Comics Alternative

This week on The Comics Alternative podcast, John Mayo (of the Comic Book Page) and Chris Marshall (Collected Comics Library) return for another roundtable discussion with the Two Guys with PhDs.  This time the topic is the San Diego Comics Con and the Eisner Award ceremony that took place there.  They begin by asking John how his experience was in San Diego — he was the only one of the four to actually attend — and what for him were the highlights of the event. They talk quite a bit about the many happenings at the con, both comic-related and otherwise, and then discuss the coverage of the con in the media. Next, they turn their attention to the 2013 Eisner Award winners, trying to make sense of what the results may reveal (or not reveal) about the current state of comics as well as the attitudes and biases of the selection committee. The four podcasting guys also pick apart the various award categories, noting their histories and how many of them have changed over the years. For example, they point out the

This week the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics are doing something they’ve never done before: devoting an entire episode to a specific publisher. And this first time out they’ve decided to focus on Valiant Comics and all of the various (and relaunched) titles that they began putting out last year. It is a formidable task, but Andy and Derek are up to the challenge! They begin this Publisher Spotlight by discussing one of their favorites of the group, Archer and Armstrong, briefly look at the latest title, Quantum and Woody, and then move on to Harbinger, Bloodshot, and the Harbinger Wars crossover event, the new Valiant’s first. They also weigh in on X-O Manowar and Shadowman, as well as speculate on some of the new titles and events on the horizon, such as Eternal Warrior, Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps, and the new Sect Civil War crossover. Not only do Andy and Derek look in-depth into each individual series, but they also discuss the broader picture, trying to find some of the common features and them

This week the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics are excited to have as their guest creator extraordinaire, Matt Fraction. They talk with Matt specifically about his new series through Image Comics, Satellite Sam (with Howard Chaykin on art) and Sex Criminals (with Chip Zdarsky), but they also take the opportunity to discuss other works of his, such as the current Hawkeye series, his Casanova comics, and graphic novels such as The Five Fists of Science. Perhaps one of the most enlightening moments of the interview concerns issue #2 of Satellite Sam, where Matt points out that you can indeed letter the sound of “whiskey dick.” But comics aren’t all that the guys discuss. Andy, Derek, and Matt also spend a lot of time talking about, ShitMyHowardSays, underrated works from Stanley Kubrick, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fredric Wertham, and Matt Helm movies! It’s a veritable smorgasbord of pop cultural fun! However, Andy comes away from the experience a changed man, wondering if his love of everything Dean Ma

The Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics are back for their monthly look at the Previews catalog. This July they highlight many of the new comics coming out from Dark Horse, DC/Vertigo, IDW, Image, Action Lab Entertainment, Archaia, Archie Comics, Avatar Press, Dynamite Entertainment, Drawn and Quarterly, Fantagraphics, First Second, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, NBM, among many others publishers. Along the way, Andy and Derek also bring in various and sundry topics, such as the guys’ love of The Rockford Files, strategies for collecting Wacky Packages stickers, Andy’s shameful lackluster appreciation of The Beatles, the Captain Action action figure, Hello Kitty is made of kittens!, Hall and Oates, Satan worshipers, and Derek and Andy’s idea for a new reality show, “Put That in Your Underpants”! Lots o’ comics, lots o’ discussion, and lots o’ fun. What more could you ask for in a comics podcast?

Andy and Derek are back at Lone Star Comics in Plano, TX, and this month they’re talking about American-themed comics with the scheduling manager of the shop and good friend of the show, Shea Hennum. Since this is the month of Independence Day, the Two Guys with PhDs thought it would be a great opportunity to focus on comics about the United States, its history, its culture, and its people. Among the many comics they discuss are Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor, Steve Darnall and Alex Ross’s Uncle Sam, John Ridley and Georges Jeanty’s The American Way, Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher, Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics of the 1970s, Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing,  the Marvel event Civil War, the various incarnations of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, and Paul Pope comics. They also talk about other kinds of comics, such as Adventure Time, Brandon Graham’s Prophet (which Derek does like, thank you very much), Frank Young and David Lasky’s The

This week on The Comics Alternative the Two Guys with PhDs speak with the creators behind Gone to Amerikay (Vertigo), Derek McCulloch and Colleen Doran. Here you get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of this important work, including the genesis of the book, McCulloch’s strategies for crafting his narratives, the curious inspirations for Doran’s art, and the incredible synergy that brought the project to life. Andy and Derek R. also talk with Colleen and Derek M. about some of their other projects, including Colleen’s A Distant Soil and Orbiter (along with Warren Ellis), as well as Derek M.’s graphic novel, Stagger Lee (with Shepherd Hendrix). What better way to start off July, the month of our nation’s independence, than discussing a book that taps deep into the American Experience?

