Quarantined Comics

This week, we read PAPER GIRLS, the multi-Eisner award winning series written by Brian K Vaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang, recently adapted as a streaming TV series starring Ali Wong on Amazon (and unfairly called a rip off of Stranger Things, bc as with most things, the comic came first!)

Paper Girls starts way back when in 1988, in a suburb of Cleveland, where four twelve year old...you guessed it...Paper Girls - Erin, Tiffany, Mac, and KJ - befriend each other the morning after Halloween and quickly find a creepy basement time machine, and quickly find themselves in a millennia spanning temporal civil war between factions of human order and chaos. Along the way they encounter ancient cave people, future hipsters, and their older selves. ALSO, dinosaurs, microscopic-turned-gargantuan monsters, and giant-sized rock-em-sock-em robots

You may remember the writer Brian K. Vaughan, who's a former writer on the TV series LOST, and written many sci Fi series - some of which we've read on this pod - like Saga + Y: The Last Man. And the artist Cliff Chiang actually won an Eisner for his work on Paper Girls, and has created some other great works - most notably Wonder Woman, the Human Target, and Catwoman Lonely City. Anyhow, this is one that Ryan + Raman don't see eye to eye on, and we interrogate that further, as we are known to do....

Conor Stechchulte's "Ultrasound," which was made into a 2021 movie, is about memory, gaslighting, and psychological terror. It's hard for comics to convey a sense of interiority, but Stechchulte has some graphical tricks that really create the same sense of unease and discombobulaton in readers that his characters are going through. Whether that's a good thing or not.

"Ultrasound" begins on a dark and stormy night, as these things often begin, when a man gets a flat tire and is invited into a house owned by a couple to take refuge. And that's when the games begin.

Did we like it? Did we not like it? Or maybe we only thought we liked it, but didn't? Or vice versa?

this week we're reading KRISHNA: A JOURNEY WITHIN - by Abhishek Singh. Singh is Indian graphic novelist acclaimed for his unique interpretations of myths and ancient philosophies - who first made his mark for the acclaimed series Ramayana 3392. AND he was first Indian comics artist published in mainstream American comics. Singh's 2012 comics interpretation of the Lord Krishna was a searing, human portrayal of one of the great Hindi deities. To many in the west he became a popular god in the 60s, but to most folks from the subcontinent, he is but one of many reincarnations of the God Vishnu the creator.

In an almost poetic, sweeping series of paintings Singh takes us through key moments of Krishna's life - from a little boy stealing ghee, to defeating his evil uncle, to his courtship with Radha, and to key moments from the epic feudal war that makes up both the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita - two of Hinduisms most sacred texts.

Soooo, basically it's a pretty, poetic cliff notes from some of Hinduism's greatest hits.

SHOWNOTES

When you ask people what the Greatest TV show of all time is, folks say things like "the Wire," or "the Sopranos." When people ask what the greatest movie of all time is, folks say things like "Citizen Kane" or "the Godfather."

And when it comes to comics, most will say this week' book, Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman." So for the next two weeks, it's all sandman, all the time (well, at least just 2 episodes)

The Sandman chronicles the eponymous character, also known as Dream, or Morpheus. He's one of the seven Endless, alongside Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium and Destruction. And while there are many tales of the titular character, the series serves as Gaiman's canvas to tell some weird and wonderful tales where the Lord of Dreams is but supporting character to the dreams of the world..it's a story about stories.

Launched by DC comics in 1988, and running til 1996, Sandman was the flagship of their Vertigo imprint, which would go on to produce some of comics other greatest series. The book soon became one of the few comics to make the NY Times bestseller list. To this day, many would argue the book remains in a league of its own. And while many adaptations have been attempted, all but one have failed: a recent audio adaptation narrated by Gaiman himself with James MacAvoy voicing the role of Morpheus.

This episode covers the first 5 Volumes of Sandman, from 1989's "Preludes & Nocturnes" to 1992's "A Game of You" - next episode will cover V6-10.

