Did you think Love & Rockets was over?! Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez continue to release new work about once a year, and in this episode Kumar and Matt sit down and discuss some of it, with particular attention paid to Jaime’s The Love Bunglers. (Spoiler warning!) Also: the tension between indy creators who want to […]

Ever wondered what it would be like to work in a manga studio in Japan? Jamie Lynn Lano got her chance in 2008 when she was hired by Takeshi Konomi to be part of his team for the Prince of Tennis sequal. Recently she’s published a book about her experience, and this week she talks […]

As John Layman and Rob Guillory’s Chew passes the 3/4 point, major characters (including badass galline fan favorites) get maimed and even killed — yet the story somehow retains a lighthearted tone! This week, John Layman (who’s also writing Cyclops for Marvel) talks with Tim about nonsequential storytelling, the one thing Rob Guillory can’t draw, […]

Sports have rarely been subject matter for comics in the US; perhaps comics’ inherent static-ness has seemed antithetical to an activity with so much movement. But Japan has seen comics about various sports, and some of them have been quite popular, even iconic. Takehiko Inoue’s Real is not only about basketball, but about physical handicaps, […]

It’s one thing to have sex with a robot. What if you actually started having feelings for your A.I. S.O.? What if you started preferring the robot to your actual human partner? That’s the situation in Jess Fink‘s sexual, but also romantic and even moving, graphic novel Chester 5000 xyv. Jess discusses the book with […]

Stef Marcinkowski’s Sarah Zero is an over-the-top, Web-browser-shaped comic that he developed by trying to mash up advertising, marketing, comics, and film. The comic is heavy on interpersonal relationships and Internet culture. This week Stef tells Tim about his process, getting the comic right when life keeps getting in the way, struggles with self-promotion, and […]

You’ve heard Weird Crime Theater, the comic by our own Mulele and Kumar, mentioned a million times on Deconstructing Comics, dating back to the early shows nearly a decade ago (when the comic was known as “Rack ’em Smack ’em”!). But that’s all been discussions of collaboration and business; what’s actually IN the comic? In […]

Is there “work for hire” in Japanese comics? Yes and no. Nao Yazawa was hired as the artist for Wedding Peach, a manga published in Shogakukan’s Ciao magazine from 1994 to 1996. However, as is typical in Japan, she and writer Sukehiro Tomita co-own the copyright. In this episode, she explains the details of this […]

This week a look into the world of toy-based comics! Kumar and his brother Ilango discuss two recent IDW Transformers books, More Than Meets the Eye volume 1, and Transformers vs. G.I. Joe. Music (from the 1986 film The Transformers (The Movie)): “The Transformers (Theme)” by Lion “The Death of Optimus Prime” by Vince DiCola The […]

At the International Comics Festival in November, Tim picked up A Cat Named Tim and Other Stories by John Martz. It’s a whimsical book aimed at kids that plays with several devices that only work in comics. It’s also another example of the convergence of comics and children’s picture books that we noted on this […]