This week on The Comics Alternative, the Two Guys with PhDs review several #1 issues that have come out in the past couple of weeks. First, they discuss two Vertigo titles, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s 100 Bullets: Brother Lono, and Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson’s Astro City. Andy and Derek spend a bit of time discussing the earlier series that these new comics are based on, but they also point out how both of these #1 issues are good jumping on points and accessible to readers unfamiliar with 100 Bullets and the earlier Astro City works. In addition, they argue that these two titles are just another indication that earlier worries about Vertigo’s fate might have been misplaced. Next they move on to Six-Gun Gorilla (Boom! Studios), written by Simon Spurrier with art by Jeff Stokely. The guys note the unique atmosphere of this title, science fiction in what appears to be a late-nineteen-century-like setting, and of course allude to the original pulp story, serialized in the UK magazine Wizard in 1939,

This week the Two Guys with PhDs review Gabrielle Bell’s latest book, The Voyeurs (Uncivilized Books), as well as two self-published comics from Becky Cloonan, The Mire and Demeter. This is the perfect episode to follow last week’s roundtable on the mainstream-indie comics divide, in that the work of both Bell and Cloonan exemplify many of the points raised in that discussion. First, Andy and Derek do an in-depth reading of The Voyeurs, placing it within the larger context of Bell’s body of work. They emphasize the semi-autobiographic nature of the book, while at the same time pointing out how much of The Voyeurs is more ambitious than her earlier comics, combining many of the best features found in her Lucky series (collected in 2003) and the more fictional Cecil and Jordan in New York (2008). The guys then move on to Becky Cloonan’s recent self-published comics, The Mire (a 2013 Eisner Award nominee) and Demeter. After briefly discussing some of Cloonan’s mainstream work, such as American Virgin (with Steve

Andy and Derek are back for another of their Point One episodes, and this time they’re on the floor of HeroesCon, taking place on June 7-9 in Charlotte, NC. Andy was there for the entire weekend — as is his annual tradition — and Derek was able to get there for Sunday, the last day of the con. So the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics were able to join forces and leap into action, schmoozing and cavorting and interviewing a number of creators/publishers in Artist Alley. You’ll hear in this show some of the fruits of their encounters, brief conversations with John Layman, Duffy Boudreau, Peter Bagge, Evan Dorkin, Eric Powell, Andy Hirsch, Jim Ottaviani, and Maris Wicks, among others. Also on this episode Andy shares some of his memorable HeroesCon encounters, and Derek reveals his suspect use of the word “wacky.” A great time was had by all, and we hope you enjoy listening to some of the fun the Two Guys had this past weekend.

This week on The Comics Alternative Andy and Derek present another roundtable discussion, this one devoted to the mainstream and indie comics divide. They are joined by fellow podcasters John Mayo, from the Comic Book Page podcast, and Chris Marshall, from Collected Comics Library. On this roundtable, the four guys begin by defining their terms and asking some basic questions — such as What are mainstream comics?, What defines an alternative or indie title?, How does one inform the other?, and What are the differences between the readerships of these different kinds of comics? — and from there the discussion goes off into different trajectories, all filled with nuanced responses and unexpected twists. Chris, John, Andy, and Derek cover genre definitions, the expectations underlying mainstream titles, the difficulty pinpointing indie content, the influences of fandom, divergences of readership, title availability, the “literariness” of certain comics, and, of course, the historical inheritance of comics as a d

