Comics Alternative

Time Codes: 00:24 - Introduction 03:04 - Setup of interview 05:16 - Interview with Katie Green 56:39 - Wrap up 58:06 - Contact us On this interview episode, Paul and Derek talk with Katie Green about her recent graphic memoir Lighter Than My Shadow, released last month from Lion Forge's Roar imprint. The Two Guys reviewed the book a couple of weeks ago, but they were so moved by Green's story that they wanted to have her on the podcast to talk about her work. This insightful conversation adds more context and texture to Katie's memoir, and she shares her struggles in narrating her various traumatic experiences, her art background and its translation into memoir comics, and her desires to reach others, specifically younger readers, who may similarly suffer from eating disorders and sexual abuse.

On this month's Previews episode, Gwen and Derek join forces to highlight the various November solicits that strike their fancy. In fact, this is Gwen's first time doing a Previews show, but she comes across as an old hand and suggests some wonderful upcoming titles that are sure to resonate with listeners. But first, the Two Academics Talking about Comics send out a BIG thank you to two dedicated -- and two very talented -- listeners, Holly English and Marc Casilli. Both have recently shared copies of their own self-published comics, and Gwen and Derek give them a shout-out and discuss how impressed they are with the issues. After that they announce The Comics Alternative's brand new Slack channel, inviting listeners to join up and take part in the discussion community. But after these announcements, they get to the heart of this week's Previews episode. Among the comics and graphic novels Gwen and Derek recommend are: Dark Horse Comics - Hungry Ghosts #1, Vinegar Teeth #1, Contract with God Curator's Coll

Time Codes: 00:00:25 - Introduction 00:02:39 - Setup of interview 00:04:29 - Interview with Julia Wertz 01:10:16 - Wrap up 01:12:40 - Contact us On this interview episode, Paul and Derek are pleased to have Julia Wertz on the podcast. Her new book, Tenements, Towers and Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City, came out earlier this month from Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers. As the subtitle suggests, this is a different kind of history, a guide to the Big Apple's present as well as its past, investigating its architecture, its businesses, its facades, its entertainment venues, and the many colorful figures who have populated its boroughs. The guys talk with Julia about how different this book is from her previous works -- e.g., Drinking at the Movies, The Infinite Wait and Other Stories, Fart Party -- which are primarily autobiographical. For this project, the author considered herself an urban explorer, forgoing the inward gaze and focusing instead on the city that she c

Time Codes: 00:00:26 - Introduction 00:03:10 - Setting up this year's manga horror show 00:06:52 - Domu: A Child's Dream 00:31:12 - Panorama of Hell 00:56:25 - Mail 01:12:42 - Dissolving Classroom 01:32:47 - H.P. Lovecraft's The Hound and Other Stories 01:52:51 - Neo Parasyte M 02:03:12 - Wrap up 02:04:39 - Contact us Shea and Derek are back with their second manga episode of the month! On this show, they discuss several horror manga that will get you in the mood for Halloween tomorrow. As they did last year, the Two Manga Guys are both thrilled and chilled with by introducing listeners to a variety creepy titles, some older and some brand new. They begin with Katsuhiro Otomo's Domu: A Child's Dream (Dark Horse Manga), a story that is probably the least horrific of those discussed, but it's nonetheless one of the guys' favorites on this episode. As the guys point out, it's a shame that Otomo's canonical Akira tends to overshadows other impressive efforts such as Domu. After that they lo

The Comics Alternative is launching a brand new weekly series devoted to independent, small-press, and creator-owned Kickstarter campaigns that are comics-related. Every Saturday morning you'll hear a brief conversation with a creator, or creative team, with a Kickstarter campaign underway, where Derek talks with them about their project, the story behind their ideas, the various levels of support, and why listeners should back their efforts. Since the vast majority of creators on Kickstarter are self-publishing or with very small presses, it just makes sense that The Comics Alternative help give voice to these projects. On this inaugural episode of the series, Derek talks with Allison O'Toole about TO Comix Press' Wayward Sisters: An Anthology of Monstrous Women. She serves as the lead editor of this collection, which will include 25 stories from 38 writers and artists. As Allison reveals, what distinguishes this anthology is its focus is on non-binary and female monsters drawn and written by creators fro

