Comics Alternative

This year the Two....no, the Three Guys with PhDs attended HeroesCon, and they had a table there in the middle of Artists Alley. Andy Kunka, Andy Wolverton, and Derek Royal were there to check out the action, rummage through the dollar bins, search for new and interesting titles, talk with creators, get their books signed, and just generally enjoy the fun and camaraderie. On each of the three days of the con, Friday (June 19th) through Sunday (June 21st), they made it a point to record segments live from the floor, discussing the highlights and the experiences they took away from the event. Among the many topics they cover are the incredibly long lines for Jason Aarons, Jason Latour, Chip Zdarsky, Matt Fraction, and Kelly Sue DeConnick; their luck in having a table so close to friend-of-the-show and overall great guy, Craig Yoe; the wonderful experience of having fans of The Comics Alternative come up and talk with the guys; the adventures of trying to find a place for dinner after the con lets out for the da

On this episode of The Comics Alternative Interviews, Derek has a great time talking with Tillie Walden, the author of a brand new book from Avery Hill Publishing, The End of Summer. This is her debut graphic novel, and, in fact, her conversation with Derek is the very first time she's been on a podcast. (Yet another Comics Alternative exclusive!) On the show, Tillie talks about the origins of her story, her process of creation, and the unlikely events that led to her first publication. The End of Summer is a narrative of purpose in isolation, an attempt to find meaning in a life defined by diminishing options. Walden's haunting art reveals the inner turmoil of her protagonist/narrator, Lars, as he negotiates the tangles within his family over the course of one long winter. Plus, she includes in her story a giant cat by the name of Nemo. Derek talks with Tillie about the balancing act of being a full-time student -- she's just wrapped up her first year at the Center for Cartoon Studies -- and creating a long-

The Two Guys with PhDs are back for another Publisher Spotlight, and this time they turn their attention to recent releases from AdHouse Books. On this episode, they look at the publisher's 2015 catalog (so far), but first Derek talks briefly with AdHouse's founder and publisher, Chris Pitzer. He gives the lowdown on the origins of the press, how he translated his designer skills into publishing acumen, the process of artist acquisition, and some of his most notable (and unlikely) publishing successes over the years. After that, the guys plunge into their discussion of the five books that have come out -- or are about to come out -- from AdHouse this year. They start with the new edition of Jim Rugg's Street Angel. Both Derek and Andy Kunka had already discussed last year's Street Angel when they had Rugg on for an interview earlier this year, but this new edition gives the reader a different color experience. Whereas the earlier book contained black and white art, this one sets the illustrations on pink pape

The Comics Alternative is excited to have Rick Geary back on the show. The guys had last talked to him two years ago, after the publication of A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium, Vol. 1, and now Rick is returning to the podcast to discuss his brand new book, Louise Brooks: Detective (NBM). Although similar in tone to his historical murder mysteries, this is a very different kind of narrative for Rick. Here he uses the biography of silent film star, Louise Brooks, as a springboard for a fictional tale set in Depression-era Kansas (a setting with familial roots for Rick). After her heyday as a silent movie star, the toast of both America and Europe society, and a divorcée from two unsuccessful marriages, a still-young Louise returns to her family home of Wichita to regroup and assess her life. There, she attempts to readjust to small-town living, tries her hand at becoming a writer, and eventually becomes embroiled in an elaborate and seemingly indecipherable mystery involving a once-famous playwright. A

Once again, Derek is back at  his local comics shop, Collected Comics and Games in Plano, TX, to talk with customers and shop employees about comics culture. This month the topic was supposed to be summer movies and comics, with people chiming in on the recent releases of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Mad Max: Fury Road, as well as  the upcoming Ant-Man and Fantastic Four. However, there was only one of the on-location regulars who showed up this month, Shea Hennum, and much like Derek, he wasn't informed enough about the summer movies to help carry the conversation. So instead, Derek and Shea talked about a variety of other comics-related topics. On this show, they cover a broad and casual range, discussing the latest issue of Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve and the upcoming release of Killing and Dying, the recent collected Angry Youth Comix and the "appropriateness" of Johnny Ryan's art, potential problems in publishing a webcomic into book form, Jon Morris's new book The League of Regrettable Superheroes, the u