This week we are reading SUPERGIRL: WOMAN OF TOMORROW, by Tom King and Bilquis Evely. The 2021 limited series from DC's Black Label - which is basically DCs new mature / Elseworld's imprint. Most just assume that Kara Zor El is simply Superman's girly cousin - which is probably how she was created years ago. But in this cosmic adventure, she is anything but. Yes there is girl power, but as we tag along for a girls trip for justice - basically True Grit in space - we are brought to face the best and worst humanity has to offer. There's a rocket ship, a space bus depot, space drugs. a space dragon, space pirates...and space racism! And let's not forget Supergirl's super dog Krypto and Super horse Comet. And the story's true protagonist, Ruthye, a young lass from a rural backwater planet whose on an Eniga Montoya styled revenge quest, where she enlists a reluctant Supergirl after Krypto gets shot with an arrow by Krem, the murderous villain who killed Ruthye's poor yet noble father. On their journey we see the best and worst we have to offer on full sci-fi display. With moral quandaries that are often hopeless - which hurt a bit more given the times we are in - along with good humor, beautiful art, and a lovely script, you can't help but find something to love about this book. Well, except Ryan...

This week we're reading Maia Kobaba's GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR. Created in 2014 - by Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns - created a cathartic autobiography of Eir's experience with gender identity — from crushes to fan fic, from coming out to making out. What started as a series of Instagram posts to explain to the author's family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer becomes so much more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

And then it became the most banned book in the country

what started as a simple, moving, explanation of gender identity - with the potential to create so much greater empathy and understanding for all of us got picked up by a parent on the wrong side of history, and a social media firestorm resulted, snowballing into headlines aroundthe country - with dozense of schools pulling it from library shelves around the country - from the Carolinas to Texas to Virginia - with many officials labeling it “pornographic.”

but we're not here to talk about the controversy surrounding the book (we do, inevitably) — we're here to talk about the work itself. in light of all the other not so positive change happening in our society, it felt really important to read Gender Queer, and can't recommend this book enough. Warning, this is one of the rare episodes where Raman & Ryan agree on almost everything =)

It's hard to find optimism with the end of Roe, yet another curtailing of the civil liberties that once defined America.

While the Megg, Mogg, and Owl series by Simon Hanselmann won't exactly restore any sense of optimism, it will at least make you feel less alone by plunging you into the misadventures of others who are also flailing through life. In this episode, we'll review two collected works from the series: "Megahex" from 2014, and "Bad Gateway," published in 2019.

While "Megahex" very much feels like a series of loosely-connected strips, Hanselmann has matured greatly as a storyteller and artist, as he delves into the depths of his characters' dispair and the strange, disgusting, and often hilarious ways they try to cope.

This week we're talking about BATMAN: WHITE KNIGHT - Sean Murphy's 2017 alternate universe mini-series that flips the status quo for Batman - and asks some hard questions along the way. In the book, the Joker cures himself of his psychosis, and reverts to Jack Napier - upon which he begins a campaign to interrogate WTF the city of Gotham has been doing all these years, with law enforcement allowing a masked vigilante and some teenagers with military grade equipment take the law into their own hands. What starts out as an Elseworld's like plot becomes a not so subtle commentary to the limits of law enforcement. But hey, it's also got TWO Harley Quinns, a Batgirl, a Nightwing, a Duke, Mr. freeze, and a whole lotta Batmobiles!

joining us to talk about White Knight is my old friend and favorite digital nerd from the future, making his long overdue quarantined Comics appearance Brad Berens - whose nerdy takes you can read on his eponymous weekly dispatch - bradberens.substack.com

"The idea that a person can't relate to something because it's not directly about them is a misunderstanding of who's been reading books this whole time."

Since June is Pride Month and we're cos-playing in our favorite rainbows spandex, we decided to share our Modern Minorities chat with award winning comics creator Mariko Tamaki - who's work we've covered a LOT on Quarantined Comics - from Skim & This One Summer, to I Am Not Starfire, to Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me - Mariko's work is powerful and transcends identity.

Mariko Tamaki's many (Surely) Books — Mariko Tamaki is an award-winning Canadian comics creator and writer — known for works like Skim and This One Summer (with her cousin Jillian Tamaki). Her latest novel is Cold, a haunting YA novel about four students who knew too much and said too little. AND Mariko’s also the Co-founder & Editor of Surely Books - a comics imprint of LGBTQIA+ creators. Mariko’s ALSO known for comics like Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Emiko Superstar, and several prose works of fiction and nonfiction. AND since 2016, Mariko’s been writing for Marvel & DC comics - on powerful books like I Am Not Stafire, and Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass. Mariko’s also only the second woman to write Detective Comics - the 1000+ issue flagship DC series about the Dark Knight. If you can’t tell by now, one of us has been a BIG Mariko Tamaki fan for awhile, and after hearing her approach to writing and sharing personal stories, you soon will be too.

LEARN ABOUT MARIKO TAMAKI & HER WORK:

MENTIONS

This week, we're REPLAYING our re-read 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...