Deconstructing Comics
373 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★★ - 28 ratingsA podcast about the craft of comics
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Episodes
Critiquing Comics #135: “Hyper Epics” and Mulele’s missing box
June 04, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBHyperepics.com is a site showcasing a growing number of three-page comics, more or less of the “Amazing Stories” mold. In this episode we read many of them and talk about what we liked, and what we didn’t. In the most recent Deconstructing Comics, Mulele told Koom about the box of his wares that didn’t make … Continue reading Critiquing Comics #135: “Hyper Epics” and Mulele’s missing box
#595 Mulele and other DCP connections at TCAF
May 31, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBKoom’s visit to Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2018 included several table interviews and a longer wrap-up interview with Mulele on the process of signing up for TCAF, the many roadblocks he ran into on the trip itself, the payoff of attending, how TCAF compares with Tokyo cons, and more. (larger photos and time stamps below) … Continue reading #595 Mulele and other DCP connections at TCAF
#594 Campbell and Niffenegger and their “Bizarre Romance”
May 28, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBIn town for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, comics power couple Eddie Campbell and Audrey Niffenegger talk to Koom in this episode about their new collaboration, called Bizarre Romance. We also get some tidbits about Audrey’s work on the sequel to her novel The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Eddie talks about coloring From Hell and […]
#593 Reading “Nancy”, plus “Cat and Mouse”!
May 21, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBA comic strip gag can be a deceptively simple thing. Once you take it about — “deconstruct” it, one might say — you find that it actually has many moving parts. Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden‘s How to Read “Nancy” takes a close look at each of those parts — as well as arguing persuasively […]
Critiquing Comics #134: “Fallen Ones” and “The Five of Us”
May 17, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBA werewolf. A female assassin. A grieving father. Varga Balint Bank and Vadas Mate’s Fallen Ones weaves their stories together in a well-thought-out way. The Five of Us: It All Starts Here, from Sean Conway, Bangkit Myarso, Arief Reza Erlangga, and Dreadink, gives us a group of young African-American men who happen onto Power Rangers-type […]
#592 “Naruto”
May 14, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBMasashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, about a school for ninja, ran from 1999 to 2014. What’s appealing about this series to kids? In this episode, Kumar asks a kid — his own 10-year-old son, Ashwin! Kumar’s been reading it himself, so father and son exchange takes on the comic, including what it was about the anime version […]
Critiquing Comics #133: “The Old Man of the Mountain” and “On Syntaphore”
May 07, 2018 12:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBOld Man of the Mountain issue 1, by Tom Rapka and Ariez Hernandez, includes an execution-style murder and three teens getting brutally, graphically cut to pieces. And yet, somehow it feels like it’s not meant to be a horror series. What is this comic trying to do? That question goes double for On Syntaphore, by […]
#591 “Promethea”: A mind-bending, life-changing comic
April 30, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBWhile Alan Moore and J.H. Williams’ Promethea, published from 1999 to 2005, is not one of Moore’s most remembered works, it’s not because the author wasn’t at the top of his game. Kumar and Emmet find it to be entrancing, even if you don’t buy into the various magical and spiritual elements that Moore built […]
Critiquing Comics #132: “A Light Before the Darkness”, “The Satsuma Rebellion”, and publishing contracts
April 23, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 58.2 MBTim and Mulele critique a couple of history-based comics: A Light Before the Darkness by Ken Mora and Cyrus Mescarcia tells the story of an artist named Michelangelo — but no, not that one. It’s about Michelangelo Da Caravaggio Di Merisi, often known simply as “Caravaggio”. Mora seems to have done his homework, but has he […]
#590 Chris Stevens and “Once Upon a Time Machine”
April 16, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBChris Stevens, a comics writer and editor who has co-edited two volumes of the anthology series Once Upon a Time Machine (the second volume is newly released) talks with Koom about Frank Miller’s work, Chris’ time with Philadelphia indy publisher Locust Moon, income inequality among comics creators, and of course, some of the stories he’s […]
Critiquing Comics #131: “Vengeance, NV” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Pizza”
April 09, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBA woman with glowing eyes enters a home, tells the cat that she’s there with Kristen. A man is dying after a superhero battle; after he’s recognized, he tells an acquaintance “Don’t tell Kristen.” Question: Who is Kristen!? That’s just one of the many things we have trouble figuring out about Vengeance, Nevada, by BJ […]
#589 Dorman, Mackie, and McCrea at Toronto Comicon
April 02, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBThis week, three interviews that Koom got at Toronto Comicon, in a special two-hour episode! Dave Dorman is best known for his Star Wars art, as well as other fantasy work, and even some Batman. Here he talks about being one of the first students at the Kubert School, and the lasting friendships he made […]
Critiquing Comics #130: “Jynx” and “Dark Soul”
March 26, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBTwo manga-influenced titles are up for critique this time. First, in Kyle Fast’s JYNX, a white-furred monkey takes off to find adventure, leaving his guardian in the lurch. Then, organized crime gangs face off in Kitito Minami’s Dark Soul. Tim and Mulele give their opinions and advice. Check out Mulele’s Kickstarter project!