The Two Guys with PhDs are back at Lone Star Comics in Plano, TX, and this time they are talking science fiction with the store manager, Rick Cromack, and his trusty sidekick, Shea Hennum. This is the first of a two-episode look at sci-fi comics with the guys at Lone Star (the second will come at the end of the summer).  In this first show they kick off the summer movie season by discussing some of the recent movie releases — such as Iron Man 3, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Man of Steel — and how those films are related to the franchises’ comics…or vice versa.  They also bring up a number of non-film-related sci-fi comics (such as Prophet and The Massive), attempt to define “science fiction” and emphasize its elasticity, play around with the boundaries of the genre, and even debate what comics may or may not be considered science fiction. Along the way Rick argues that Superman isn’t really a superhero, Andy’s head subsequently explodes, Shea reveals his need to be housebroken, and Derek finds that with some

This week on the podcast Andy and Derek flip through the pages of the June Previews catalog, and there they find a whole slew of great upcoming titles. In fact, this month they find solicits on an exciting lineup of new alternative and indie books, including Adrian Tomine’s Optic Nerve and Seth’s Palookaville (both from Drawn and Quarterly), the Hernandez brothers’ Love and Rockets: New Stories No. 6 (Fantagraphics), John Lewis and Andrew Aydin’s March, Book 1 (Top Shelf), Zak Sally’s Sammy the Mouse Vol. 2 (Uncivilized Books), Ben Acker and Ben Blacker’s The Thrilling Adventure Hour (Archaia Entertainment), Jack Katz’s The First Kingdom, Vol. 1: The Birth of Tundran (Titan Comics), P. Craig Russell’s Opera Adaptations (NBM), Classics Illustrated Deluxe, Vol. 10: The Murder in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales (Papercutz), as well as Howard Chaykin’s Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Walt Kelly’s Pogo: The Complete Dell Comics, Vol. 1 (both from Hermes Press).

This week on The Comics Alternative podcast Andy and Derek invite the creators of the new digital comic, Subatomic Party Girls (Monkeybrain Comics), into their virtual studio for an interview. Chris Sims, Chad Bowers, and Erica Henderson share with the Two Guys with PhDs (Talking about Comics) the origins of their new series; the unusual character lineup; their unique mashup of absurd humor, rock history, and sci-fi madness; and their working relationship, in all of its dysfunctional fun-filled glory. Along the way they discuss their other works, such as Awesome Hospital and their upcoming Oni comic Down! Set! Fight!, and how Subatomic Party Girls is providing them with new challenges. The conversation is jam-packed with trivia, pop cultural allusions, and sundry marginalia, and at times it seeps into crannies that you wouldn’t expect. But Chris, Chad, and Erica always bring it back to their new series and how being interviewed on The Comics Alternative has been the highlight of their careers. We couldn’t agr

This past Saturday, Derek attended the Dallas Comic Con, which was held at the Irving Convention Center, and ran from May 17-19. There, he spoke with a variety of creators and publishers, asking them about their comics and encouraging them to share with The Comics Alternative listeners their various projects, both recent and future. This was a heavily celebrity-ladened con — William Shatner and Brent Spiner were there, Nathan Fillion was supposed to be there (but didn’t make it), and Derek’s daughter, Zoe, was completely mesmerized by Adam Baldwin, who actually signed her homemade Jayne hat — and that part was fun. But Derek focused mostly on getting to the comics folk themselves. In his peregrinations around the convention floor, he was able to speak with Robert Wilson IV (artist of Knuckleheads), Jackie Cannon and Erik Reeves (writer and artist of Hoodratz in Space), creator Terry Moore (of Strangers in Paradise and Rachel Rising fame), Hunter S. Zombie (writer of Stillborn), Scott Chitwood (publisher of Re

This week Andy and Derek review two recent graphic novels, James Vance and Dan E. Burr’s On the Ropes and Matt Kindt’s Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes. As the Two Guys with PhDs make abundantly clear, both of these are incredible original works that are sure to end up on the guys’ year-end top ten lists. First, Andy and Derek discuss On the Ropes, a follow up to Vance and Burr’s original 1988-1989 miniseries, Kings in Disguise (Kitchen Sink Press, and latter published as a graphic novel in 1990). They discuss this earlier work, so as to set a context for the new book, and then go on to explore the ways in which On the Rope builds upon — and in some ways, even surpasses — the narrative reach of Kings in Disguise. If, as many critics have pointed out, Kings in Disguise is one of the seminal American graphic novels, then the latest collaboration between Vance and Burr is indeed a notable occasion. Next, the Two Guys with PhDs turn their attention to Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes, one of t

