Last week saw the return of Joe McCulloch, who stopped by to write about the life and work of Kazuo Koike, the massively influential manga creator who passed away on April 17th. Alex Dueben sat down…

Today at Comics Journal, it's time for one of the sharpest conversations in the conversation drawer: Matthew Thurber and Austin English. We've had this one in the hopper for a minute, and we're…

Tucker's on semi-vacation in Florida right now, but before he left, he arranged for today's posts, including an interview with the longtime comics critic and scholar Marc Singer, about his new book,…

Today at The Comics Journal, we're pleased to share the opening salvo from Marc Singer's recent release with The University of Texas Press. If you like what you see--or you don't, either response is…

We're pleased to share the following excerpt from Breaking the Frames, the new book by Marc Singer and the University of Texas Press. Excerpted from Breaking the Frames by Marc Singer. Copyright 2019…

French cartooning team Ruppert & Mulot (whose mamas named them Florent and Jerome) are tough to put a label on. Setting aside the fact that "their creative partnership has grown so organically as to…

For anyone who has ever been frustrated by the insularity, boosterism, and self-congratulatory enthusiasm of comics and comics studies, Marc Singer's new book is a relief and a joy. Breaking the…

This is an ambitious book about a figure hardly known outside of the world of pulps, arriving too late for the golden or even silver age of that vast trove of popular entertainment—but not quite too…

Some cartoonists take 'inspiration' from other media, or are 'informed' by avant-garde practices of the past, while others reject anything that stands outside of the pantheon of comic arts. Part of…

By Mike W. Barr & Jerry Bingham I’m going to discuss the plot of Batman: Son of the Demon (BSOTD) in pretty close detail, so consider this a SPOILER WARNING! Event Continuum

Today on the site, we have a report from the new Naoki Urasawa exhibit in Los Angeles. The Japan House gallery is accessed through its storefront, which is filled with a range of tastefully made,…

Jesse Reklaw is a cartoonist, musician, and web developer in Portland, Oregon. His graphic novels include LOVF and Couch Tag published by Fantagraphics. He drew the webcomic Slow Wave from 1995-2012,

Today at The Comics Journal, we're pleased to share Oliver Ristau's take on an exhibition of Émilie Plateau and Jul Gordon's work, which is taking place until March 23rd in Bremen, Germany. Serving as…

The cover of Julie Delporte’s This Woman’s Work features the author fighting a polar bear with her hands. There’s humor there, but its not a happy joke. Late in the book Delporte shares the dream from…

There are certain cartoonists I associate with certain genres of music or songs, not very intelligently for the most part, Mark Beyer comics always get Don’t

The Hollywood and Highland Center is a sprawling shopping mall on Hollywood Boulevard. It’s right next to the TCL Chinese Theatre (formerly Mann’s), and has the Walk of Fame and attendant costumed…

Kim Jooha returns today with a look at the work of Stefanie Leinhos, which Jooha considers to be a kind of "conceptual comics" akin to conceptual art. The impression of eternity generated by the…

Jesse Reklaw is a cartoonist, musician, and web developer in Portland, Oregon. His graphic novels include LOVF and Couch Tag published by Fantagraphics. He drew the webcomic Slow Wave from 1995

I use the term "conceptual comics" to describe comics works that have been made by applying the methods of conceptual art. With conceptual comics, it is more important to understand the implication…

There's a shift in the visual presentation of Renée French's serial Baby Bjornstrand when its sixth chapter

Another week came roaring through, and it brought our latest Cartoonist Diary with it: this time around, Jesse Reklaw controlled the vertical as well as the horizontal with fivedays of…

The Strip Mine went antiquing. You really can find comics just about anywhere, although most people would have left the comics in this column behind. Thankfully, Marc Sobel has a different plan in…

Today on the site we have a preview of the new and long-awaited issue of the print edition of The Comics Journal, an excerpt from Gary Groth's career-spanning interview with the great Tomi Ungerer.…