Podcast 74 - Southern Gothic

In which our heroes find quite a lot to say about a genre that barely exists in comics.

Southern gothic persists as a genre in all other mediums, so why is that deliciously swampy style so under-represented in comics? An investigation brought to you by big words, a fetish for Spanish moss, and that half-glimpsed face at the window of the ol' plantation house.

We talked about:

• Iceman - Sina Grace and Alessandro Vitti
• Winnebago Graveyard - Steve Niles, Alison Sampson, Stephane Paitreau
• The Unsound - Cullen Bunn, Jack T. Cole
• Grass Kings - Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins
• The Stone Heart (Nameless City Vol.2) - Faith Erin Hicks, Jordie Bellaire
• Bulletproof Coffin: The 1000 Yard Stare - Shaky Kane and David Hine
• Godshaper - Si Spurrier and Jonas Goonface
• Black Hammer - Jeff lemire and Dean Ormston
• Harrow County - Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
• Will O' The Wisp - Tom Hammock and Megan Hutchinson
• Swamp Thing - Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette et al
• Wet Moon - Sophie Campbell

Apologies for the occasional spurt of someone else's voice on the background of this one. Some people just don't know how to use their indoor voice.

Have we missed something obvious? Tell us in the comments so we can read it because looking forward to Snagglepuss is a sad state of affairs.

Podcast 71 - More Comics By Women

Y'know that shade over half the population who make about ten percent of Big Two comics, probably about half of the rest, and whose work gets about five percent of the attention? Yeah, those folks: women?

You remember women, right - the ones who don't get to say "I done made a comic" without some internet dickdribble making death threats.

In the spirit of celebrating great work (and of not being that guy), this week we're spotlighting a bunch of comics with female creators. 

Why not by men? Because we're PC-brigade, anti-man, white genocide committing, safe-space loving, freedom-hating liberal fascists, of course! Also because fuck you and your barely-veiled misogyny. 

Now shut up and read these lovely comics.

(We're sorry about the faint background church bells in this episode. If you like, you can think of it as an elaborate performance metaphor about patriarchal religion ruining everything? But mainly, the church down the road would not shut up for about an hour.)

We covered:

• Space Battle Lunchtime - Natalie Riess
• Silvia Carrus' web comics
• Princess Princess Ever After - Katie O’Neill
• Otherworld Barbara - Moto Hagio
• Power Ballad - Molly Brooks 
• Marie Enger's web comics
• Carta Monir:
  • Ghost Call
  • Don’t Wanna Close my Eyes
  • Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
    • If Only Once, If Only for a Little While
    • Unkind+Unwell
    • Amarinthine
    • Hallie Daggett (biography)
    • Phylum
    • Aphton Corbin:
      • Paper bag test
      • Day 27
      • Tillie Walden:
        • On a Sunbeam
        • The End of Summer
        • Skim - Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki
        • Drama - Raina Telgemeier 
        • The Nameless City - Faith Erin Hicks
        • Livestock (preview) buy it here - Hannah Berry
        • Jogging - Anna F Hallstrom
        • Greasy's Guide to Nookie & Fairytales for Bad Bitches - Comic Book Slumber Party

Moar Comics!

Some of the lists we used as starting points:

• 10 female cartoonists you need to know (2017) - Zainab Akhtar 
• 10 female cartoonists you need to know (2016) - Zainab Akhtar 
• #VisibleWomen - Kelly Sue DeConnick's hashtag thread
• Comics about women, by women - Comics Alliance

Obviously we've missed stuff, and this skews web/current. What else y'all got?

Podcast 67 - Best Comics 0f 2016

Hot dang folks, it's the end of the year, and that means Best Of lists. We're no exception to this cheap and easy content format, but we will at least give some lucky scamp a prize of each of our picks for the best comics this year.

Our spoilery results way below, hidden beneath this very professional advert for  affordable bookkeeping:

Problem Chimp Will Count For You

(Not an official Problem Chimp Enterprises advert, but I do work in marketing, so, y'know. Sorry.)

Each of Our Top Three Books:

• AD: After Death #1 - Scott Snyder and  Jeff lemire
• For The Love Of God, Marie - Jade Sarson
• The Nameless City - Faith Erin Hicks and Jordie Bellaire
• Rolling Blackouts - Sarah Glidden
• Unsounded - Ashley Cope
• March #3 - John Lewis, Nate Powell, Andrew Aydin
• Vision - Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire
• Plutona - Jeff Lemire, Emi Lennox, Jordie Bellaire
• 5000 KM Per Second - Manuele Fior

Still Good:

• Saga - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• Paper Girls - Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson
• Trees - Warren Ellis and Jason Howard
• Southern Bastards - Jason Aaron and Jason Latour
• Empty Zone - Jason Shawn Alexander
• Doctor Fate - Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew
• Giant Days - John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin
• Harrow County - Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
• Sixth Gun - Cullen Bunn and Bryan Hurtt
• Squirrel Girl - Ryan North and Erica Henderson
• Doctor Strange - Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo
• Injection - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• Monstress - Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
• Check Please - Ngozi Ukazu

And also:

• Broken Frontier Anthology - Various
• The Spire - Simon Spurrier, Jeff Stokely, André May
• The Can Opener’s Daughter - Rob Williams