This week on the podcast, Derek and Andy W. discuss three new and very different titles. They begin with a narrative based in reality, Mike's Place: A True Story of Love, Blues, and Terror in Tel Aviv, written by Jack Baxter and Joshua Faudem, with art by Koren Shadmi (First Second). This is the story of an American who travels to Israel to make a documentary, teams up with an Israeli film student, and then learns firsthand both the promises and the dangers of the conflicted culture. Mike's Place is beachfront bar in Tel Aviv where politics and religion are checked at the front door. It's sacred text is written with music, drink, and multicultural camaraderie. But the filmmakers soon learn that safe havens, political and personal, can be a tenuous proposition. Andy and Derek highlight the authors' evenhanded approach to their politically charged subject matter as well as their ability to make Mike's Place a story of community, not a single-minded treatise. And after all of that reality, the Two Guys head in t

This month on The Comics Alternative's webcomics show, Andy and Derek check out three intriguing titles. As they usually do, they begin by looking at two current and ongoing titles. They get the ball rolling with Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary, This is a surreal story of discovery involving a young girl, Dale, whose family life isn't the most ideal. Sent to live with her aunt and uncle, she tries to come to grips with her parents' precarious state and does so through a series of unlikely discoveries on her relatives' property. Fans of Rickheit's The Squirrel Machine and Cochlea and Eustachi will find a similarly mind-bending, and beautifully illustrated, narrative in Ectopiary. This webcomic hasn't been updated in quite a while, but the guys are willing to wait hopefully for such a compelling work as Ectopiary. After that, Derek and Andy return to an author they had briefly discussed in a recent review show. Jen Lee's Thunderpaw is a story with anthropomorphic animals trying to find their way in the wild. As in Va

We're in the opening days of June, so that means it's time for another look at the Previews catalog. At the beginning of every month, the Two Guys like to take a gander at the current Previews, flipping through its many pages and highlighting those upcoming releases that really capture their attention. And even if there are comics that neither Derek nor Andy W. plans on getting himself, if they think it's interesting enough for listeners, then they'll mention those titles as well. As with the May Previews show -- which had a running time of over two hours! -- this episode is quite substantial, since there are so many books that the guys feel are worth mentioning. Some are from popular publishers, some will be released through smaller and more obscure presses. But as always, it's a great mix of titles. So get out your checklists, and listen up! There are so many titles listed on this show that it would be impossible to review them all in the coming months. And in fact, Derek and Andy invite listeners to consid

While Derek attended this year's Fan Expo Dallas, he had the opportunity to talk with Peter Bagge not once, but twice! On the Saturday of the con Peter was kind enough to sit down for a lengthy interview -- about 30 minutes -- in-between fans, commissions, and signings. Although their back-and-forth was substantial, there were subject matters that they didn't get to cover on that first day. So they decided to follow up with another interview on Sunday. What you'll hear in this podcast episode is an edited result of two-days-worth of recorded conversation at Fan Expo Dallas. Among other topics, Derek asks Peter about the response to 2013's Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story, and that leads to a discussion of the creator's next project, a graphic biography of Zora Heale Hurston. Peter shares his experiences researching for the book, the politics underlying Hurston's previous biographers, and the challenges of putting the writer's life -- the palatable as well as the problematic -- into comics form. They als

Fan Expo Dallas was held May 29-31, and this year Derek was there in Artists Alley talking with a variety of creators. Some of those he spoke with are famous names and individuals who have been on the show before. Others were new to him and, and Derek used the opportunity to introduce himself and Comics Alternative listeners to their fascinating works. He begins by talking with two artists who have spoken with him at various cons in the past, Robert Wilson IV and Joe Eisma. The latter shares his experiences having illustrated Bitch Planet #3, the amount of attention that has brought him, and his warm relationship with Kelly Sue DeConnick. Robert also follows up on the success of Knuckleheads, which was released as a book last summer from IDW. Joe Eisma talks not only about his most recent work on Morning Glories, now in its second "season," but also about doing a variant cover for the relaunch of Archie. After that, Derek speaks with two teams of creators whose work he has just discovered. Through Stephen G.

