Check out the Comics Alternative Podcast!

I only listen to a handful of podcasts, and the only one I follow about comics and graphic novels is the Comics Alternative podcast hosted by The Two Guys with PhDs Andy Kunka and Derek Royal. Together, and with input from others, they post reviews, do roundtable discussions focused on various comics topics, visit comic stores, report from comic conventions, and interview comics creators. It is an exceptional podcast, and I highly recommend you check them out.

Because they have so much posted, I share with you a list of some of my favorite episodes:

• Their Best of 2016 show
• Interview with Drew Friedman
• Spotlight on First Second Books
• Reviews of recent crime comics
• Roundtable on political comics
• Focus on books for young readers
• Interview with Evan Dorkin
• Interview with "Calamity" Jon Morris
• All of their interviews with Craig Yoe

If listening to podcasts is not quite your bag, they also have a blog where you can read things like reviews or a great set of interviews, including ones with Nick Sousanis, Seth, Keith Knight, Richard Corben, and Peter Bagge.

If you like what they do, you can also support them through Patreon. I do!

Derek on the left, Andy on the right

Last Man: The Blog Tour!

The second volume of the Last Man series, The Royal Cup debuted in the US two days ago, and I am proud and fortunate enough to have conducted an e-interview with the books' creators after reading their first book. I hope that you enjoy our exchange below:

1.       I have read a little bit about how you plot out the book in a pretty informal way, but what comes first, the visuals or the words for the story? Does it change depending on the situation?
Haha, sounds like you're interviewing Bob Dylan or Nicky Minaj. "What comes first, the lyrics or the melody?" It's kind of a strange mix. We have the story landmarks settled, the big twists and where the characters have to be, but in between we let ourselves go: it can drawn by the will to suggest a particular scene, an emotion, a feeling, or the inspiration to draw a certain landscape... We pitch the idea or the scene at each other, like if we're telling ourselves stories by the campfire, trying to reach that "this is cool/scary/funny" reaction in the two guys in front of us. This is the cool thing when you've got three authors on this.  When you're on point, you knows this right away, it's a collective gut reaction. And then we just go with a loose description: Balak is shaping the scene and dialogue at the same time he is making the storyboard. The drawing, and actually the storytelling, how panels are flowing, calls for the writing, in the end. And when we have the final drawings, we go back to shape the dialogue some more. That's NOT how this is supposed to be, but that's how we do it, it keeps things fresh and exciting to us, and hopefully the reader.

2.       Are we going to learn more about Mr. Jansen? The guy is a mess!
Jansen is a good example of what we just talked about. In the very beginning, he was meant to be just “Adrian's teacher.” But then, when the scene was developed and drawn, he took a life on his own. Bastien decided: "let's make him madly in love with Marianne." He’s a big loser, the absolute counterpoint of Richard Aldana. And then he became much more than this in later books. It's like when they initially wrote Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was not supposed to be that big of a character, but when they saw James Masters on screen, they decided to give him more screen time, to eventually become everyone's favorite. In the end, the short answer is yes, you will learn more about Jansen. We love that character!

3.       Why does Richard Aldana seem smart about some things and clueless about others? Such as, why does he not remember the rules of the Games?
Richard is not lying when he is saying is not from the neighborhood. He's not from king valley, but  he know about king's valley... all this will be revealed in later books as well as in the TV animated series we're currently doing.

4.       After seeing the video game preview, I wonder will we see more tournament fights later in the series where the opponents are not all magic users?
The video game is a bit special, he is tied to Richard's past. We will see in book four a video game, and this is that video game you can play. Can't say too much without spoiling anything!

5.       What American comics are popular in France, if any?
You have lots of super heroes magazines translated in French, DC and Marvel, in every press shop. But the latest huge success is the Walking Dead comic books, it's a best-seller here. French are big fans of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, too, it's bigger than Peanuts here. You are very fortunate to live in France when you love comics, bande dessinée and manga. We have a lot of comic shops, selling comics from all around the world. That's not the case in all the other European countries.

And thus concludes our interview. Thank you so much, Gina, for setting this up, and also to the creators for their wonderful responses!

You can follow the blog tour by visiting this link.

Balak

Michaël Sanlaville

Bastien Vivès

My review of volume 2 will be out soon. The next installment in this exciting series comes out in October!

Great interview with Derf Backderf

I think that My Friend Dahmer may just be the best GN I've read this year, and I just wanted to point out this well-done and detailed interview with its author, Derf Backderf, about his life, career, and that book.

Go check it out!

Faith Erin Hicks interviewed about Friends with Boys

Here is a great interview Faith Erin Hicks did with John Hogan at Graphic Novel Reporter about Friends with Boys. Enjoy!

In-depth Interview with Alan Moore

Alan Moore talks about Watchmen, his career, the comics industry, and the upcoming Before Watchmen books DC Comics is publishing in this great interview with Seraphemera Books comic writer Kurt Amacker. It's a lengthy and thorough piece, definitely well worth your time to read.

Nate Powell on The Silence of Our Friends

There is an in-depth interview with Nate Powell about this recent graphic novel publication at Comic Book Resources. Check it out!

45

45 is not a traditional graphic novel, though it does offer an interesting take on superheroes and is a beautiful piece of world-building to boot. 45 reads like a compilation of magazine interviews set in a universe where superheroes (here called Super-S, because Marvel and DC have trademarked "superhero," no lie) are real. Protagonist James Stanley is a journalist who is expecting a baby but won't test him to see if he has the super-gene. Instead, he embarks on a mission to interview 45 people and superpeople to get a handle on what living the super-life is like.

The interviews are presented in age order, so the first interview is with parents who know their baby will have superpowers. The interviews that follow show a great range of lives, from children with overbearing parents to young people finding their place in the world. The interviews then move on to vigilante heroes, heroes-turned-villains (called Vaders), government and corporate agents, and retired Super-S. Each interview covers a page and faces a picture/comic done by individual artists to suit the text. Instead of reading as a set of unconnected interviews, the flow of the book across the lifespan makes it seem more of a narrative. A common thread of the shadowy XoDOS corporation, which plays a potentially sinister roles in raising, creating, and managing Super-S, also provides a narrative consistency.

Andi Ewington is more known as a graphic designer than a graphic novelist, so perhaps his design choices should come as no surprise. He keeps a blog about this book and his more recent activities here. Ewington has conducted a number of interviews about his work on 45 and creating a new superhero universe, including this one on the Forbidden Planet International blog, this one from the Graphic Novel Reporter, this one with Comic Book Resources, and one more at Techland.

Reviews about this book have been overwhelmingly positive. Elisabeth at ComicList wrote about how the range of artists and interviews provide a rich view of a diverse, complex cast of characters. Edward Kaye gushed that this book "is by far one of the most original and innovative graphic novels ever created." Richmond Clements noted that while not all of the interviews are great, especially when compared to some of the exceptional ones, he found this a great piece of compressed storytelling. He also heaped the following praise on the book: "Ewington has created something remarkable here. And not only remarkable, if there is any justice this will also become an important book in the superhero genre."

45 was published by the independent British comics company Com.X. A preview interview can be found at Bleeding Cool. A preview of the artwork can be found at Hypergeek.