Collaborative creation in the realm of comics is par for the course—especially superhero comics. Some household famed collaborations include, for instance: Kane and Finger; Siegel and Shuster; Ennis and Dillon; Lee and Ditko; Lee and Kirby; Wolfman and Pérez; Claremont and Byrne; Miller and Varley; