For the past several weeks the Two Guys with PhDs have been looking mostly at book-length works, trades, original graphic novels, and archival collections. This week, Andy W. and Derek thought that they'd catch up with their single-comic-book-issue reading by focusing on six recent #1 titles: Paper Girls - Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (Image Comics) Monstress - Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Image Comics) The Goddamned - Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra (Image Comics) Klaus - Grant Morrison and D...
Nov 18, 2015•1 hr 57 min
While at the Small Press Expo in September, Derek had the pleasure of meeting Meags Fitzgerald, whose new book, Long Red Hair: A Graphic Memoir , had just been released from Conundrum Press. At the time he spoke with her briefly for the podcast , but now Meags returns for a more in-depth discussion. They begin with an overview of her new book and the significance of its title. Long Red Hair is an artist's story of growing up, finding your place, and defining yourself by the differences that you ...
Nov 16, 2015•1 hr 2 min
Sean and Derek are back with their monthly pickings of webcomics goodness, and for November they have some great recommendations lined up. They begin by focusing on Peter Wartman's Stonebreaker , a fantasy adventure narrative with a strong potential for world-building. This is the sequel to the artist's earlier work, Over the Wall , which was also published in hardcopy by Uncivilized Books in 2013. The guys marvel at Wartman's handling of his narrative premise -- this webcomic is only in its sec...
Nov 13, 2015•1 hr 27 min
On this episode, Derek is happy to have as his guest Sophie Goldstein. Her latest book, House of Women, Part II , came out in September, and her other book from this year, The Oven , was just listed by Publisher Weekly as one of the five best comics of the year. Indeed, 2015 has been fruitful time for the young red-headed creator. Regular listeners of the podcast will know that this isn't the first time that Sophie has been on the show. She spoke with Derek twice before at two different events, ...
Nov 12, 2015•1 hr 19 min
Can it be true? Are the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics actually doing yet another publisher spotlight? Are they gluttons for punishment? Are their eyeballs going to fall out from all of the reading? Maybe so, but if their orbs do drop out of their heads, they'll do so while gazing at some of the great books coming out of Top Shelf Productions. In this episode, you'll hear Andy and Derek talking about the publisher's summer and fall releases, including: Bacchus Omnibus, Vol. 1 , by Eddie...
Nov 11, 2015•2 hr 25 min
Gwen and Andy are back this month to discuss two new graphic novels for young readers. First up, they discuss Monster (Amistad/Harper Collins), a book for teens by Walter Dean Myers, adapted by Guy A. Sims and with art by Dawud Anyabwile. Based on the multi-award-winning young adult novel by Myers, the graphic novel version of Monster chronicles the tension-filled trial of Steve Harmon, a African American teen being tried as an accessory to the murder of a convenience store clerk. Gwen and Andy ...
Nov 09, 2015•1 hr 12 min
It's the first week of November, and that means it must be time for Andy and Derek to go through the month's Previews catalog. As you may expect, there's a lot packed into the issue, and after a few words on Halloween and listener mail, they get right to the solicitations. Among the many upcoming releases they discuss on this month's Previews show are titles from Dark Horse Comics - Space-Mullet!: One Gamble at a Time and Snow Angel DC/Vertigo - Constantine, The Hellblazer: Vol. 1 and Egypt IDW ...
Nov 04, 2015•1 hr 35 min
Over Halloween weekend, Derek was at the Wizard World Comic Con event in Austin, TX. There, he had the good fortune to talk with several creators, publishers, and a couple of fellow podcasters in attendance. In this episode you'll hear brief interviews with: Danielle, who was overseeing the Action Lab Comics display Jen and Angela of Anomaly , the geek girl podcast Victor Dandridge, president and CEO of Vantage: Inhouse Productions Amber, Melanie, and Isabella, students who work on the comics se...
Nov 02, 2015•58 min
Shea and Derek return for another month's serving of warm, creamy manga. This one includes a heaping helping of other worldly phantoms and pedagogical cephalopods. In keeping with the spirit (literally) of the Halloween season, the guys begin with Nukuharu's Anomal (Gen Manga), a collection of seven short stores originally serialized in the Gen manga anthology. They enjoy the narratives well enough, but they're not entirely sure they understand the premises that Nukuharu establishes. At times th...
Oct 30, 2015•1 hr 23 min
It's the scary season, and as they've done for the past couple of years, Gene and Derek talk about some of this year's Halloween specials and seasonal horror titles. In this episode you'll hear the Two Guys with PhDs discuss: Haunted Horror: Pre-Code Comics So Good, They're Scary! , edited by Craig Yoe, Clizia Gussoni, and Steve Banes (IDW Publishing) Upside Down: A Hat Full of Spells , by Jess Smart Smiley (Top Shelf) Monsterjunkies: An American Family Odyssey , Erik Daniel Shein, Theresa A. Ga...