Time Codes: 00:25 - Introduction 02:55 - Setup of interview 04:20 - Interview with Andy Hirsch 57:15 - Wrap up 59:51 - Contact us Andy Hirsch is back on the podcast, and this time he talks with Gwen and Derek about his new book, Science Comics: Dogs: From Predator to Protector. This is the next volume in First Second's important Science Comics series, one that uses comics to educate both younger readers and adults. In fact, Gwen and Derek spend a lot of time asking Andy his illustrative strategies for taking complex concepts and making them understandable to a broader audience. There is a lot of science packed into this book, and not all of it specifically devoted to canines. But Andy uses colorful charts and graphs, as well as particularly effective storytelling conventions, to present his dense subject matter. Guiding the reader through all of this information is Rudy, the lovable mixed-breed narrator who, in many ways, functions as a stand-in for Andy Hirsch himself. Over the course of the int

Time Codes: 00:00:24 - Introduction 00:02:56 - Setup of interview 00:04:17 - Interview with R. Sikoryak 01:12:42 - Wrap up 01:13:32 - Contact us On this interview episode, Derek talks with R. Sikoryak about his latest work, The Unquotable Trump, just released this week by Drawn and Quarterly. The conversation begins with Bob's apologies for having to write the book and his distaste for the subject matter. But as he makes clear in the interview, these cartoons are his way of dealing with what he feels is a malignant force unleashed by last year's election. In fact, Bob reveals that the genesis of The Unquotable Trump actually dates from the days before the election, when he was using the figure of Donald Trump -- and more importantly, the candidate's own words -- in classic comic-book cover parodies as a way of trying to vent his anger. These black-and-white illustrations originally appeared in a minicomic released back in January, but his publisher, Drawn and Quarterly, convinced him to create mo

Time Codes: 00:00:26 - Introduction 00:03:05 - Setup of this year's Halloween episode 00:10:40 - Halloween Tales, Vol. 1 00:25:49 - Adventure Time Spoooktacular 2017 00:35:12 - Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil & Mr. Higgins Comes Home 00:45:26 - Jughead: The Hunger & Archie Halloween Spectacular 01:02:47 - DC House of Horror 01:13:52 - Spooky and the Strange Tales: Monster Inn & Behind You: One-Shot Horror Stories 01:29:47 - High Moon: Bullet Holes and Bite Marks 01:36:57 - Wrap up 01:38:57 - Contact us Once again, it's that creepy time of the year: the Wednesday before Halloween. And as the Two Guys have done for the past several years, they're using this occasion to highlight a variety of Halloween-specific and recent horror titles. This time around, Paul joins Derek in discussing a variety of comics, ten in all, that will appeal to a diverse community of readers. There's something for young readers, something for more mature fans, something for classic horror aficianado

Time Codes: 00:00:24 - Introduction 00:02:38 - Setup of interview 00:04:40 - Interview with Roz Chast 01:12:04 - Wrap up 01:13:54 - Contact us Paul and Derek are pleased to have on The Comics Alternative the great cartoonist, Roz Chast. Her new book, Going into Town: A Love Letter to New York, was recently released by Bloomsbury Publishing. The Two Guys have been longtime fans of Chast's offbeat and hilarious New Yorker strips for years, and they spend a good bit of time talking with their guest about how she has translated that sense of humor into a long-form narrative. They also talk with Chast about her previous book, Can't We Please Talk about Something More Pleasant?, her memoir on living with aging parents, and how her mother and father find prominent places in the latest work. Along the way, Chast discusses her process of writing -- she indiscriminately explores narrative paths to see what does and doesn't work -- her unique non-comic-book community of cartoonist colleagues, and her experi

Time Codes: 00:00:25 - Introduction 00:03:07 - Setup of interview 00:04:43 - Interview with Rich Tommaso 01:01:40 - Wrap up 01:03:42 - Contact us Derek is pleased to have Rich Tommaso back on The Comics Alternative. He appeared on the show last year to discuss his new series at the time, She Wolf, but this time he talks about Spy Seal, his intriguing new anthropomorphic espionage series from Image Comics. They begin by chronicling the genesis of the story, a comic that Rich began as a thirteen-year-old, and then discuss the development of the premise and the various choices Rich made in situating his narrative. One way that Rich describes his new series is by paying homage to Hergé's Tintin, the globetrotting young investigator who always found himself immersed in adventure and intrigue. He also discloses many of the lessons he learned with his previous Image series, both She Wolf and Dark Corridors, his love of genre, and his need to move on -- at least momentarily -- from psychological horror a

Time Codes: 00:00:30 - Introduction 00:03:12 - The tragedy of the California wildfires 00:05:58 - Lighter Than My Shadow 00:48:27 - Now #1 01:14:03 - The Family Trade #1 01:31:28 - Wrap up 01:32:31 - Contact us This week Paul and Derek take on three exciting new titles. They begin with a moving memoir from UK creator Katie Green, Lighter Than My Shadow (Roar-Lion Forge). In this work, Green reveals the eating disorders she struggled with as a young girl and into adulthood. Growing up obsessive-compulsive, Green chronicles how this condition contributed to her anorexic behavior, later evolving into problems with binging. Green also narrates her many attempts to address these problems with various doctors and therapists, the most notorious of whom ends up sexually abusing her...providing even more obstacles to her recovery. The guys are impressed by Green's honesty and storytelling abilities -- particularly taken by her art and the visual metaphors she employs throughout -- although toward the

Time Codes: 00:00:24 - Introduction 00:02:39 - Setup of interview 00:04:28 - Interview with Sophie Goldstein 01:16:41 - Wrap up 01:18:21 - Contact us On this episode of The Comics Alternative's interview series, Paul and Derek are pleased to talk with Sophie Goldstein. Her new book, House of Women, was recently published by Fantagraphics, and she talks with the Two Guys about her four-year process of creating her narrative. As Sophie describes it, this is a psycho-sexual sci-fi drama about a group of female missionaries who travel to a distant planet to help educate -- and colonize -- the local population. Complications ensue when an earlier missionary, Jael Dean, goes native and becomes the focus of rival affections. During their insightful conversation, Goldstein discusses the genesis of the project, how it springs from her love of the film Black Narcissus and how it began as a thesis while she was at the Center for Cartoon Studies. She also reveals her strategies for composing her protagonists

Time Codes: 00:00:26 - Introduction 00:02:26 - Getting back in the manga saddle 00:05:37 - Uncomfortably Happily 00:44:42 - Appleseed Alpha 01:22:55 - Wrap up 01:24:37 - Contact us The monthly manga series is back, and on this episode -- the first of two manga shows in October -- Shea and Derek discuss a couple of very different works. They begin with Yeon-Sik Hong's Uncomfortably Happily (Drawn and Quarterly). This is the story of Hong and his wife becoming frustrated with living in crowded and polluted Seoul, ultimately deciding to move to a house in a remote mountain community. As the guys reveal, the majority of the narrative is devoted to the everyday challenges the couple undergo, the quotidian tasks involved in living in such a raw, isolated area. Over the course of their conversation Derek and Shea address the question of autobiography: Is this indeed a memoir of what Hong and his wife actually underwent? Neither of the guys doubts that the story is anchored in Hong's real-life experien

Time Codes: 00:00:31 - Introduction 00:03:14 - Hello to Paul! 00:04:44 - Spinning 00:33:30 - Love and Rockets, Vol. 4 #3 01:07:11 - Slots #1 01:25:49 - Wrap up 01:27:12 - Contact us On this week's episode of The Comics Alternative, Paul joins Derek in discussing three exciting new titles. They begin with Spinning, Tillie Walden's new book and her initial release for First Second. What makes this work stand out from her previous comics, such as The End of Summer and I Love This Part, is that it is an outright memoir. This is a coming-of-age narrative, and Walden uses her history of competitive ice skating as a scaffolding for her life story. There's a lot in this memoir about her chosen sport, but Spinning is much more than a book about skating. In it, we see Walden's key relationships, her search for a mother figure, and her coming out to family and friends. Next, the guys check out the latest issue of Love and Rockets (Fantagraphics). In this issue, the third in the magazine-sized fourth vo

Time Codes: 00:00:28 - Introduction 00:03:16 - Comments on hiatus 00:05:33 - Righteous 00:28:44 - Zen and the Ephemeral 00:48:36 - American Barbarian 01:15:35 - Wrap up 01:16:43 - Contact us The Comics Alternative's monthly webcomics series is back, and for October Sean and Derek discuss three intriguing titles. They begin with Righteous, written by Kevin Sheller and with art by Joseba Morales and colors by Gab Contreras. This is a narrative with a curious premise: What would happen if suddenly, everyone decided to do the right thing? The story focuses on Daniel, a risk analyst who is "touched" by a mysterious entity and then realizes that his work demeans human life and decides to commit himself to helping others. And his attitude becomes infectious. Next, the Two Guys discuss a very recent webcomic (beginning in May), Laurence Dea Dionne's Zen and the Ephemeral. It's the story of Moé, a young woman suffering from depression who decides to spend ten days at a meditation retreat. The narrati

