Podcast appearances and mentions of peter kuper

Every 17 years in the eastern United States, a roaring mass of millions of black-bodied, red-eyed, thumb-length insects erupt from the ground. For a few glorious weeks the periodical cicadas cover the trees and the air vibrates with their chorus of come-hither calls. Then they leave a billion eggs to hatch and burrow into the dirt, beginning the seventeen year cycle all over again. Sing. Fly. Mate. Die. This is Brood X or the Great Eastern Brood. It's an event which, for the residents of a dozen or so US states, is the abiding memory of four, maybe five, summers of their lives. In a programme that's both a natural and a cultural history of the Great Eastern Brood we re-visit four Brood X years....1970, 1987, 2004 and 2021…. to capture the stories of the summers when the cicadas came to town. Princeton University's Class of 1970 remember the cicadas' appearance at their graduation ceremony, during a time of student unrest and protest against the Vietnam War; a bride looks back to the uninvited - but welcome - cicada guests attending her wedding; a musician recalls making al fresco music with Brood X; and an entomologist considers the extraordinary life cycle of an insect which is seems to possess both great patience and the ability to count to seventeen. Brood X cicadas spend 17 years underground, each insect alone, waiting and listening. In 2021, as Brood X stirred and the air began to thicken with the cicadas' love songs, we all shared with them that sense of emerging from the isolation of lockdown and making a new beginning.Featuring: Elias Bonaros, Liz Dugan, Anisa George, Ray Gibbons, Peter Kuper, Gene Kritsky, Gregg Lange, David Rothenberg, Gil Schrage and Gaye WilliamsProducer: Jeremy GrangeCicada audio recorded by Cicada Mania and David RothenbergProgramme Image: Prof. Gene Kritsky

More TCAF interviews! In this episode, Jimmy talks to legendary cartoonist Peter Kuper. They chat about his graphic novel RUINS, SPY VS SPY, living in Oaxaca, loving bugs, and so much more. Thanks to TCAF for a great time and to all of my interviewees for taking the time to hang and talk. More TCAF interview specials will be released over the next few weeks! Also, get a hold of us! Thanks for listening!

Comic News Insider: Episode 1503 is now available for free download! Click on the link or follow on Spotify/subscribe on iTunes! Jimmy returns to TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival), one of his favorite small press/indie comics shows. A super fun and productive weekend where he got 9 interviews w/ the likes of Vera Brosgol, Sarah Whang, Ho Che Anderson, Andy Belanger, B. Mure, Debbie Fong, Peter Kuper, Eric Kim & Caitlin Cass. He also moderated a panel with Mylo Choy. In this episode, you'll hear his recap of the whole show from attendance, exhibitors, layout, dinners, hanging out and more. You'll also hear his great interview with cartoonist Vera Brosgol. Vera talks her new graphic novel PLAIN JANE AND THE MERMAID, the importance of accepting yourself as you are, baking, nature and just what is a Kouign-amann? Thanks to TCAF for a great time and to all of my interviewees for taking the time to hang and talk. More TCAF interview specials will be released over the next few weeks! Also, get a hold of us! Email Facebook Comic News Insider Thanks for listening!

Neste episódio temos um convidado especial! Gabriel Vinicius do canal "Garo Quadrinhos" debate conosco sobre a HQ "O Sistema" de Peter Kuper! Aperta o play e vem debater conosco. Siga Garo Quadrinhos nas redes sociais: Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/garoquadrinhos⁠ YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/GaroQuadrinhos⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/gabriel.vinicius304/⁠ Contatos Mande sua contribuição filosófica, política, sugestão, reclamação ou  elogios para o nosso SAC Nerd! Nosso debate não para por aqui. E-mail: comunasnerd@gmail.com Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/comunasnerd⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/comunasnerd⁠ Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/comunasnerd --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comunasnerd/message