#588 We love “HATE”
March 19, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBPeter Bagge’s HATE was an amazing hit for a ’90s indy comic, outselling some Big Two titles. Tim, Kumar, and Tom Spurgeon talk about some of the amazing aspects of this strip, and discuss whether it’s accurate to classify it as a comic about slackers.
Critiquing Comics #129: “The Goodes” and “Undergrown”
March 12, 2018 12:00 - 29 minutes - 34.1 MBTim and Mulele finish up their look at Irrational Comics’ 2018 PITCH page with L.J. Bell’s The Goodes (a superhero/kid-dealing-with-parents’-divorce tale) and Julian Dominguez’ Undergrown (exploring the idea of an earth with no humans on its surface). Irrational Comics gives each writer eight pages to rope readers into his or her tale; did these writers […]
#587 Science in a comic: Dialogue about “The Dialogues”
March 05, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 108 MBThis is the story of a very unusual project: a 250-page comic showing people talking about science. Not your cup of tea? Actually, the seeming lack of overlap between “comics people” and “science people” is part of this story. It was one reason this book took nearly two decades from inception to publication. In this […]
Critiquing Comics #128: “Osaka Mime” and “Pantheon’s End”
February 26, 2018 12:00 - 42 minutes - 48.5 MBTim and Mulele progress through the 2018 Irrational Comics PITCH page in this episode with Tokyo Mime, featuring two cops going up against a monster that takes the form of the last person it ate, and Pantheon’s End, in which a superhero team is faced with an apparently unstoppable end to the world.
#586 Flirting with death, and recovering your life
February 19, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBThis week Koom interviews Prabal Purkayastha, author of Flirting with Death, about how he tried to use the structure of a comic to communicate music, and how his next project is just the opposite of this one. Then, what would you do if you found yourself on a park bench along a city street, and […]
Critiquing Comics #127: “Planet Wrestletopia” and “Dreamtime”
February 12, 2018 12:00 - 37 minutes - 43.4 MBInvasion from Planet Wrestletopia #1 presents a washed-up wrestler who, though he doesn’t know it yet, is about to have to defend his 15-year-old claim to being “the champion of the universe”! Is this comic by Ed Kuehnel, Matt Entin, and Dan Schkade also a champion, or another also-ran? Irrational Comics is again presenting its […]
#585 The Phantom’s surprising reach
February 05, 2018 12:00 - 56 minutes - 65.2 MBThe Phantom was introduced by Lee Falk in 1936, and appeared in comic books and funny pages for decades. Now comes a new book by Kevin Patrick, The Phantom Unmasked: America’s First Superhero. In this episode, Kevin Patrick tells Emmet about the character’s global popularity, especially in Sweden, Australia, and India — and how “The […]
Critiquing Comics #126: Kaigai and CAT 2017, pt 3
January 29, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBTim and Mulele talk about four more comics they picked up at the recent Tokyo comics conventions, Kaigai Manga Festa and Comic Art Tokyo. Also, a response from the author of a Kaigai/CAT comic reviewed in a previous episode, and our take on what Erik Larsen’s recent controversial assertion about being successful in comics. Himawari […]
#584 Don’t “get” manga? Try these two.
January 22, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 111 MBMany Westerners feel a bit puzzled by Japanese comics — the subject matter, the art style, the pacing, etc. Koom has been trying for some time to grasp what he’s not “getting” about manga. Meanwhile, manga translator Kumar is about done with “explaining” Japanese comics to people, but he makes an exception for Koom (and […]
Critiquing Comics #125: Kaigai and CAT 2017, pt 2
January 11, 2018 12:00 - 5 MBTim and Mulele talk about four more comics they picked up at the recent Tokyo comics conventions, Kaigai Manga Festa and Comic Art Tokyo: Bourbaki, by Adam Pasion Run Boys Run, by Michiru Morikawa Do You Remember Kobot? by Ian M Haunted, by Natalie Andrewson