Oct 28, 2015•1 hr 56 min
On this special episode of the podcast, Derek moderates a roundtable discussion on comics and religion. Joining him on the panel are Elizabeth Coody (teaching at the Iliff School of Theology), Jeff Brackett (Ball State University), and A. David Lewis (Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), all of whom are comics scholars focusing on representations of religious belief and faith. They begin their discussion by sharing their backgrounds in comics and how they have found the medium...
Oct 26, 2015•1 hr 47 min
On this episode of their interview series, Derek and Andy W. talk with Jonathan Case about his new graphic novel that was just released, The New Deal (Dark Horse Books). It's the Depression-era story of Frank and Theresa, a bellhop and maid working at the Waldorf Astoria who get caught up in a series of mysterious thefts. It's a kind of heist narrative with an old screwball comedy flair -- think of Cary Grant and Kathryn Hepburn -- and one that involves references to both Orson Welles and Ernest...
Oct 23, 2015•1 hr 15 min
For this episode, Gwen and Derek team up for another Publisher Spotlight episode, this one on First Second Books and their fall releases. The titles they discuss include Paul Pope, JT Petty, David Rubin's Battling Boy: The Fall of the House of West ; Balak, Michael Sanlaville, and Bastien Vives's Last Man: The Chase ; Jean-David Morvan and Dominique Bertail's Omaha Beach on D-Day ; Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes's Secret Coders ; Maris Wicks's Human Body Theater ; Ian Lendler and Zack Giallongo'...
Oct 21, 2015•2 hr 15 min
This month on the webcomics series, Sean and Derek review three titles that all keep in the spirit of Halloween: Kris Straub's Broodhollow, Pascalle Lepas's Wilde Life, and Mike Walton's False Positive.
Oct 19, 2015•1 hr 50 min
For this interview show, Andy and Derek are very pleased to have as their guest Peter Kuper, whose latest work, Ruins , has just been released through SelfMadeHero. As the author points out, this is a very different kind of book from his usual material, one that has taken over three years to complete. Ruins is the story of a young married couple who travel to Oaxaca, Mexico, for the wife’s sabbatical. There the two of them, George and Samantha, bear witness to, and become involved in, some of th...
Oct 16, 2015•1 hr 36 min
On this episode of The Comics Alternative‘s “Young Readers” series, Gwen and Andy are back to take a look at two books about robots. (They didn’t plan it that way, really.) Both titles actually have more in common than just robots in that they each address issues of friendship, belonging, and how technology has changed our lives and the lives of our youth. Both books also contain strong young female protagonists whose friends aren’t always human. Gwen starts things off with a look at Veda: Assem...
Oct 15, 2015•1 hr 2 min
On this special episode of the podcast, Andy and Derek take a look at a variety of Steve Ditko's self-published comics. Since 2008, Ditko, along with Robin Snyder, has been putting out original work on a fairly regular basis. These comics are created and distributed independently -- and for the past few years have been crowdfunded by Kickstarter campaigns -- and as such, they have fallen below the radar of most comics readers. Beginning with The Avenging Mind, Ditko has sporadically produced sup...
Oct 14, 2015•1 hr 41 min
On this episode of the interview series, Andy W. and Derek have as their guest Jessica Abel, whose latest book, Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio, was recently released by Broadway Books. In her conversation with the guys, Jessica discusses her history with narrative-based radio and how her earlier work, Radio: An Illustrated Guide (cowritten with Ira Glass), helped to open the door for her exploration of the medium. Out on the Wire is based on over three year...
Oct 12, 2015•1 hr 12 min
Andy and Derek are excited to have as their guest on The Comics Alternative the man behind making Nikola Tesla even cooler than he already is: Brian Clevinger. He and his collaborator, Scott Wegener, have recently joined forces with IDW Publishing to bring us more Atomic Robo. And that's definitely something to celebrate! The newest story arc, Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire, began last month, and on top of that, IDW has published the first of what promises to be multiple omnibus editions. Atom...
Oct 09, 2015•1 hr 13 min
Welcome to October! And to celebrate the occasion, Andy and Derek do what they do at the beginning of every month: look through the current Previews catalog! And for October, the selections are plentiful and exciting. The guys find a number of upcoming titles from the premier publishers, but there are also many coming out from smaller presses, some of which the guys discuss for the very first time. Among the many upcoming releases they discuss on this month’s Previews show are titles from Dark H...