FIVE-HUNDRED EPISODES of The Virtual Memories Show?! Let's celebrate this milestone episode with tributes, remembrances, jokes, congrats, non-sequiturs, and a couple of songs (!) from nearly 100 of my past guests, including Maria Alexander, Jonathan Ames, Glen Baxter, Jonathan Baylis, Zoe Beloff, Walter Bernard, Sven Birkerts, Charles Blackstone, RO Blechman, Phlip Boehm, MK Brown, Dan Cafaro, David Carr, Kyle Cassidy, Howard Chaykin, Joe Ciardiello, Gary Clark, John Crowley, Ellen Datlow, Paul Di Filippo, Joan Marans Dim, Liza Donnelly, Bob Eckstein, Scott Edelman, Barbara Epler, Glynnis Fawkes, Aaron Finkelstein, Mary Fleener, Shary Flenniken, Josh Alan Friedman, Kipp Friedman, Michael Gerber, Mort Gerberg, ES Glenn, Sophia Glock, Paul Gravett, Tom Hart, Dean Haspiel, Jennifer Hayden, Glenn Head, Ron Hogan, Kevin Huizenga, Jonathan Hyman, Andrew Jamieson, Ian Kelley, Jonah Kinigstein, Kathe Koja, Ken Krimstein, Anita Kunz, Peter Kuper, Glenn Kurtz, Kate Lacour, Roger Langridge, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, John Leland, David Leopold, Sara Lippmann, David Lloyd, Whitney Matheson, Patrick McDonnell, Dave McKean, Scott Meslow, Barbara Nessim, Jeff Nunokawa, Jim Ottaviani, Celia Paul, Woodrow Phoenix, Darryl Pinckney, Weng Pixin, Eddy Portnoy, Virginia Postrel, Bram Presser, AL Price, Dawn Raffel, Boaz Roth, Hugh Ryan, Dmitry Samarov, Frank Santoro, JJ Sedelmaier, Nadine Sergejeff, Michael Shaw, R Sikoryak, Jen Silverman, Posy Simmonds, Vanessa Sinclair, David Small, Sebastian Smee, Ed Sorel, James Sturm, Mike Tisserand, Tom Tomorrow, Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, Kriota Willberg, Warren Woodfin, Jim Woodring, and Claudia Young. Plus, we look at back with segments from the guests we've lost over the years: Anthea Bell, Harold Bloom, Bruce Jay Friedman, Milton Glaser, Clive James, JD McClatchy, DG Myers, Tom Spurgeon, and Ed Ward. Here's to the next 500 shows! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

Açık Gazete'nin köşelerinden Haftanın Karikatürleri'nde İzel Rozental'in seçtiği ve anlattığı çizimler arasından Peter Kuper'ın "Ocakbaşı 2022" çizimi haftanın karikatürü seçildi.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://thecitylife.org/2021/12/18/renowned-graphic-novelist-peter-kuper-brings-a-bugs-eye-view-of-classic-architecture-to-the-new-york-public-library-in-new-exhibition-intersects/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/citylifeorg/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/citylifeorg/support

One of the most prolific and decorated in cartooning, Peter Kuper, hangs out at the Cartoon Pad to explain why he is so driven and so dog-gone politically charged. Check out all of his books, see his work, and upcoming events at https://www.peterkuper.com/

Kino Šiška, Zavod Stripolis in Forum Ljubljana – revija Stripburger bodo prestolnico preplavili s še eno izdajo mednarodnega festivala stripa Tinta. Z razstavami in dogodki predstavljajo domače in tuje stripovske dosežke in novosti, pa tudi projekte, ki to zvrst potiskajo že na mejo z drugimi umetniškimi praksami. V Muzeju novejše zgodovine Celje pa bodo predstavili knjigo Jožeta Volfanda »Odkrito in zakrito v času osamosvajanja Slovenije, Celjski večeri 1989–1993«. Gre za intervjuje, ki jih je avtor knjige v omenjenem obdobju opravil z najpomembnejšimi odločevalci v republikah, pozneje državah, na območju nekdanje Jugoslavije. Foto: Emmanuel Guibert, Peter Kuper, kolaž njunih del, vir: spletna stran festivala Tinta

