Comics By Frédéric Coché & Tom Scioli Featuring Main Characters Who Are Short

After the break, check out the new episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell...and our new logo!

This week, the boys are going back to the shelf to take a look at The Hero's Life and Death Triumphant, but they're also checking in with the new Jack Kirby biography from Kirby expert extraordinaire Tom Scioli. It's a bunch of talking about these things! 

And...for those of you who catch the podcast on iTunes, you may already know, but here, in all its glory, is our new logo, straight from the pen of the great Tom McHenry! Check it out below!

When this podcast began back in 2012, it wasn't on a platform, and the four of us were doing it to formalize conversations we had been having in fits and starts over the course of years attending shows and poking around online. When it moved over to Libsyn, the platform that distributes it to iTunes and the like, I picked a favorite illustration from Monster Parade by Ben Catmull as the logo. And I fell in even deeper love with that image, the same way I remain in love with the image of Bert eating the baby on the side of the screen. In recent months, with the return of the podcast, there have been requests for the podcast to appear at places like Spotify, Amazon, etc--and that meant we needed a new illustration to meet some eye-rolling digital requirements that didn't exist back in 2012. So I took this opportunity to reach out to one of my favorite cartoonists, Tom McHenry, whose work these last few years has been an integral part of my ability to cope with this Internet-diseased world we live in, and depict this podcast in a way that it would reflect what it has now become: the magic that is Joe, the warm bath of cool that is Matthew Seneca, the rock solid history lessons of Chris Mautner, and my unending belief in cruelty. The image above exceeded my wildest dreams, and was one of the few things I could do to surprise three of the most important people in my life. 

To those of you who have stuck with us through this off and on podcast over the last eight years: thank you. It means the world.

Comments

[Jog]

The original Frédéric Coché quote to which I refer, in French, is: “ Si on lit de la poésie comme un roman policier, on trouvera forcément la poésie décevante...”

See: http://www.fremok.org/site.php?type=P&id=141

[LeonK]

I found the point that Tucker and Matt converged to with regards to the nature of available criticism on Jack Kirby's comics work pretty interesting. Specifically, the idea that, despite Kirby's renown, there is still a dearth of criticism that addresses his art directly and closely instead of attending to issues that spiral out of "the Kirby story" (creator-for-hire exploitation, disparity between brand ubiquity and artist recognition, concepts being read as pieces of subsequent supe-opera continuity instead of facets of the expression of their creator etc.).

Having said that, I think that Charles Hatfield's 2012 "Hand of Fire" book from University Press of Mississippi is one (lone) example of writing that fits the bill of what Matt was calling for, albeit not published within the sphere where it could hit a large audience or be printed with lavish "art book" production values. It includes close readings of examples of Kirby's art across time, addressing both its graphic and narrative qualities, as well as a discussion of Kirby's concepts and contributions to some of the genres he worked in. It's by no means exhaustive but I think it makes a good contribution to filling in the gap in thoughtful and focused analysis of Kirby that was raised as a problem in this episode.

I'm curious: have any of you guys read the Hatfield book on Kirby? If so, what'd you make of it?

[Matt Seneca]

I've been wanting to read that book since it came out, but not bad enough to proactively track down a copy. I remember enjoying some of what was written in TCJ's roundtable about it (and thinking some of it was also total nonsense). Hatfield is a good critic and it doesn't surprise me to hear his book is a worthwhile one. I can think of way worse people to bear the weight of being the only legitimately critical commentator on Kirby in the bookstore market. Now if only I could find a copy....

[Tucker Stone]

I do have a fondness for that book and its attempts to grapple with Kirby's work outside of what have become the more standard methods of engaging with him. It's also got a little more style to it than most of the university press comics books that are released, although it's not exempt from criticism on that front either. I think that it would be a great book to return to after Matt has had a chance to read it--I wish I had brought it up on the episode, but i tend to black out all academic writing about comics.