In this week’s episode of The Comics Alternative, Andy and Derek interview acclaimed artist Rick Geary. His new book, A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium, Vol. 1, was recently released by NBM Publishing. In it, you’ll find some of Rick’s Victorian murder classics, such as The Crimes of Dr. E.W. Prithard, The Fatal Bullet, The Beast of Chicago, and of course Jack the Ripper. The Two Guys with PhDs talk with Rick about his line of murder story comics — Victorian era as well as 20th-century — his meticulous research when preparing for each project, his strategies for storytelling and how he frames his narratives, and his fascination with crimes and unsolved mysteries. They also ask Rick about his many adaptations, translating into comics form such classics as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, O. Henry’s “The Marionettes,” Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Copper Beeches,” and Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger. Rick also talks about s

This past Saturday, Free Comic Book Day, Lone Star Comics in Plano, TX, sponsored a panel discussion on the current state of American comics. He invited a variety of individuals from different backgrounds and with different perspectives, but all participating in the field of comics in some form or another. The Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics were invited to take part in this event. Unfortunately, Andy couldn’t make it, but Derek was able to be there and provide his two or three cents. Joining Derek on the panel were Scott Fane, one of the writers from the blog Comical Musings; Chris Danger from live pop culture broadcast SCNS:Live; Brent Erwin, the Chief Operating Officer and one of the founders of Ape Entertainment; and Hunter S. Zombie, the writer of the indy title, Stillborn: The First Zombie.  Introducing the panel was Shea Hennum, the scheduling manager of Lone Star Comics in Plano and a friend of the show.  Shea got the ball rolling by asking the question, “Are we currently in a ‘golden age’ of

Despite its nefarious subtitle, this week’s episode of The Comics Alternative is all-age friendly! In it you’ll hear Andy and Derek discuss the shapely offerings in the May Previews catalog. They highlight the various sexy solicits from Dark Horse (Smoke/Ashes, The Best of Milligan and McCarthy, Sin Titulo, and Gamma), curvaceous tomes from DC/Vertigo (Batman ’66, Collider, Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril, and The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice), come-hither titles from IDW (The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror, Rocketeer/The Spirit: Pulp Friction!, Doctor Who, Series III, Vol. 2: The Eye of Ashaya), drool-inducing images from Image Comics (Satellite Sam, Ghoster, Sheltered, Kafka, and Masks and Mobsters), alluring visuals from Abrams (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, Vol. 3: The Donner Dinner Party), exotic bodies of work from Action Lab Entertainment (Molly Danger and Skyward), bodacious books from Boom! Studios (Day Men, Adventure Time: Summer Special, and Adventure Time: Candy Capers), p

Free Comic Book Day was Saturday, May 4th, and the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics were at Lone Star Comics in Plano, TX.  They spoke with staff and customers about what FCBD titles people were getting, which ones were going quickly, what was in some of their FCBD issues, and how publishers were making the best of this annual event.  Along the way they talked with a variety of folks, including aspiring comics writer Nick Bridwell, Jess from Rainbow Runners, Chris Danger from SCNS:Live (also on-location at Lone Star Comics), and of course their ol’ friend and the scheduling manager of the Plano Lone Star Comics, Shea Hennum.  (A young comics fan in a cool Superman outfit almost came by to talk with Andy and Derek, but he was spooked out at the last minute by Chris from SCNS:Live.)  The shop was packed with customers, and as a result, the Plano location of Lone Star Comics surpassed its previous single-day sales record!  On top of that, the city’s mayor, Phil Dyer, worked with the shop to declare May 4,

This week Andy and Derek review three new #1 comics: the Vertigo anthology Time Warp, Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin’s The Private Eye (Panel Syndicate), and Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s East of West (Image Comics). They have their hands full with Time Warp, given the variety of quality creators and engaging narratives contained in this plus-sized issue, but they still find the time to look at two recent examples at genre bending. Vaughn and Martin’s The Private Eye is a futuristic detective/noir tale established on the premise that technology and social media have gone wrong. The Two Guys with PhDs note that this narrative has much in common with Y: The Last Man, another series based on a faulty cultural contingency. East of West, on the other hand, is a genre free-for-all, mashing up elements of sci-fi,westerns, alternative history, and apocalyptic narratives, and topped with a generous dollop of violent gore. It’s not a title for those with a queasy constitution. Andy and Derek then turn their