Peter Kuper's work appears regularly in The New Yorker, The Nation, and Mad , where he has written and illustrated “Spy vs. Spy” every issue since 1997. He is the co-founder of World War 3 Illustrated, a political comix magazine now in it's 41st year of publication. He has produced over two dozen books including Sticks and Stones (winner of The Society of Illustrators gold medal), The System, Diario de Oaxaca, Ruins (winner of the 2016 Eisner Award) and adaptations of many of Franz Kafka's works into comics including The Metamorphosis. His most recent graphic novels include Kafkaesque (winner of the 2018 Rueben award) and an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.Translations of his work have appeared in Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Slovenia, China, Brazil, Germany and Mexico. Peter has lectured extensively throughout the world and has taught comics and illustration courses at Parsons, and The School of Visual Arts and Harvard University's first class dedicated to graphic novels. He is the 2020-21 Jean Strouse Fellow at The New York Public Library's Cullman Center. More about Peter Kuper: https://www.peterkuper.com/about Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/up_standers/

Get "The World We Are Fighting For" here: https://www.ww3.nyc/ More about Peter: https://www.peterkuper.com/ & @PKuperArt

Samantha e George formam o casal que vai passar um ano de sabático na pitoresca cidade de Oaxaca, no México. Para Samantha, é uma oportunidade de reviver o passado. Para George, é um passo temerário a mundo desconhecido. Para ambos, será a rota de colisão com fatos políticos e pessoais que vai mexer com suas jornadas na vida e com a cidade de Oaxaca para sempre. Em paralelo, a notável e árdua jornada que uma borboleta monarca enfrenta na migração do Canadá ao México. As histórias entrelaçadas são um retrato simultâneo dos desafios para se sobreviver em um mundo que está sempre mudando. Ruínas trata das sombras e luz no México a partir de seu passado e presente, da perspectiva de diversos personagens. O real e o surreal misturam-se para pintar um retrato inesquecível da vida mexicana. Link para o post completo: http://fanzine.com.br/ruinas-peter-kuper

Still high on the list of the world’s 100 best novels, Joseph Conrad’s haunting “Heart of Darkness” continues to fascinate, mystify, and attract adaptors. Although Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 award-winning film “Apocalypse Now,” starring Marlon Brando is, arguably, the most imaginative of the lot—moving Conrad’s brooding and inscrutable Congo tale to Vietnam—the 1902 novella inspired earlier films (Boris Karloff as the charismatic Kurtz in 1958, John Malkovich in 1993). “Heart of Darkness” has also been turned into radio dramas, theatre pieces, even an opera. But a graphic novel, a comic book? Why not? as illustrator and cartoonist Peter Kuper might say. He had already taken on adaptations of Franz Kafka and Upton Sinclair, and, as he says in his introduction, which he calls “The Art of Darkness,” he read a lot about the book and showed his work to scholars. He even observes a three-part structure, following the first publication of the novella as a three-part magazine series in 1889.

Dr. Barbara Postema Talks: Meaning Making in Comics. Discussion includes wordless comics by Peter Kuper, Joe Sacco, along with page layouts in comics like Shutterbug Follies, The City, The Groom, and Skim--as well as her own book Narrative Structure in Comics and her coedited book series, Transcultural/ Transnational Comics Studies.

A few days ago, cartoonist Peter Kuper returned from Oaxaca, Mexico to the Upper West Side of New York City. He joins the show to talk about why he & his wife made the decision to come back at a time that New York's COVID-19 cases are blowing through the roof. We talk about the communal nature of life in Mexico, whether the situation here matches up with his decades of dystopian visions in World War III Illustrated, the good omen of raising monarch butterflies in his Oaxaca garden, the bad omen of giant scorpions in said garden, his unfortunate choice of reading material just before the pandemic started to spread, and more. (Our most recent podcast was at the end of 2019) • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

It's time for our annual Guest List episode! More than two dozen of the year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2019 and the books they hope to get to in 2020! Guests include Christopher Brown, Nina Bunjevac, Jerome Charyn, Caleb Crain, Joan Marans Dim, Boris Fishman, Katelan Foisy, Mort Gerberg, Eva Hagberg, Peter Kuper, Kate Lacour, Liniers, Kate Maruyama, Edie Nadelhaft, Sylvia Nickerson, James Oseland, Dawn Raffel, Witold Rybczynski, Frank Santoro, Ersi Sotiropoulos, Karl Stevens, James Sturm, Frederic Tuten, and Chris Ware! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

