The Comics Alternative

This week Andy and Derek thrill and amaze by doing close readings of Derk Backder's graphic memoir, My Friend Dahmer, and Matt Kindt's new ongoing series, Mind MGMT. Enmeshed in the wonderful world of great art, fine storytelling, and cool spy stuff, the two guys with PhDs are in their element. Oh, they also unapologetically become shills for the podcast by pointing out their new PayPal Donate button and asking listeners to help spread the word about their show. They're like that at times.

On this episode, the two guys with PhDs (who talk about comics) offer their very first "Artist Spotlight" episode.  They discuss the (mainly non-mainstream) work of Jeff Lemire, from his earliest comics--such as Lost Dogs--to the much lauded Essex County Trilogy, to his work on Vertigo, to his most recent graphic novel, The Underwater Welder.  Along the way, Andy and Derek find the opportunity to bring up the topics of narrative iconography, the story-cycle genre, and Andy's fascination with Dean Martin.

On this review episode, Derek and Andy first talk about Jaime Hernandez's God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls, the new collection/expansion of Jaime's recent superhero story that originally ran in Love and Rockets: New Stories Vol. 1 and 2. Then, the two guys switch to Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle series, where they get to talk about things like Quincy, snakes, bacon, pubic hair, and other scholarly topics.

In this episode, Derek and Andy sit down with Jonathan Hickman for their first interview show. They talk about Jonathan's current Image comics (Manhattan Projects and Secret), past comics (Nightly News, Pax Romana, Red Mass for Mars, Red Wing), and future projects (Feel Better Now).

In this episode we begin our monthly look at the Previews catalog. In our Previews episodes, we highlight those non-superhero comic-book series and books that stand out to us, ones we would recommend to other readers.

Our first review episode where we discuss Darwyn Cooke's The Score and Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples's series Saga.

First episode of The Comics Alternative where Andy and Derek introduce themselves, discuss the focus of the podcast, and lay out its broader mission.