The Two Guys are happy to have as their guests Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko. Their first collected volume of Invisible Republic has just recently been released, and the guys talk with the creators about the origins of this project, its initial incubation period, and their efforts in bringing the series to Image Comics. Invisible Republic is a science fiction narrative, taking place on a distant moon in the Gliese system in the twenty-eighth century, but it's much more of a story of politic...
Sep 14, 2015•1 hr 4 min
Mullets, Cheesecake, and FantasyvilleFor September's webcomics episode, Sean and Derek have some fun titles lined up for you, the devoted Comics Alternative listener. They begin with an incredible futuristic sci-fi series partially informed by one of the worst hairstyles to come out of the 1970s/1980s. Daniel Warren Johnson's Space Mullet is the story of an ex-United-Earth-space-marine-turned-space-trucker and his partner, a sensitive yet wisecracking Zozobian, as they try to come to terms with ...
Sep 11, 2015•1 hr 27 min
On this week's review show, Derek and Andy W. look at three new titles, beginning with the new graphic novel from Ethan Young, Nanjing: The Burning City (Dark Horse). This is a riveting historically based narrative centered on Japan's actions against the Chinese Nationalist capital during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It involves a captain in the Republic of China's army trapped within Nanjing, now overrun by the Japanese, and his attempts to get himself and one of his soldiers out to safety. Yo...
Sep 09, 2015•1 hr 23 min
On this episode of the interview show, Andy and Derek have as their guest Glenn Head, whose new book Chicago: A Comix Memoir was just released from Fantagraphics. They talk with Glenn extensively about the the work and how it is a marked departure from his previous comics. Chicago is Glenn's coming-of-age account of leaving Madison, NJ, in 1977 to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art, and then deciding to find himself by suddenly running off to Chicago with no friends, no money, and no plans. H...
Sep 08, 2015•1 hr 29 min
The Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics are proud to have as their guest Marisa Acocella Marchetto. Her new graphic novel, Ann Tenna, was just released by Knopf, and it’s a fantastical, sci-fi-infused story of psychological balance and self-discovery in our overly “media-cated” culture. The titular protagonist, a glamorous, super-connected entrepreneur of glitz and gossip, becomes disconnected from her higher self…literally. Her cosmic doppleganger, Superann, steps into Ann’s life via a near...
Sep 04, 2015•1 hr 8 min
Another month is upon us, so that means it must be time for Andy and Derek to open up the latest Previews catalog and begin making out their wish lists. (Actually, Derek is the only one opening up the catalog. Andy finds himself without one for this month, having to rely only on text-only order form.) Most of solicits in the September catalog will be released in either November or December, just in time for the holidays, and the guys wondered if this would be another chock-full issue leading to ...
Sep 02, 2015•2 hr 14 min
On this month's manga episode, Shea and Derek discuss two distinctly different titles. They begin with Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga (DC Comics). The second in this planned three-volume series, collecting all of Kuwata's Batman work, just came out last month, and the Two Guys look at both volumes one and two. These Batmanga stories were originally serialized in Japan between 1966 and 1967, at the height of the Adam West Batman craze, and both Derek and Shea comment on how much Kuwata's storie...
Aug 31, 2015•1 hr 34 min
This week the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics look at three recent titles, each one an example of genre mash-up. They begin with a new book that isn't really so new. Philippe Druillet's The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane (Titan Comics) is actually a reprint of a series of stories originally published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote between 1970 and 1971, and then later made available to English speakers through both Dark Horse Comics and NBM. Each short narrative centers on the ti...
Aug 26, 2015•1 hr 27 min
On this episode of the interview show, Derek talks with Jeremy Baum about his latest book, Dörfler (Fantagraphics), a dream-like narrative that combines elements of fantasy, science fiction, psychedelia, pin-up art, and video-game tropes. Structured around multiple (primarily) female characters who appear to inhabit different dimensional realms, Baum’s story is both futuristic as well as surreal. His highly detailed art, composed primarily of grays and blue tones, reveals a dystopic landscape th...
Aug 24, 2015•1 hr 7 min
The Two Guys are back with another special episode of The Comics Alternative, and, just in time for the new school year, this time they hold a roundtable discussion on teaching comics. Joining them in the discussion are Randy Duncan and Matthew J. Smith. They, along with Paul Levitz, are the coauthors of The Power of Comics: History, Form, and Culture (Bloomsbury Academic), the first real textbook devoted to comics that was just recently released in its second edition. In fact, Derek begins the ...