Political artist/illustrator Peter Kuper rejoins the show to talk about his new graphic adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (WW Norton). We get into the highwire act of addressing race without diluting the book or otherwise changing Conrad's tale (that is, how do you balance adaptation and revisionism?), how Peter accidentally subjected himself to some of Marlow's ill health while adapting the book, and how he used graphic storytelling to bring other perspectives to the story. We also discuss his trepidation about adapting a canonical book, his trepidation about drawing boats, and is trepidation about making an optimistic issue of World War 3 Illustrated. Oh, yeah, and he tells us about getting to hold Conrad's diary from the river journey that inspired Heart of Darkness, his ongoing Spy Vs. Spy strips for Mad Magazine, and, on his 3rd appearance on the show, I finally ask him just where his progressivism started! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

In this week's episode, I talk once again with the graphic novelist, Peter Kuper, this time about his latest literary adaptation, Heart of Darkness.  NOTES This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile. TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go herewhile still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

The comic book artist and editor discusses his vastly overlooked and long-running comics magazine (founded with childhood best friend Peter Kuper), WW3 Illustrated, and his relationship with the Greatest City in the World, and a lifetime of activism.

Political artist/illustrator Peter Kuper rejoins the show to talk about these Kafkaesque times and his new graphic novel, Kafkaesque: 14 Stories (Norton)! We get into his decades-long interest in Kafka, the art of literary adaptation, why the constraints of working with an existing story can be liberating, how to talk about controversial artists in the present moment, the various translations of K he read before commissioning his own, and challenges of his adaptation-in-progress: Heart of Darkness. We also get into his post-2016-election mindset, the discovery of his New Yorker cartoonist line, his laborious process of breaking down a comic, what his dream adaptation project is, the time he got stranded in a village in Africa by an evil guide, and much more! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

In this week's episode, I talk to Peter Kuper about Kafka, the remarkable art form of comic books, the indie comic book scene in the late 1980s, Spy Vs. Spy, finding your Muse when it leaves the marketplace, and so much more. TEXTS DISCUSSED NOTES Check out Brian Turner, Jared Silvia, recordings of Elise Kusnetz, and others in a performance of The Interplanetary Acoustic Team at the Timucua White House in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday, September 25th. Check out Kyle Eagle's impeccable new jazz podcast, The Major Scale. If you search the iTunes store, you can find it there as a free download you can and should subscribe to. Leslie Salas reviewed Peter Kuper's adaptation of The Metamorphosis for the Drunken Odyssey back in 2013. Details from Kafkaesque:

Welcome to the 21st episode of the Michigan State University Comic Art and Graphic Novel Podcast, the first episode of season #3. Below you'll find show notes and links mentioned in this episode. MSU Comics Art and Graphic Novel Minor: http://tinyurl.com/msuComicsMinor   Ryan Claytor’s Personal Website: www.ElephantEater.com  Capital City Comic-Con: www.CapCityComicCon.com   2019 MSU Comics Forum Artist Alley and Panel Discussion Submission Forms: http://comicsforum.msu.edu/forms/   2019 MSU Comics Forum Keynote Speakers: http://comicsforum.msu.edu/2018/02/24/2019-event-announcements/  Special Collections Highlight (The Rodney Ford Collection) The Rodney Ford comic strip compilations are peppered throughout the MSU Special Collections shelves: Mark Trail Strips, Rodney Ford Collection: Mark Trail Strips, Rodney Ford Collection: MSU Special Collections: https://lib.msu.edu/spc/index/  Peter Kuper New Yorker Political Cartoons: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/peter-kuper MSU Department of Art, Art History & Design website: art.msu.edu MSU Comic Art and Graphic Novel Podcast Twitter page: twitter.com/MSUComicsCast   MSU Comic Art and Graphic Novel Podcast FaceBook page: facebook.com/MSUComicsCast Contact us via our email address: MSUComicsCast[at]gmail.com

Amazing Spider-Man#799 by Dan Slott, Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Marte Gracia, MAD#1 by Al Jaffee, Tom Richmond, Sergio Aragones, Peter Kuper, Bob Fingerman, Pete Bagge, and the Usual Gang of Idiots, Judge Dredd Mega Collection Volume 80: Dark Side of the Moonby John Wagner, Brian Bolland, John Smith, Paul Marshall, Ian Gibson and more from 2000 AD and Hachette and Judge Dredd Megazine#395 featuring the Nemesis the Warlock monograph by Matthew Smith and Kevin O'Neill from Rebellion, Infinity 8#1 by Lewis Trondheim, Zep, and Dominique Bertail from Lion Forge, Deathbed#3 by Joshua Williamson, Riley Rossmo, and Ivan Plascencia from Vertigo, Doctor Star and the Kingdom of Lost Tomorrows #1 by Jeff Lemire, Max Fiumara, and Dave Stewart from Dark Horse, plus a whole mess more!