On this interview show, Derek and Andy W. have a fun time talking with Tom Neely and Keenan Marshall Keller. The first trade volume of their series, The Humans, recently came out from Image Comics, and next week the narrative arc will continue with issue #5, in which the simian bikers make their drug run in L.A. Although every issue of The Humans is filled with action and dynamic art, this upcoming installment is particularly energetic, complete with chase scenes, road fights, blown-off faces, pissing on police cars, plenty of explosions, and an abundance of profanity. In fact, as the Two Guys point out, this has to be the most "fucked"-filled episode of The Comics Alternative that the guys have ever recorded. (And of course, it bears the appropriate "explicit" rating in iTunes.) Keenan and Tom cut loose with the conversation, just as their biker gang rides roughshod over 1970s Bakersfield. They discuss the genesis of The Humans, the series' humble beginning as a self-published 0 issue, their relationship wit

On this episode of The Comics Alternative podcast, Derek and Andy W. discuss four new titles. They begin with Ryan K. Lindsay, Eric Zawadzki, and Sebastian Piriz's Headspace (IDW Publishing). This was originally an eight-issue digital series published by MonkeyBrain between March 2014 and April 2015. A law enforcement officer, Shane, finds himself in a surreal land with no memory of how he got there nor any idea how to leave. He eventually discovers that he is inside the mind of a violent criminal whose brain is being manipulated by the authorities. As the guys point out, this is a psychological thriller as much as it is an astute exercise in world-building. Next, they take an extensive look at Nate Powell's You Don't Say (Top Shelf), a collection of seventeen short stories published between 2003 and 2013. For readers who appreciate Powell's previous works -- such as Swallow Me Whole, Any Empire, The Silence of Our Friends, and the first two volumes of March -- this is a wonderful opportunity to see the devel

On this episode of the monthly manga show, Derek and Shea discuss the recently published Henshin, by Ken Niimura (Image Comics), and Katsuhiro Otomo’s classic Akira (Kodansha Comics). They begin with Henshin, a thirteen-story collection from the artist behind I Kill Giants (and written by Joe Kelly). Shea points out that it’s difficult to find much information on Niimura, as most of his work has been published in either Japan or in Spain. But Henshin — which means “transformation” in Japanese —- may be a good introduction to his work. As the guys point out, the stories cover a variety of genres, from crime to cooking to sports to salaryman narratives  There are also four autobiographical shorts interspersed throughout. Neither Shea nor Derek feel that these tales are as successful as the non-autobiographical stories, but they do show a lighter and more personal side of Niimura’s work. The tone in the other nine pieces are more dramatic, and at times tender and even melancholic. All in all, the collection is a

Andy and Derek are pleased to have as their guest on The Comics Alternative the artist who has done more than anyone to help us understand comics, Scott McCloud. He has just concluded an exhausting world tour -- traveling all over the United States and Europe, and then wrapping up at this year's TCAF -- and the Two Guys were able to catch him during a breather and talk with him about his latest book, The Sculptor (First Second). They begin by asking him about the reception of his new graphic novel and the kind of reader reaction he had experienced on the road. Scott shares some of the commentary he received, such as finding the book a quick read as well as questions regarding the story's ending. In fact, the guys spend a bit of time discussing the concluding section of the book -- without really spoiling anything -- and ask Scott about his thoughts on structuring his narrative. He reveals that The Sculptor was a long time in coming and that he's been thinking of the ending almost from the beginning, over five

This week on The Comics Alternative, the Two Guys with PhDs are back with another Publisher Spotlight episode, this time focusing on the spring 2015 releases from Conundrum Press. They begin the show by doing something they've never done before: interviewing the publisher of the press they're about to spotlight. Derek talks with Andy Brown briefly about his founding of Conundrum, its evolution into a comics-only publisher, the many roles he plays at the press, the kind of creators he works with, and a summary of the spring releases and beyond. After that, the guys plunge into a discussion of the five new releases, beginning with Zach Worton's The Disappearance of Charley Butters. This is the first of a trilogy, centering on the discovery of an abandoned shack and the mystery surrounding its former occupant, a solitary artist. As some of the characters learn more about this missing figure, they begin to see themselves and their relationships more clearly. Next, Derek and Andy W. turn to Max de Radiguès's Moose