Aug 21, 2015•1 hr 42 min
This is a bittersweet episode of The Comics Alternative, because Andy and Derek are both highlighting and saying goodbye to a title that has been one of their favorites these past thirteen years, Bill Willingham's Fables (Vertigo). The series finale was just recently released -- issue #150, which also doubles at volume 22 of the trade paperbacks -- and the guys go into detail about the wrap-up of the main storyline, the final confrontation between Snow White and Rose Red that has been building o...
Aug 19, 2015•1 hr 47 min
On this episode of The Comics Alternative, Gene and Derek turn a critical spotlight on the upcoming releases from the small press, Hang Dai Editions. The guys begin with a brief conversation with Dean Haspiel and Gregory Benton, two of the founders of the Hang Dai Studio, a collective that they founded along with Josh Neufeld and the late Seth Kushner. In this interview, they describe the origins of their publishing line and share many of their experiences in getting it off the ground. Hang Dai ...
Aug 12, 2015•1 hr 44 min
This August episode of the webcomics series begins with an introduction to Sean Kleefeld, the new cohost of the show. With Andy W. deciding to step down from his duties -- he'll be doing other exciting things with The Comics Alternative in the weeks to come! -- Derek has asked Sean to step in and join him for the guys' monthly look at webcomics. So listeners of the series can now benefit from Sean's discerning critical eye and deep expertise in the medium. In fact, all of the titles that they ar...
Aug 10, 2015•1 hr 47 min
Occasionally The Comics Alternative will feature a special episode devoted to a specific comics-related topic, and on this show, the Two Guys focus on issues surrounding libraries and comics. This subject matter is particularly appropriate, given the fact that Andy Wolverton is a public librarian working extensively with comics and graphic novels in Anne Arundel County, MD. So the guys decided to invite other librarian-educators on the podcast for a lively roundtable discussion on the topic. Joi...
Aug 07, 2015•1 hr 21 min
The Two Guys are pleased to have as their guests on the show the creators behind the new series coming out from Image Comics, The Beauty, Jeremy Haun and Jason Hurley. The first issue will be released next Tuesday, August 12th, and in anticipation for this event, Andy and Derek wanted to have the two on the show to talk about their unique narrative. The story is premised on a sexually transmitted disease that, once contracted, makes people appear more physically attractive. They turn more svelte...
Aug 06, 2015•1 hr 15 min
This week Andy and Derek look through the August Previews catalog. As they do at the beginning of every month, they go through the most recent solicits for upcoming titles and share their "wish lists," highlighting comics that they plan to read, that are potentially significant, and that are notable enough to earn a few moments of the guys' attention. This is also the three-year anniversary of The Comics Alternative, and the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics celebrate by putting on party h...
Aug 05, 2015•2 hr 16 min
For July's manga episode, Shea and Derek discuss two distinctly different titles. They begin by looking at Naoki Urasawa's Monster series published through Viz Media. The fifth volume of the new Perfect Editions was just released last week, so the guys thought this would be a great opportunity to introduce listeners to this dramatic saga. Monster is the story of a brilliant young surgeon, Dr. Kenzō Tenma, who's accused of murder and then goes on the lam to find the real killer: a boy that he had...
Jul 31, 2015•1 hr 34 min
Action * Mystery * AdventureOn this week's episode, Andy and Derek take a look at two very different titles. They begin with a long, extensive look at Will Eisner's The Spirit: A Celebration of 75 Years (DC Comics). In fact, their discussion of the new Spirit collection takes up the vast majority of the show, lasting for almost and hour and forty-five minutes! So there's a lot of ground that the guys cover with this book, although in many ways they only just scratch the surface. Both Derek and A...
Jul 29, 2015•2 hr 22 min
On the July webcomics show, Andy W. and Derek do something different. Not only do they look at two current and ongoing series, along with one already completed title -- as is their usual format -- but they do so by focusing on just one specific webcomics outlet: Study Group Comics. The guys begin, appropriately enough, by looking at current work from Zack Soto, the publisher of Study Group. His comic, The Secret Voice, is a mashup of various genres, part adventure, part science fiction, part sup...
Jul 24, 2015•1 hr 33 min
This week on the podcast, the Two Guys with PhDs take a close look at a few #1 issues and one minicomic series. However, before they get into the nitty gritty of their reviews, they share some of the listener mail and attention they've been receiving -- including a very cool call-out from the Kyle and Drew at Comics for Fun and Profit -- and then go into some news out of SDCC. In particular, they discuss this year's Eisner Award winners, most of which the guys are familiar with and/or had expect...