If you love the speed, contradictions, dangers and delights of Manhattan, you’ll find a lot to love in artist Peter Kuper’s new graphic collection, Drawn to New York. I only hesitate to call it a graphic novel, because it is so much more than a single comic story – or even stories – in book form.

I think the reason that many people who never read comic books find themselves drawn to graphic novels isn’t because they come in hard cover or because they cost more or because they’re hip at the moment. I think it’s because we’re more likely to find little pieces of ourselves in the stories, which are often more autobiographical than Spider-Man or Green Lantern could ever be. At least that’s the thought I kept returning to as I read through Peter Kuper’s latest graphic novel, Stop Forgetting t

This week on the review show, Andy and Derek focus on two notable titles, one that has been greatly publicized and the other that has come in under the radar. The former is Daniel Clowes's Patience (Fantagraphics), the creator's long-awaited release and his first new book since 2010's Wilson. (Mr. Wonderful and The Death-Ray, both published in 2011, had been previously published in different formats.) In fact, the guys begin by discussing the publicity and the excitement surrounding this event. While Andy tried to keep himself ignorant of the book's details before its release, Derek admits that his reading experience was initially affected by all the hype, and not in a positive way. However, both guys conclude that this is a strong narrative and one well worth reading. While much of Patience bears the Dan Clowes stamp, parts of it seem more outside of the creator's usual style. For example, even though the relationship between the protagonists is reminiscent of the interactions found in Ghost World, Daniel Boring, and Ice Haven, the fact that Clowes premises everything on time travel make this book stand out in his oeuvre. And although, as Andy points out, there's nothing really new to the time-travel subgenre presented here, Clowes does use its basic components in a compelling way. Next, the Two Guys discuss a work that was designed specifically for the classroom, Visual Storytelling: An Illustrated Reader, edited by Todd James Pierce and Ryan G. Van Cleave (Oxford University Press). This book was released late in 2015 yet hasn't received much publicity at all. While there have been other comics-related books that are designed for pedagogical use, this is the first to bring together a wide variety of primary texts specifically as a course reader. What's more, it's a book that could easily be used in rhetoric/composition and other non-comics-centric classes, as well. Pierce and Van Cleave divide their collection into seven thematic topics: identity, men and women, young adulthood, trauma, history, politics, and the arts. The comics that compose each segment, some complete short pieces and others excerpts, serve as illustrative examples of their particular theme, while at the same time potentially connecting with other thematic sections, thereby giving the collection a feeling of cohesion. The guys admire the diversity of the reader's selections, arguing that this is a much more usable book than the comics anthologies already out there. At the same time, Derek questions the editors double dipping on some contributors — Peter Kuper and Derf Backderf each have two pieces in the collection, while Gabrielle Bell has three — while Andy questions Derek's second guessing of Pierce and Van Cleave's decisions. But this is a debate that the guys always seem to have with anthologies. The bottom line is that Visual Storytelling is an exciting anthology perfect for the classroom, but it is also a collection that can be enjoyed outside of any pedagogical context.

Joe Wessely joins us as a sometime host in this episode, and we discuss The Envelope Manufacturer by Chris Oliveros, Trashed by Derf Backderf, Ruins by Peter Kuper, and Invisible Ink by Bill Griffith.

More than 30 of the year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2015 and the books they hope to get to in 2016! Guests include Derf Backderf, Anthea Bell, John Clute, Michael Dirda, Matt Farber, Jonathan Galassi, Brad Gooch, Langdon Hammer, Liz Hand, Jennifer Hayden, Ron Hogan, Dylan Horrocks, David Jaher, Kathe Koja, Jonathan Kranz, Peter Kuper, Lorenzo Mattotti, JD McClatchy, Scott McCloud, Michael Meyer, Dan Perkins (a.k.a Tom Tomorrow), Summer Pierre, Witold Rybczynski, Dmitry Samarov, Elizabeth Samet, Liesl Schillinger, Posy Simmonds, Levi Stahl, Rupert Thomson, Irvine Welsh, Warren Woodfin, Jim Woodring, Claudia Young, and me, Gil Roth! Check out their selections at our site!

