Quarantined Comics

During Quarantined Comics “summer hiatus” (Ryan in a Korean gulag, Raman changing more diapers), we wanted to make sure you still got your sweet, sweet weekly comics content, so we’re proud to share Raman’s OTHER comic book podcast project “CHARACTER STUDY” -with friend-of-the-pod Paresh Jha. Character Study is a 4-part series that examines the history of DICK GRAYSON (aka Robin, aka Nightwing), the other half of Batman’s dynamic duo.

CHAPTER 2: “From Teen Wonder to Disco-collar!" - relating to Dick’s TEEN years as Robin & his transition to growing up and becoming Nightwing

SUGGESTED READING

Special Guest: Paresh Jha.

_During Quarantined Comics “summer hiatus” (Ryan in a Korean gulag, Raman changing more diapers), we wanted to make sure you still got your sweet, sweet weekly comics content, so we’re proud to share Raman’s OTHER comic book podcast project “CHARACTER STUDY” -with friend-of-the-pod Paresh Jha. Character Study is a 4-part series that examines the history of DICK GRAYSON (aka Robin, aka Nightwing), the other half of Batman’s dynamic duo.

SUGGESTED READING

SUPPLEMENTARY:

Special Guest: Paresh Jha.

Josh Simmons' comics are always deeply disturbing. Sometimes, they read like dirty jokes, taken to the furthest extremes. Other times, they touch on unsettling emotional truths - while still embracing extremes. But what makes Simmons so interesting to read is even when his stories seem to clearly telegraph where they're going — the killer has snuck into the house, the woods are full of demons, or don't look up lest you disturb the spirits writhing in the ceiling — they never go quite where you expect them to go.

Famed comics artist Barry Windsor-Smith — known for his work on Weapon X and Conan — spent 35 years bringing his magnum opus to life. In many ways, Monsters recalls his superhero work. A young man, viciously abused as a child, tries to enlist in the army only to be subjected to body horror experiments in an effort to transform him into a super human soldier. That's where the parallels end, however. Monsters is a much richer and more ambitous story, and while Windsor-Smith's storytelling falls back on some of the tropes familiar to superhero comics, Monsters isn't exhilarating or cathartic, as much as it is claustrophobic and tragic.

Let's ride with the family down the street, and meet the Flintstones - 2016's not-so-thinly-veiled commentary on our modern capitalist society. Written by the always subversive Mark Russel, and illustrated by Steve Pugh, many said this was the best comic of 2016. All the familiar beats are there, Fred, Wilma, Barney, Wilma - even Pebbles, Bam-Bam, and the invisible hand that his Gerald. Let's make Bedrock Great Again, we'll have a gay old, we'll have a gay old time.

This week, we're reading MS. MARVEL - written by award winning novelist, and Muslim American G. Willow Wilson. Some would argue that MS. MARVEL was one of the most important books - and new characters Marvel comics has released in a decade. While her name might be familiar, everything else is "all new, all different" - because we're introduced to Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American teenage girl - just trying to get her homework done, write fan-fic, play MMORPGs, figure out her relationship with her religious brother, come to terms with her best friends, and meet the expectations of her immigrant parents.

After being exposed to the Terrigen Mists, Kamala gains morphogenic powers, which basically means he gains the abilities to stretch, shrink, embiggen, change shape, heal and other awesome stuff....she's like Plastic Man meets Wolverine, wrapped in spunky can-do teen girl attitude. So as you can imagine, hijinks ensue in the Tri-State Area. UNLIKE pretty much ALL of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe, our dear Kamala Khan does NOT live in New York City, but across the river in Jersey City.

Joining us to talk about our new favorite Pakistani American superhero, is our new favorite Pakistani American geek Lena Shareef, co-host of the podcast GROUNDED GEEKS where Lena and her brother Aman talk just about the latest in geek/pop culture, but how it relates back to the world we live in today...

Perramus: The City And Oblivion is genuinely one of the most unusual and wildest graphic novel experiences you'll find today. Created during a period of great political turmoil, Perramus is at once terrifying and laugh-out-loud funny, following a group of oddball freedom fighters as they work their way through a country overrun by a fascist regime.

This week we're reading SWORD DAUGHTER, created by Brian Wood and Mack Chater. It's a short-and-sweet epic of one father and daughters' quest to seek revenge against the ruthless vikings that destroyed their lives.

SWORD DAUGHTER is set one THOUSAND years ago, - where the murderous Forty Swords clan, has burned a village to the ground, leaving just two people alive: DAG - a shattered father and ELSBETH - his teenage daughter. Setting off a revenge quest that will span the width of Viking Age Europe, the two find that only the swords they carry can mend the damage in their hearts. It's a beautifully drawn, often heart-wrenching story of loss and guilt, on a quest for closure....but does it satisfy?

Writer Brian Wood is no stranger to historical fiction - having written series like Northlanders - set in the viking age, and Rebels - set during the Revolutionary War. And sometimes Wood even goes near-future post-apocalyptic tales like DMZ and the Massive. Or just has fun with a bunch of Star Wars, X-Men, Conan the Barbarian, and Robo-Cop

We continue our journey to post WW2 Japan, with the more obscure, but equally important manga master - Yoshiro Tatsumi (credited as being the creator of the darker, more realistic "Gekiga" movement in manga). We read THREE short story collections that reflect Tatsumi's delightfully (?) tortured ethos of the time: "The Push Man" (1969), "Abandon The Old In Tokyo" (1970 - also a great name for a band), and "Good-Bye" (1971-1972).

Tatsumi’s depiction of Tokyo largely takes place amid the garbage-strewn alleys of 1960s Tokyo, where silent, sexual repressed men try and often fail to reconcile their unquenchable lust for women or companionship with basic human dignity. It’s an economic boomtime for Japan, as the company is in the midst of an insane Renaissance following its post-war devastation. But it’s very much a Renaissance of haves and have-nots, and Tatsumi’s stories tend to follow the men who are very much have-nots, and know it.

Before WWII, the Tenge family ruled over their massive land holdings. But with the American occupation, their land is divvied up and the family, already in a state of deep moral decay, resorts to even more desperate measures to hold on to what they have.

Osamu Tezuka's epic casts a critical eye on how Japan was forever transformed by its post-war fate -- all through the eyes of a family on the verge of an apocalypse. Deeply ambitious, Ayako is at times a mashup of genres, from political thrillers, police procedurals, and crime sagas.

Yet it all winds back to the fallout from a single crime that happened in the isolated Japanese countryside, and the fate of a little girl who was an unfortunate witness.