David Dye has been one of our favorites here on Critiquing Comics; Tim and Mulele even interviewed him once. He’s back now with Amazing Tales #4, in which he takes a turn toward horror. Jason joins Tim to brave the creepy goings-on.

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San Diego Comicon has always been about more than comics! That’s the contention of producer and journalist Mathew Klickstein, who joins Tim this week to tell us all about his audio documentary podcast “Comic-Con Begins!” Mathew talked with dozens of people who were there at the birth of the con and celebrities who have appeared there over the years, and reaches back decades before SDCC’s birth in 1970, to the earliest rumblings of geekdom. He’ll also give us some idea of what’s in the future for this history project.

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“Tim Catches Up with the MCU” continues with our look at “Guardians of the Galaxy.” How does it rank in Tim and Mulele’s MCU viewing so far? Also, are we each using different criteria to evaluate these films? And, oh yeah, these films have music – how do we feel about it?

(Originally published on Patreon August 17, 2019)

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FLASHBACK! Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, has been a bestselling book for Image Comics for years, and fawned over by critics and readers alike. While Emmet finds a fair number of things to like about it, hardly anything about it is to Kumar’s taste. For this episode, both of them have read all the issues published to date — 54 of them!– and present this somewhat out-of-the-mainstream review.

(Originally published October 1, 2018)

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Tom Scioli’s Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics is a bio in comics form and written in the first person, from Kirby’s perspective. Why did Scioli handle it that way, and does it work? Why does Kirby look like a Tezuka character surrounded by normal humans? Was the tension between Lee and Kirby a case of Stan messing up Jack’s story, or modifying it to better connect with the reader? Tim and Emmet discuss those questions, some of the many revelations this book brought us, and more.

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Texas Tracts, by Rachelle Meyer, is a series of three short comics, modeled in format after the Christian evangelical “Chick Tracts” by Jack Chick. Rachelle’s well-drawn comics, in contrast, reflect doubts about things she was taught in Catholic school as a kid in Texas. Tim and Mulele discussed part one, Holy Diver, back in January; this time, Tim is joined by Ryan Cecil Smith in discussing the series overall, including the latter two volumes Joy Ride and Rainbow Collie.

Rachelle’s Kickstarter

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In this episode of “Tim Catches Up with the MCU”, Tim and Mulele discuss the political thriller “The Winter Soldier”.

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You’re probably aware of the Osamu Tezuka character Astro Boy (called Tetsuwon Atom in Japan). Starting in 2003, Naoki Urasawa (the creator of Monster) began his own take on a particular Astro Boy story in his series Pluto, as a murder mystery of sorts. The story includes plenty of robots, but is more concerned with portraying emotion and making a statement about war than any Asimovian rules about robot behavior. Does that approach doom the project? Kumar and Jordan review.

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Root and Branch is a comic that flirts with the fantasy genre, but is more concerned about a clash of cultures: a traveling elf meeting humans for the first time. This is a web comic, created by Pink Pitcher, that’s still going strong in its seventh year, and currently has a Kickstarter going. Tim and Adam critique.

Shonen manga are known for putting their protagonists in systems that they must work their way up through in a series of competitions. In Air Gear, by Ito Ougure under the name Oh! Great, the competitions are races on gravity-defying inline skates. While this manga also includes some aspects that could be judged age-inappropriate, there is fun to be had here, too. DCP Patreon supporter Coleton joins Tim to discuss this manga, focusing on the first three volumes.

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