The Comics Alternative

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On Location: The December Visit to Heroes Aren't Hard to Find Dec 21, 2018

Show notes

Mike and Derek are back at Heroes Aren't Hard to Findin Charlotte, NC, for their December show. It's been a couple of months since their last visit to the shop -- this past fall was difficult for everyone -- but the guys are excited to sit down among customers and talk comics. And this being the end of 2018, they thought they'd discuss the year in review, the highlights, the news, and the notable titles that defined 2018. Among other topics, they cover the unfortunate passing of several comics legends over the past year, including Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, and Marie Severin. (They mistakenly bring up Bernie Wrightson, as well, although he died last year.) They also spend time talking about 2018 being the year that the imprints Black Crownand Berger Booksreally took off, the 1000th issue of Action Comics, the impact of Tom Kingthis year, Grant Morrison's new work on Green Lantern, and the past year in terms of the Marvel cinematic (and Netflix) universe. While Mike is free to share some of his favorite titles from the past twelve months, Derek is a little reticent because he doesn't want to give away what he'll discuss on next week's year-end episode where he and Stergios reveal what each considers their favorites of 2018. Stay turned for that!

And remember, The Comics Alternative's on-location series is part of the Queen City Podcast Network. Check out the other great shows that make up this audio community!

Comics Alternative Interviews: Talking Again with Jon Morris Dec 20, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:17 - Introduction
00:02:59 - Setup of interview
00:05:14 - Interview with Jon Morris
01:15:03 - Wrap up
01:17:05 - Contact us

Jon Morris is back, once again, on The Comics Alternative, to share his research and sense of humor. His latest book The League of Regrettable Sidekicks (Quirk Books) is the follow up to his previous two works, The League of Regrettable Superheroes and The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains. In the spirit of the previous books, this one is a revealing and good-natured look at some of the strange creations making up comic-book history, figures that may be unknown or completely forgotten by most enthusiasts. And perhaps for good reason. Also like the earlier works, Jon divides his survey into three temporal categories: the Golden Age, the Silver Age, and the Modern Age. Sterg and Derek have a fun time talking about the weirdness of this collection, their favorite "regrettable" sidekicks and henchmen, and their wonderment at how such figures made it into four colors. They also talk with Jon about his other work and future projects, including his own comics work.

See where it all started! Visit Jon's blog, Gone and Forgotten, and get the inside scoop on retro comicdom! And if you're a Columbo fan, check out his sleuthy podcast, Just One More Thing.

Episode 302: A Review of The Best American Comics 2018 Dec 19, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:23 - Introduction
00:03:26 - Live streaming again...and some context
00:06:25 - The Best American Comics 2018
01:39:33 - Wrap up
01:41:03 - Contact us

As they always do, the Two Guys with PhDs use their penultimate show of the year to discuss the current volume of The Best American Comics. this year guest edited by Phoebe Gloeckner. Earlier in the week they released their interview with Bill Kartalopoulos, the series editor, about the 2018 collection, and in that conversation they talked about the process of pulling the anthology together and Bill's experiences working with Gloeckner. But on this episode, Sterg and Derek discuss the actual content of volume. Among other topics, they highlight the "best of" contributions from creators they were already familiar with -- e.g., Gabrielle Bell, Geof Darrow, Guy Delisle, Jaime Hernandez, Jesse Jacobs, Joe Ollman, Gary Panter, Keiler Roberts, and Ariel Schrag -- and also talk excitedly about artists they hadn't yet discovered, including Margot Ferrick, Julia Jacquette, Julian Glander, Chloë Perkis, and Lale Westvind. In all, it's another great of Best American Comics!

Go to The Comics Alternative's YouTube channelif you want to see the recording of the guys' live-streaming broadcast of this show!

Comics Alternative Interviews: Back Again with Bill Kartalopoulous Dec 17, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:16 - Introduction
00:03:27 - Setup of interview
00:06:18 - Interview with Bill Kartalopoulos
01:13:04 - Wrap up
01:14:09 - Contact us

As the Two Guys like to do every year, they are back talking again with Bill Kartalopoulos about the latest volume of The Best American Comics (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). This year the guest editor is Phoebe Gloeckner, perhaps best known for The Diary of a Teenage Girl. In fact, one of the topics of conversation with Bill is how different it might be working with vastly different comics creators as guest editors every year. Sterg and Derek also talk with their guest about the process of pulling together each year's volume, the inundation of submissions he receives, strategies for choosing what to include, the (at times) painful process of excluding from the anthology certain comics due to logistical reasons, his relationship with the publisher, and unique directions that perhaps he may want to take the series. There's not much discussion surrounding the content of this year's volume -- that will be the topic of this week's regular review episode -- but Sterg and Derek ask Bill about the process off Best American Comicsand get quite a bit of behind-the-scene answers.

