The Miami Review of Comics

Today I am joined by the great Kevin Huizenga, author of graphic novels such as The River at Night, Curses, The Wild Kingdom and Gloriana (all published by Drawn & Quarterly), the ongoing series Fielder, and many other comics and zines. Kevin's work often tackles zones of human experience rarely touched in comics, such as consciousness, the nature of time, and other Big Questions of Philosophy...

Today my guest is New York cartoonist Elizabeth Bethea, whose comics include Book of Daze and Francis Bacon (Domino Books), All Killer No Filler, and Forlorn Toreador. She's also appeared in anthologies like Peep and Crease.  Elizabeth is one of the great comics poets, and I loved learning about how she composes her work over time through daily writing. We also get into Elizabeth's hometown of New...

Buckle up, gentle listener, for a whirlwind tour of the comic art (and life & times) of Lummi Island's Golden Boy, Brooklyn's Hottest Dad, and Art Comics' Secret Weapon, Matthew Thurber! Matthew is the author of 1-800-MICE, Infomaniacs (Picturebox), Art Comic, Mr. Colostomy (Drawn and Quarterly), Vector Hugo, Pirates of the Condominium -- and most recently Looking for the Cat, an ongoing serie...

I am joined today by the brilliant and hilarious Sam Szabo, author of Momix Presents: DADIX (Cram Books), Enlightened Transsexual Comics (Silver Sprocket), Girl Hell and lots more. Sam and I talk about the intersection of memoir and gags in her work, being a briefcase kid exposed to boomer esoterica in Mad Magazine, the crutch and the ecstacy of fourth-wall breaking, the sublime banality of cousin...

Today we are joined by brilliant cartoonists and confirmed Luddites Sophie Franz and Daria Tessler to talk about the joys and sorrows of analog artmaking! Through the magic of technology we fear and abhor, Soph and Daria were able to zap in from Portland, Oregon and join me on a grand tour of the world of analog tools, from pencil and ballpoint pen to gouache, collage, silkscreen, and more. Thank...

In his ongoing comic, Reel Politik, Nathan Gelgud harnesses the daily gag strip to explore cinema through the lens of radical politics (or radical politics through the lens of cinema??). The strip is peopled with a goofy but determined cast of characters hell-bent on fomenting Marxist-Leninist revolution by whatever means are available to them, having turned a small-town theater into a radical cel...

This past spring, cartoonist Katie Lane had two books come out right at the same time: Single Camera Sitcom (Comics Blogger Books) and Girls Gone Wild #1 (2DCloud). In both works, Katie explores the struggles at the heart of our most intimate relationships and choices, with wit and sensitivity and candor. But the first thing the reader is likely to notice is the extreme visual shift from one book...

What's the relationship between comics and folk tales? Are cartoon characters and folkloric figures made of the same eternal shape-shifting goop? And what happens when they show up at different historical moments ... in the English Midlands, say? Today's guest, Michael Kennedy, is the author of Milk White Steed, a grandly ambitious collection of comics that explores history and narrative genre wit...

It's Sammy Harkham Day at the Miami Review of Comics! In this marathon episode, Sammy and I dive deep into long form vs. short form comic-making -- epic graphic novels, standalone one-pagers, and everything in between.  We talk Kramers Ergot, Blood of the Virgin, and the past and future of Crickets! Will the next issue of Crickets be 48 one-pagers?! Listen to find out! A few apologies: First, desp...

Welcome to the Miami Review of Comics' Mailbag Extravaganza! In this seventh episode of the show, producer Jason Butler joined me to read some listener mail and answer your most urgent concerns. Past guests also chimed in to reveal their answers to the question: "Has a drawing you made ever frightened you?" In the back half we are joined by the wonderful Alex Laird for a chat about the way the ind...

Saul Steinberg? Sure, he's the GOAT. But does Steinberg really mean anything to us in 2025? Even those of us who love him may find it hard to articulate what exactly he was up to. Today, the Miami Review of Comics is joined by cartoonist, publisher, distributor & polemicist(!) Austin English to help unpack Steinberg's legacy.  Our jumping-off point is Austin's forthcoming essay on All in Line,...

How do you get your comics to the people? Distros and shows! Neil Brideau knows distros and shows. A founding member of the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) and the Chicago Zine Fest, as well as the owner and operator of Radiator Comics (a distro and publisher), Neil has built his life around helping cartoonists find readers and find one another. He is also our guest today! The episode was e...

In the comics medium's ongoing quest for respectability, the 21st century has seen a proliferation of so-called literary comics: buttoned up, digestible, "realistic" -- comic strips cosplaying as New Yorker stories.    Today's guest, Tana Oshima, explodes any ideas a reader might have about what a literary comic can or should look like. By day, Tana is an accomplished Japanese-to-Spanish literary...

On the show's third episode, Jesse McManus joins the Miami Review of Comics to talk about his ongoing romance with The Two Kinds of Cartooning: yes, comics and animation. Join us as we explore Nicktoons and Robert Breer, onion cutting and Muybridging, impossible books, comic strip physics, working out one's own scam, and much more! You can email the show at miamireviewofcomics@gmail.com Thanks as...

For decades, autobio has remained one of the most beloved and debated genres within indie comics. In our second episode, we explore the form with two of its greatest contemporary practitioners, Josh Bayer and MS Harkness. Viewing their newest books side by side — Josh’s Unended and M.S.’s Time Under Tension — beautifully illuminates the variety and potential of autobio cartooning TODAY. (Both book...

In recent years, Instagram has emerged as a crucial platform for indie cartoonists to find their voices and build audiences. At the same time, Instagram is horrible and we all hate it. In this inaugural episode, we dive deep into the world of Instagram comics with two of the most engaging voices in the indie comics community: Alex Graham and Cedar Van Tassel. Alex's "Dog Biscuits" and Cedar's "App...