Category: Comics

Tomorrow, Saturday, May 7, 2011 is Free Comic Book Day here in the U.S. Once again a chance for comic book shops to open their doors to the curious and unaccustomed, hold special events, creator signings and sales; and for publishers to show off their wares in special titles and editions created for the occasion,…

There is a genre of comics and animated cartoons called “funny animal”, referring to animal characters that have anthropomorphic characteristics. Even if the genre name is unfamiliar, some of the characters are among the best known, e.g. Mickey mouse and Bugs Bunny. Much less familiar to the general public is a sub-genre, sometimes called “furry”,…

The Comics Journal is a venerable (30 year) print publication that aimed to bring highbrow criticism and commentary to the oft maligned field of comics. In the process it has been alternately unbearably stuffy and highbrow, and wonderfully informative and in-depth, often featuring book-length interviews with comics creators. I’ll take the good with the bad…

HiLoBrow, a cultural blog/zine/site whose motto is “Middlebrow is not the solution”, has asked 25 of their favorite writers to examine and write on individual comics panels by Jack “King” Kirby, one of the greats of late 20th Century comics art, in a feature called Kirb Your Enthusiasm. (I’ll write more on Jack Kirby, who…