Alt-comix lifer Peter Kuper joins the show to talk about his new graphic novel, RUINS (Self-Made Hero), co-creating World War 3 Illustrated, teaching at Harvard, trying to fight climate change, building your own artistic scene, being one of the only people who followed through on the "if Bush/Cheney are re-elected, I'm leaving America" pledge, and more!

For our first "unplugged" episode, we chat about Star Wars merchandise with GeekDads Gerry Tolbert and Sean Hallenbeck. We also feature an interview from this year's NYCC with John Ficarra, Mad Magazine editor-in-chief, and Spy Vs. Spy artist/author Peter Kuper.

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 the political unrest unfolding during their visit. More importantly, each one undergoes a unique journey that defines the trajectory of the life that follows. Paralleling Sam and George's experiences is the flight of a monarch butterfly as she makes her way from Canada to Oaxaca, hovering over much of the social, political, and environmental turmoil that has come to define our times. As the guys point out, this is a very politically conscious narrative, as many of Peter's comics are — see, for example, The System, his work on World War 3 Illustrated, and Diario de Oaxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico, a text that visits many of the real-life contexts underlying Ruins — but his handling of the message(s) is woven seamlessly within the fiction, never heavy-handed, preachy, or didactic. Derek and Andy also use the opportunity to talk with Peter about teaching comics art, which he does at both the School of Visual Arts and Harvard University. They also get around to asking him about some of his other works, including the wordless comic, The System, his Kafka adaptations, Stop Forgetting to Remember: The Autobiography of Walter Kurtz, and, of course, Spy vs. Spy. The guys have been big fans of Peter's work for a long time, and the publication of Ruins, perhaps one of their favorites books of the year, is the perfect opportunity to finally get him on the show.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Andy and Derek explore the worlds of hardcore cohabitation, biographical brilliance, and wood witches. They begin with Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever, the new collection from Tom Neely and friends (Microcosm Publishing). This follows Neely's original minicomic Henry & Glenn Forever and collects the four-issue miniseries published between 2013 and 2014. For those unfamiliar, this is a situational satire of metal rockers Henry Rollings and Glenn Danzig, working from the premise of their love for one another and placing their relationship in a variety of different sitcom-like scenarios. Tom Neely created the original, and more narratively substantive, stories of Henry and Glenn, but he has many of his artist friends — such as Mark Randolph, Ed Luce, Johnny Ryan, and Noah Van Sciver — contribute short pieces as well. Some stories are better than others, but the Two Guys conclude that the book as a whole is hilariously fun. Next, Derek and Andy turn to Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World, a collection of graphic biographies edited by Monte Beauchamp (Simon and Schuster). In fact, they spend a good chunk of this week's show talking about this book…and there is a lot to discuss. It's composed of sixteen short comics that present the lives of such luminaries as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Jack Kirby, Winsor McCay, Charles Schulz, Walt Disney, Osamu Tezuka, Chas Addams, Dr. Seuss, and Hergé. These biographies are written and drawn by impressive creators in their own rights, such as Nora Krug, Arnold Roth, Frank Stack, and Denis Kitchen. The guys discuss most of these biographies, but they particularly highlight two of their favorites: Peter Kuper's take on Harvey Kurtzman and Drew Friedman's look at Robert Crumb. In fact, the latter is not so much a biography of the legendary artist as much as it is a story of Friedman's experiences and relationship with Crumb. Much like Kuper's, this is more than a straight-out biography. It's a personal and even self-reflexive narrative. Finally, the Two Guys get all excited about the new series from Scott Snyder and Jock, Wytches (Image Comics). They point out that while this could have easily been a Vertigo title, Snyder is apparently wanting to try his indie chops over at Image with a new ongoing series. And he and Jock have started off impressively! What makes the first issue of Wytches so engaging is its elaborate setup and its emersion in the everyday. Both Andy and Derek mention how the world that Snyder sets up reminds them of their own childhoods and the kind of creepy wooded areas that fueled their own imaginations. They're both on board with this new title, and they hope — they expect — it to be another in Image's growing line of perennials, following the likes of The Walking Dead, Saga, and Manhattan Projects.