Oct 07, 2015•1 hr 37 min
Today, September 30, is International Podcast Day! To celebrate the occasion the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics get together with some of the other cohosts of the show, Gwen Tarbox, Andy Wolverton, and Gene Kannenberg, Jr., to talk about podcasts and podcasting. As such, they don’t necessarily focus on comics podcasts — although podcasts about comics comes up often during the discussion — but instead, they share their insights and experiences concerning a wide variety of podcasts. For e...
Sep 30, 2015•1 hr 29 min
For the September episode of the manga series, Shea and Derek discuss two very different titles, although both heavily invested in popular genres. They begin with Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki's The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Ominibus 1 (Dark Horse Books), a different take on both horror and detective narratives. Although the English-language releases of this title began in 2006, Dark Horse has just this month published the first of the omnibus editions, one that collects the first three...
Sep 29, 2015•1 hr 21 min
On this episode of the interview series, Andy and Derek are happy to have as their guest Dean Mullaney, the editor of IDW’s the Library of American Comics and the EuroComics series. His most recent book, The King of the Comics: One Hundred Years of King Features Syndicate will be coming out next month, just in time for the world-famous syndicate’s centennial. Dean talks with the Two Guys about the process of gathering strips, his experiences digging through library archives, the importance of wo...
Sep 28, 2015•1 hr 7 min
And here it is, the third (and final) of the three on-location shows of interviews Derek and Andy W. conducted while at last weekend's Small Press Expo. At the event, the Two Guys spoke with a number of creators attending SPX, interviewing each for anywhere from 5 to around 20 minutes. In some cases, the guys are quite familiar with the artist's works (and may even have reviewed their comics on past episodes). At other times, Andy or Derek may not know the work of the creator, but use the interv...
Sep 26, 2015•1 hr 39 min
This is the second of three on-location interview shows based on Derek and Andy W.’s attendance at last weekend’s Small Press Expo. At the event, the Two Guys took the opportunity to talk with several creators exhibiting at SPX, interviewing each for anywhere from 5 to around 20 minutes. In some cases, the guys are quite familiar with the artist’s works (and may even have reviewed their comics on past episodes). At other times, Andy or Derek may not know the work of the creator, but use the inte...
Sep 25, 2015•1 hr 8 min
Last weekend, Andy W. and Derek attended Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. While there, they were able to interview a variety of creators about their recent releases, their larger body of work, and any future projects they may be working on. The result was an impressive collection of interviews -- 28 in all -- each of which lasted from anywhere between 5 minutes to over 20 minutes. The guys have now edited these conversations and are presenting them in a series of three on-location interview epi...
Sep 24, 2015•1 hr 46 min
This week's episode of the podcast is special, and in a number of ways. First, Derek and Andy W. record the show "live" from a common location and not from a distance via Skype. Also, they discuss their experiences at this year's Small Press Expo, which took place September 19-20. Most importantly, though, this episode is notable for its focus on the 2015 Ignatz Awards, the first time that the Two Guys have discussed this industry recognition in any in-depth manner. In fact, almost the entire ep...
Sep 23, 2015•2 hr 27 min
While at this year's Small Press Expo, Derek had the opportunity to talk with the great Bill Griffith, whose new book from Fantagraphics, Invisible Ink: My Mother's Secret Love Affair with a Famous Cartoonist, debuted at the event and will soon be available in stores everywhere. As the subtitle suggests, this is a different kind of book for Griffith, a radical departure from his syndicated Zippy strip. Not only is it a deeply personal and moving memoir, but it's his first long-form work in comic...
Sep 22, 2015•1 hr 46 min
The Comics Alternative is happy to feature a brand new monthly series, this one devoted to comics and graphic novels for young readers. The cohosts for this show are Gwen Tarbox and Andy Wolverton. Longtime listeners of the podcast will know that Andy is an old hand at cohosting duties, filling in for Andy Kunka occasionally and, up until recently, being the cohost on the monthly webcomics series. (In fact, Andy left the webcomics show so that he could pursue this new idea.) Gwen is a professor ...
Sep 18, 2015•1 hr 11 min
This week the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics explore four new titles, each quite different one from the other. They begin with the new graphic novel from New Zealand creator Ant Sang, The Dharma Punks (Conundrum Press). On the surface it is a story about coming to terms with death, but there's much more going on in this 415-page book. In fact, this is one of the most ambitious narratives the guys have encountered so far this year, and certainly the most philosophical. Its protagonist, C...
Sep 16, 2015•1 hr 41 min