Jul 22, 2015•2 hr 4 min
Derek is back at his local shop, Collected Comics and Games in Plano, TX, for the monthly Comics Alternative on-location recording. This time he talks with folks about summer reading and the recent San Diego Comic-Con. Two of the customers there, Krystle and Craig, just got back from San Diego and share their experiences and the fun they had. They do a great job of describing the excitement, and the chaos, to be had at SDCC, complete with cosplaying, fireworks, brushes with greatness, and near-j...
Jul 17, 2015•1 hr 24 min
On this episode of The Comics Alternative, Gene is back in the cohosting chair after a long absence. (He was last on the show for the interview with Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain, but he hasn't been on a review show since October of last year.) This week, the Two Guys look at three new, yet very different, comics. They begin with Josh Simmons's Black River (Fantagraphics), a beautiful yet disturbing post-apocalyptic narrative. It follows a group of women trying to survive after some s...
Jul 15, 2015•1 hr 28 min
The Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics are back with another fun conversation, this time with artist I. N. J. Culbard. They talk with him about his latest book, The King in Yellow (SelfMadeHero), a graphic adaptation of Robert W. Chambers’s macabre collection of stories originally published in 1895. To be more specific, Culbard actually takes the first four stories from Chambers’s original work, the ones that reference the notorious fictional play referenced in the title — “The Repairer of ...
Jul 13, 2015•1 hr 17 min
The Two Guys are back for yet another publisher spotlight, and this time they are looking at the 2015 releases from Retrofit Comics / Big Planet Comics. The episode begins with a brief interview with Box Brown, the founder and editor of Retrofit Comics. He discusses the origins of Retrofit as a Kickstarter campaign, his education as a publisher, the ensuing partnership with Big Planet Comics, and the philosophy behind and publishing trajectory of their efforts. After that, the guys discuss the 2...
Jul 08, 2015•2 hr 7 min
It's the first of the month, so that must mean it's time for another look through the Previews catalog. In this episode, Andy and Derek flip through the July solicits, highlighting the various titles they're looking forward to and feel that are worth mentioning. But before they plunge into their recommendations, they give a few shout-outs. First, they share with listeners the various emails and messages they've received this past week, all kind and complimentary, with some even being from new fa...
Jul 01, 2015•2 hr 7 min
This month on their manga episode, Shea and Derek discuss two very different works. They begin with Hirohito Araki's JoJo Bizarre Adventure, which is now being reissued in new editions from VIZ Media. The title has been published in smaller paperback form for quite a while, but this year VIZ began collecting Araki's world-famous -- and still ongoing -- series in larger hardcover editions, beginning with the first two volumes in the series' first narrative arc, Phantom Blood. (The third volume wi...
Jun 30, 2015•1 hr 32 min
On Friday of last week, the first day of HeroesCon, both Andy and Derek participated on a discussion panel, "Teaching Comics through a Historical Context." This was organized by Shawn and Adam Daughhetee of the Dollar Bin podcast -- who have been putting together these kind of panels at the con for several years -- and the focus of the discussion was on understanding comics within their temporal/cultural contexts and using them in the classroom as a way to teach history. Participating on the pan...
Jun 29, 2015•1 hr 26 min
In the second of two on-location interview episodes recorded at last weekend's HeroesCon -- the first episode went up yesterday -- Derek talks with a variety of artists tabling in Artists Alley. He begins with a conversation with Nate Simpson, discussing the recent release of Nonplayer #2, the long gap between the first and second issues, and Nate's plans for carrying the title forward. Next, Derek talks with Ed Piskor about the upcoming release of Hip Hop Family Tree, Book 3, Fantagraphics' lan...
Jun 26, 2015•1 hr 38 min
While Derek and Andy W. were at HeroesCon last weekend, they were able to meet a variety of artists and writers tabling in Artists Alley. Many of these creators took time from their busy schedules -- talking with fans, signing books, and working on commissions -- to talk with the guys for a few minutes, discussing their works and sharing their experiences at the con. This episode of the podcast includes brief conversations with ten different artists and that, taken together, demonstrate the crea...
Jun 25, 2015•1 hr 10 min
This week, Derek and Andy W. -- fresh from their trip to HeroesCon -- return with a discussion of three new, fascinating, and...well, whacked out comics. But they're all whacked out in their own, unique ways. They begin with the release of Gilbert Hernandez's Grip: The Strange World of Men (Dark Horse Books). This is not really a new work from Hernandez, as Grip was originally published in color as a five-issue limited series from Vertigo in 2002. (The new book contains only black and white art....
Jun 24, 2015•1 hr 30 min