Comics Alternative Interviews: Another Conversation with Tom Hart Dec 14, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:21 - Introduction
00:03:12 - Setup of interview
00:04:32 - Interview with Tom Hart
01:32:14 - Wrap up
01:33:38 - Contact us

On this interview episode, Sterg and Derek are excited to have Tom Hart back to discuss his new book, The Art of the Graphic Memoir: Tell Your Story, Change Your Life(St. Martin's Griffin). Tom was on the podcast not quite three years agoto discuss his new memoir at the time Rosalie Lightning, but this time he's returned to talk not so much about story content, but about the processof creating a graphic memoir. As he discusses with the Two Guys, Tom's latest book is more instructional or how-to, covering the necessary steps in planning for, organizing, structuring, visualizing, and finalizing a memoir through the comics medium. In addition, he points out that the very project of writing and illustrating one's own life story isn't only about sharing a story with readers, but perhaps just as important, using the very process of creation as a way of revisiting, revisualizing, and even coming to terms with important life moments. Along the way Derek and Sterg talk with Tom about his other instructional texts, such as How to Say Everythingand The Sequential Artists Workshop Guide to Creating Professional Comic Strips, his vast knowledge of the comics memoir genre, his new comic-strip project B. Is Dying, and his experiences teaching at and directing SAW, the Sequential Artists Workshopin Gainesville, FL.

Episode 301: Reviews of Che: A Revolutionary Life, The Lodger #1 & #2, and Die #1 Dec 12, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:32 - Introduction
00:03:42 - Our first-ever live streaming recording
00:07:13 - Thank you to new Patreon backers!
00:09:33 - Che: A Revolutionary Life
00:47:02 - The Lodger #1 & #2
01:11:39 - Die#1
01:34:22 - Wrap up
01:38:05 - Contact us

This is a very special episode of The Comics Alternative, in that it's the guys' very first live recording. That's right, Sterg and Derek decided to record this week's show via Google Hangouts. Yesterday -- Tuesday, December 11 -- they scheduled a live-streaming broadcast, and fans of the show could watch the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics record a show in real time. As Sterg put it on Twitter, "Come for the slow motion train wreck, but stay when it is instead a great talk about some recent comics!" And everything went off just fine.

On this episode they began with a discussion of Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández's Che: A Revolutionary Life (Penguin Press). This is graphic adaptation of Anderson's 1997 biography of Che Guevara, and as the guys discuss, Hernández does an outstanding job of illustrating the broader life story of the famous revolutionary. After that they look at the first two issues of David and Maria Lapham's The Lodger. This is the latest series from IDW's Black Crown imprint, and Derek and Sterg note that it's classic Lapham crime noir. In fact, this storyline could easily fit into the Stray Bulletsseries. Then they wrap up with a look at Kieron GIllen and Stephanie Hans's Die#1(Image Comics). This is a D&D-inspired fantasy narrative, and the guys frame this within the context of similar stories, such as Stephen King's It, the Netflix series Stranger Things, and the first Jumanjimovie.

Go to The Comics Alternative's YouTube channelif you want to see the recording of the guys' live-streaming broadcast of this show!

Comics Alternative Interviews: Back with Noah Van Sciver Dec 11, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:15 - Introduction
00:03:32 - Setup of interview
00:04:53 - Interview with Noah Van Sciver
01:15:14 - Wrap up
01:16:39 - Contact us

The Two Guys with PhDs are very happy to have back on the podcast Noah Van Sciver. He was first on the show back in March 2015, and a lot of things have changed with him since the guys last talked with Noah (and not just his growing of a mustache). Most significantly, his output has been through the roof! One of the things Sterg and Derek discuss with their guest is the sheer volume of his comics creation. Over the past six months alone he has released four different titles, and from a variety of publishers: Constant Companion (Fantagraphics), Blammo #10(Kilgore Books and comics), One Dirty Tree(Uncivilized Books), and Fante Bukowski 3: A Perfect Failure(Fantagraphics). The guys talk with Noah about his work habits, his penchant for working with different publishers, his ability to juggle different projects at the same time, and his current work and what we can expect from him in the future. And of course, there is a lot of laughter in this episode. Noah is a humorous, and at time quite satirical, writer, yet the humor is often mixed with pathos, as we see not only his autobiographical comics, but most notably in his recent Fante Bukowski. This was a fun interview...and even more fun was had after they turned off the microphones and the guys hung out on Skype to talk about even more matters. Too bad that wasn't captured for the show, but this new interview with Noah Van Sciver is definitely a highlight of Stergios and Derek's year.