On this episode of The Comics Alternative Interviews, Derek and Andy talk with Chris Duffy about his new edited collection, Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics (First Second). This is a unique project, gathering a variety of poems surrounding the First World War — both canonical as well as more obscure — and translating them into comics form. The guys talk with Chris about the genesis of this project and his efforts to bring together an eclectic group of artists, including Eddie Campbell, George Pratt, Hunt Emerson, Simon Gane, Sarah Glidden, Stephen Bissette, Peter Kuper, Isabel Greenberg, Carol Tyler, and Kevin Huizenga. Andy, in particular, is excited about this exchange, because it brings together two of his scholarly interests: World War I literature and comics. The guys also ask Chris about his more general work in comics, his experiences in working with a variety of different artists, the resonance between poetry and comics, and his philosophies in adapting texts from other media. While the subject matter in Above the Dreamless Dead may be sobering, the conversation in this episode is lively and engaging, a great mix of history, literary analysis, and comics-related insights.

Every time I speak to Peter Kuper, the conversation invariably turns to New York — or, as is often the case, begins there. It’s my own fault. I’ve got this insatiable need to ask fellow residents, artists in particular, what keeps them in the city’s orbit. Kuper is a particularly interesting case study, having left the city — and country — in 2006, for a life in Mexico. It was, as one might, expect, a multifaceted decision to move his entire family down to Oaxaca, in part an attempt to expose his daughter to another language and culture — and certainly leaving the country at the height of George W. Bush’s second term was seen as a net positive for the oft political cartoonist. A few years later, the Kupers found themselves back in New York, but the experience generated, amongst other things, the lovely Diario De Oaxaca, a sketchbook diary chronicling Kuper’s time in Mexico, immersed himself in the area’s stunning counter-cultural murals. More recently, Kuper returned to the book’s publisher, PM Press, in hopes of helping to anthologize World War 3 Illustrated, the progressive comics anthology he co-founded with fellow New York cartoonist, Seth Tobocman. The process was a touch more complicated, and when we sat down to speak at the MoCCA Arts Festival back in April, the duo had recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign. Even outside the long-running anthology, Kuper’s career has long been both fascinating and diverse, from multiple Kafka adaptations and his 2007 semi-autobiographical Stop Forgetting To Remember to an on-going stint as Mad Magazine’s Spy Versus Spy artist. So, you know, plenty to talk about.

This week on The Comics Alternative, Derek and Gene put on their happy faces to review three titles concerned with the positive and uplifting sides of life. First, they go through Loïc Dauvillier and Marc Lizano's Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust (First Second), a new graphic novel focusing on genocide. A translation of the 2012 French album, L'enfant cachée, this is the story of a survivor telling her young granddaughter the traumas she underwent in 1940s France. Perhaps even more significantly, it's a story about hiding: hiding from terror, hiding who you are, hiding your experiences, and hiding from your family. Among other facets of the book, the guys focus on the possible audience assumptions with this story, how it's crafted for younger readers while at the same time having an all-age appeal. Next, they turn to Genesis (Image Comics), the new one-shot from Nathan Edmondson and Alison Sampson. Gene is uncertain about the issue, feeling that the story reaches for a deeper significance that it never really earns. Derek is a little more positive, arguing that Sampson's intriguing (and at times, surreal) art goes a long way in carrying the weight of this quasi-parable. The story has everything to do with death and destruction…much like Hidden, and much like the next title that the Two Guys review. The latest issue of World War 3 Illustrated (distributed through Top Shelf Productions), #45, is described by editors Peter Kuper and Scott Cunningham as “the death issue.” All of the 31 contributions to this anthology have something to do with death, whether it be the passing of a family member, the “death” of an idea or identity, coming to terms with the end of life, or the presence of death in art and literature. As Derek and Gene discuss, some of the most moving, and most notable, pieces in this latest issue of World War 3 Illustrated include comics by Kuper, Rosalie Lightning and Tom Hart, Hayley Gold, Seth Tobocman, Sandy Jimenez, and Kevin C. Pyle. The tone of the comics discussed in this episode may be dark or heavy, but the stories are all fascinatingly told and well worth reading.