Derek is back at his local shop, Collected Comics and Games in Plano, TX, and this month the topic is open and general comics talk. Anything goes, and over the coarse of the conversation, Derek discovers that anything does go in talking with the shop's customers. Joining him for this free-flowing exchange are regulars Shea, Craig, Matt, and Chris, and the discussion topics are wide-ranging. They begin with a conversation on the relative disappearance of westerns and war comics as a popular genre. Sgt. Rock comes up a lot, of course, as well as Garth Ennis's recent revival of his War Stories series coming out from Avatar Press. And Craig reminds everyone about a title he brought up in the February episode, Max Brooks and Caanan White's The Harlem Hellfighters. Via a reference to one of Derek's favorites, Weird War Tales, the talk shifts to horror and mystery comics and then takes an abrupt shift into Kickstarter territory. This leads to a discussion of the recent shenanigans of Archie Comics in their Kickstart

This week on the their weekly review show, Derek and Andy W. discuss three new books that are definitely worth checking out. They begin with Pénélope Bagieu's Exquisite Corpse from First Second. This may be the first English-language publication for Bagieu (the guys aren't certain about this), and it's a great introduction from one of France's current popular creators. It's a romantic comedy with a sophisticated premise and an unexpected twist at the end. In fact, it's the narrative's quick wrap-up that puzzles the Two Guys. While they both enjoyed the story, they nonetheless read the ending as an undermining -- perhaps a betrayal? -- of character cohesiveness that was established in the first 4/5 of the book. It's almost as if Begieu changed her mind in the final pages of her narrative and wanted to rewrite the way  we should interpret a major character. Still, her art is infectious and works hand-in-hand with the humorous, yet incisive, events that unfold. Next, the guys look at Operation Nemesis: A Story o

It's time for another episode in The Comics Alternative's monthly webcomics series, and for May the Two Guys with PhDs discuss three must-read titles. They begin as they usually do by looking at two current and ongoing webcomics, and this time they're Christina Strain and Jayd Aït-Kaci's The Fox Sister and Ben Fleuter's Derelict. Both of these began in 2011, and even though the intentions were to update them weekly, the creators of these titles have had to pause occasionally or slow down the frequencies of their narrative installments. So with each, we are still in the middle of the story four years into things. But that's OK, because both are engaging narratives that are worth the wait. The Fox Sister revolves around Yun Hee, a young South Korean woman who's family has been the victim of a kumiho, the legendary nine-tailed fox who assumes the shape of a beautiful woman -- in this case, Yun Hee's older sister -- to seduce and murder young men. While hunting down the kumiho,  the protagonist befriends a young

It’s the beginning of May, so that means it’s time for another Previews show. As they do every month, the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics carefully go through the latest Previews catalog highlighting many of the upcoming titles that catch their interests and are worth checking out. As Derek and Andy W. point out, this particular issue of the catalog is chock-full of intriguing solicitations, so much so that this turns out to be one of the longest Previews episodes the guys have ever discussed. As a result, this episode of the podcast goes chunky style! The fun begins with a brief recount of FCBD 2015, where the guys share some of their experiences last weekend. Derek grabbed a lot of great FCBD titles. Andy couldn’t get inside his crowded local shop, so instead he stocked up on great deals in the bins outside his shop. Then they get into the meat of the show, talking about the many solicit that grabbed their attention this month. And of course there are the usual tangents, unique observations, and all

or Free Comic Book Day, Derek visits his local comic book shop, Collected Comics and Games in Plano, TX. There he talks with a variety of customers -- many of whom have been on the shop before, some who have not -- as well as creators featuring their works at the shop. Once such creator is Hunter S. Zombie, the writer of Stillborn: The First Zombie. He talks with Derek about his first book, his current work on the second, his relationship with and support of George Romero, and the travails of working the local con circuit. He also joins in the conversation with the shop customers, and the topics there turn to the new Avengers movie (hot on everyone's mind), the new Daredevil series from Netflix, and the links between movie/TV fans and comics readers. More to the point, everyone discusses what FCBD titles they especially wanted to pick up, and why. Several mentioned Marvel's Secret Wars offering as well as the all-Spanish The Uncanny Inhumans. Others focused on Dark Horse's Fight Club/Goon issue, Dynamite's Bo