Euro Comics: Review of Piero and The First Man Dec 10, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:23 - Introduction
00:04:25 - Better late than never
00:05:54 - Piero
00:40:32 - The First Man
01:23:26 - Wrap up
01:24:39 - Contact us

Pascal and Derek are back with the latest Euro Comics episode...the very late November show. They begin with Edmond Baudoin's Piero(New York Review Comics). This is a fascinating and moving memoir -- or better yet, a series of remembrances -- from Baudoin and his relationship with his younger brother Pierre, or Piero. While the title and the story itself would lead one to believe that this is the story of Edmond's younger brother, it's actually a narrative that focuses on the author himself. Edmond, or Momon, as he's called in the book, is at the center of this text, and he's explored and defined within the context of his brother and their relationship, especially as it concerns art and illustration.

After that, the Two Guys turn to Jacques Ferrandez's adaptation of Albert Camus's The First Man(Pegasus Books). This isn't the first time the guys have discussed Ferrandez's adaptation. In July 2016, Derek and Gene looked at his graphic version of Camus's The Stranger. This book is similarly moving, but in many ways denser and more pensive than the earlier adaptation. The First Manwas the manuscript that Camus was working on at the time of his death, dying in a car accident. The unfinished work, and intended masterpiece, was finally published in the 1990s, but Ferrandez's text doesn't really feel like an uncompleted manuscript. This is quite a prose-heavy book, and philosophical in the way that Camus's essays and fiction were thought-provoking. Derek and Pascal didn't plan this when they chose these two books, but The First Man and Piero have a lot in common: thoughtful, pensive, and narratives scaffolded around memories and the past.

Manga: Reviews of Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vols. 1 & 2 and Mob Psycho 100 Vol. 1 Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:26 - Introduction
00:03:27 - Late again
00:05:13 - Sailor Moon Eternal Editions, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
00:46:09 - Mob Psycho 100, Vol. 1
01:14:53 - Wrap up
01:16:01 - Contact us

On this episode of The Comics Alternative/s manga series -- the November show, albeit a little late -- Shea and Derek take a look at two series that give us a varied understanding of the medium. They begin with the first two volume's of Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon Eternal Edition(Kodansha Comics). This is a classic shojo series from the 1990s, and as the guys discuss, it's something that they've heard about for years, but it's not a title that they actually read. Both Derek and Shea are quite surprised with the story, in that it's quite different from what they expected...and in a good way. The guys discuss Takeuchi's visual style, the complex layering of her story elements, and the fantastical tone of the narrative, among other aspects.

After that, the Two Guys check out One's Mob Psycho 100, Vol. 1 (Dark Horse Manga). This is the latest translated manga from the creator of One-Punch Man, which Shea and Derek discussed on the September 2015 show. Both enjoy this new (for English speakers) series, and it stands out from One-Punch Manin that One does both the writing and the art. In fact, they spend a bit of time discussing One's aesthetic, the art's "flatness" and simplicity. Some may not appreciate the style, but both of the guys are taken by not only One's storytelling abilities, but his illustrations, as well. They do mention in one long storyline the narrative seemed to drag, but other than that, it's a title, along with the new editions of Sailor Moon, that the guys heartily recommend.

Comics Alternative Interviews: Conor Stechschulte Dec 06, 2018

Show notes

Time Codes:

00:01:15 - Introduction
00:03:15 - Setup of interview
00:05:06 - Interview with Conor Stechschulte
01:15:57 - Wrap up
01:17:44 - Contact us

On this episode of The Comics Alternative's interview series, the Two Guys have the pleasure of talking with Conor Stechschulte. The third volumeof his ongoing series, Generous Bosom (Breakdown Press), was released in the spring, and Sterg and Derek have an enlightening conversation with Conor about this narrative. While in the first two parts the story was flowing in one discernible direction, more or less, it takes a strange and disturbing turn in the third part. The guys talk with their guest about this narrative trajectory and what it may portend. And as they intuit from the latest installment of Generous Bosom, there are more surprises in store. They also talk with Conor about his other comics, The Amateurs (which was reviewed on the podcast in June 2014), his self-published work, his relationship with his UK publisher, and his inclusion in last year's volume of Best American Comics. This interview has been a long time in coming, and the guys make the most of it.

Be sure to check out Conor's band, Lilac, and the sounds they make!

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