Since critiquing comics is what we do, Tim goes in search of struggling Web comics creators who need some pointers. Instead, he ends up with two awesome comics! Hanna is not a Boy’s Name is a comedy with horror elements, lively art, and mucho f-bombs; reMIND is a beautifully rendered work about a cat, a […]

Thinking of looking for work as a comics translator? What issues are you likely to face in doing the work? Our very own Kumar, translator of dozens of Japanese comics for Dark Horse, talks to Tim about translating puns, accents, sound effects, song lyrics, and more. Plus: Farewell to Frank Frazetta.

FLASHBACK! While we take a week off, enjoy this vintage episode from December 10, 2007! How comics & movies have influenced each other: what Scott McCloud won’t tell you! Also, digital inking, The Spirit, and All Star Superman! Mulele, Patrick G., Tim, and Tim’s brother Paul discuss.

Longbox Digital‘s comics reader beta was unveiled at Emerald City Comicon in March. Is it any good? Tim and Mulele review. Also: hilarious Web comic “Axe Cop“!

In a recent interview, Steven King is quoted as saying that a Vertigo editor asked him not to use thought balloons in his work on American Vampire. An article in Comics Comics Mag brought this to our attention, and sparked discussion. Why do some editors now discourage, or even ban, thought balloons — even when […]

Ruben Bolling is a comic strip creator who admits that he’s less interested in drawing than he used to be. Known as the brains behind the hilarious, and sometimes absurd, weekly strip “Tom the Dancing Bug,” Bolling does want to continue the strip, but also concentrate more effort on writing, and to move into other […]

Tim and Mulele set out to review dharbin.com, but “the gold of the site” is hidden. Mulele explains where to find Dustin Harbin’s best work. Then an interview with (former) Tokyo resident Ed Siemienkowicz and a discussion of how to develop your own style. Tim continues to struggle with this as he is paid (!) […]

Comics are being used increasingly to get messages across visually, even those aimed at the business world. Doug Jackson, a Tokyo-based business consultant, was involved in adapting Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” into a “manga version.” He talks to Tim about the challenges he faced in turning  Lencioni’s “business fable” into a […]

L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published 109 years ago and still inspires attempts to adapt it to other media. While the 1939 MGM movie tends to define the story in the minds of many, subsequent adaptations do stick closer to the original book than to the movie, including […]

A bored, punk-dressing god of death and a genius high school boy are the main characters in Death Note, written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata. The boy, Light Yagami, receives from the god a notebook with which he can kill people simply by writing their names in it. A plot with many […]