The Two Guys with PhDs have been on hiatus for a couple of months -- as they explain in this episode, life matters prevented new episodes -- but now the weekly review show is back...and with a vengeance. On this episode, Gene and Derek look through the October Previews catalog. There's a lot packed into this month's solicits, and the guys have their hands full. But Gene and Derek rise to the occasion and highlight a variety of upcoming titles from publishers such as: Dark Horse Comics - Incognegro, Joe Golem: Occult Detective: Flesh and Blood #1, Inside Moebius, and The Secret Loves of Geeks DC/Vertigo - DC Universe Holiday Special 2017, Imaginary Fiends #2, and Savage Things IDW Publishing/Top Shelf - Assassinistas #1, We Spoke Out: Comic Books and the Holocaust, Screwball: The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny, Four Women, and Comic Book History of Comics: Comics for All #1 Image Comics - Curse Words Holiday Special, Paradiso #1, Sleepless #1, and The Divided States of Hysteria Aardvark-Vanah

Time Codes: 00:00:28 - Introduction 00:04:29 - A Different Pond 00:15:30 - Swing It, Sunny 00:32:50 - Pashmina 00:53:04 - A young reader's perspective 01:25:39 - Contact us On this episode of the Comics Alternative Young Readers podcast, Gwen and Paul discuss three comics that run the gamut from early readers up to teens. First on deck, they discuss Bao Phi and Thi Bui’s A Different Pond (Capstone Young Readers), a children’s hybrid picture book/comic that focuses on a bonding moment between a young boy and his father. Then, Gwen and Paul talk about Jennifer Holm and Matt Holm’s sequel to last year’s acclaimed Sunny Side-Up, Swing It, Sunny (Graphix), which sees preteen Sunny trying to figure out why her older brother has changed so much. Finally, the Two Academics Talking about Comics look at a middle/grade…or maybe YA text, Nidhi Chanani’s Pashmina (First Second), about a young immigrant who tries to gain a deeper understanding of her mother’s past in India. Also, Gwen and Paul have a sp

Time Codes: 00:00:27 - Introduction 00:03:06 - Roundtable discussion with Charles Hatfield and Krystal Howard 01:25:00 - Wrap up 01:27:49 - Contact us For this Young Readers show, Paul and Gwen change things up a bit by hosting a roundtable on the state of children’s and YA comics with two amazing scholars: Dr. Charles Hatfield, professor in the department of English at California State University, Northridge, and his new college, Dr. Krystal Howard, an assistant professor who is dual appointed in English and Liberal Studies. The conversation in this month’s episode includes a number of timely topics, including the way scholars define children’s and YA comics, the challenges and benefits of teaching children’s comics, and the exciting formal aspects of comics, as well as other categories, such as verse novels. Charles had just returned from the San Diego Comic Con, and he shared a list of sessions that were held in conjunction with SDCC at the San Diego Public Library, as well as commentary on this

Time Codes: 00:00:30 - Introduction 00:02:37 - Comments on the 2017 Eisner Award winners 00:14:49 - The Death of Stalin 00:41:52 - Moonstruck #1 01:02:16 - Kros: Hallowed Ground 01:33:14 - Wrap up 01:34:25 - Contact us This week on The Comics Alternative's regular review show, the Two Guys discuss three recent titles, all of which involve monsters....or outsiders, depending on your perspective. They begin with The Death of Stalin, written by Fabien Nury and with art by Thierry Robin (Titan Comics). This is a translation of a French text that is soon to be released as a major motion picture in the UK, and then eventually coming to the US. It's the semi-historical account of the death of Joseph Stalin and the unusual circumstances surrounding that event. As Andy and Derek point out, Nury's dark sense of humor is apparent throughout, while Robin's art captures the grittiness of the context. Next, the guys move on to Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle, and Kate Leth's Moonstruck #1 (Image Comics). The st

This just may be the last on-location episode of The Comics Alternative conducted from Valhalla Games and Comics in Plano, TX. Derek is moving to North Carolina and will no longer be in the DFW area to do these shows. But customers of Valhalla and friends of the podcast, both long-timers and new listeners, come by the shop to say a fond farewell...and talk about comics. Joining Derek for this special episode are Craig, Matt, Jay, Tristan, and Kelly. Their interests are diverse, so the conversation reflects that. And they cover a lot of ground, so listen up! Partings are tough. But as David Gates once sang, "Goodbye doesn't mean forever."