comics”). Neither Kumar nor Tim were familiar with his work until picking up the collection Poor Helpless Comics! The carto...

While it seems a bit odd to see Captain America fighting Magneto , they do have something in common: Jack Kirby had a hand in creating both! The battle takes place in Captain America Annual #4 , from 1977; the story is titled “The Great Mutant Massacre” — but no, not  that one. It’s an X-men – adjacent story with some very Kirbyesque bizarre concepts. Tim and Emmet di...

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? Lightning-quick pace, phalluses everywhere, and a helpful instructi...

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 arc’s religious symbolism, Ben Urich as the story’s mag...

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 Demon vol. 1 Koom: Killing Shakespeare Koom interviewed on TV a...

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, Kumar, and Emmet review the film! Episodes mentioned: Episode 1: &#8...

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 what she’s learned from the experience as to simply try to learn something from it...

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 this, as well as his time as a student at the Kubert School, dealing with technologi...

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 comics, this is the issue for you! Brought to you by: Full Manga Alchemis...

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 Marvel Comics: The Untold Story . Through interviews, research of media reports, an...

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 LDC Online Comics Fair last summer. It’s a quick and evenhanded look at some of the differences...

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 distinguishes between Superman and Clark Kent,...

What if your first Star Wars movie were Return of the Jedi ? You’d have questions! That’s how Tim felt once he got started reading Robotech II: The Sentinels volume 1, a comics continuation of the animated Robotech show that hit the U.S. in 1985. Robotech was a combination of three different anime — why?? And why is it that, after all these years, the Robotech story doesn’t...

FLASHBACK! One of the most highly-regarded English-language strips of all time is George Herriman’s Krazy Kat , featuring the odd love/hate triangle of Krazy, Ignatz, and Officer Pupp. Why was Krazy so gender-ambiguous? How did Herriman’s (somewhat mysterious) racial background influence the strip? Tim and Kumar discuss this and much more. ( Originally published September 2, 2013. ) Brought to you...

In 2023, King Features Syndicate decided to bring Flash Gordon , originally created by Alex Raymond and first published in 1934, back from rerun purgatory with new strips, written and drawn by Dan Schkade . Dan was also the artist on Dynamite Entertainment’s Will Eisner’s the Spirit Returns in 2016, and is also known for his original work Lavender Jack , which ran on Webtoon. This week, Tim talks...

From 1942 to 1966, many of the Donald Duck comic books published by Dell Comics were written and drawn by Carl Barks . Like most comic book creators at the time, his name was unknown; the Duck comics were all credited to Walt Disney. Fans only knew that his work was by the GOOD duck artist. Barks created Scrooge McDuck and many of the other duck characters that are taken for granted as part of Dis...

Captain America and the Falcon #212 concludes the Arnim Zola/Red Skull storyline in somewhat perfunctory fashion, and gives a living castle with big teeth much less P.R. than it deserved! In #213 we meet the strange and underutilized assassin the Night Flyer! (Underwhelming name? Must’ve been named by Jack Kirby !) Tim and Emmet discuss both issues in this episode. Brought to you by: The Qui...

Joe Mallard , a favorite of Tim and Jason’s from a year ago, is back! Creator Asante Amani has sent us issues 4-6 of this crime series. Did it go over with us as well as the first two issues did? Ky Lawrence has created a trippy graphic novel about survivor’s guilt. In Dream Machine , our protagonist dreams he can sacrifice himself to bring his cancer victim twin back to life. Tim and...

We’ve been building up to it for months with our reviews of previous Fantastic Four movies. Now it’s here, the FF’s debut in the MCU,  Fantastic Four: First Steps . How well did it scratch that FF itch? Kumar and Jordan once again join Tim to review the film, and discuss how it stacks up against the others (including the unreleased 1994 version). One idea about what “Subzer...

This week, Koom interviews Wahab Algarmi , author of Almost Sunset , a graphic novel about a Muslim American boy’s search for balance between his family traditions and the demands of life in Middle School. Koom and Wahab discuss their international family backgrounds as well as the merits or demerits of 1990s Image comics! Almost Sunset on Amazon Brought to you by: The Quick and the Dad Our suppor...

Ben Wickey has created a graphic novel, More Weight: A Salem Story , that gives us a very deep dive into the Salem witch trials: why they happened, who was to blame, and how the city has dealt with their legacy. This week Koom gets the scoop on what inspired Ben, why his art style seems to vary depending on what point in the past he’s writing about, and more. More Weight: A Salem Story on Am...

The film is bloated, it’s busy, it showcases numerous failures at human communication, and doesn’t hit some points it needs to. And yet, Spider-Man 3 screenwriter Alvin Sargent managed to weave together the many plotlines thrust on him to make a script with a message – although not necessarily the one director Sam Raimi had in mind. Tim and Mulele examine Raimi’s final Spid...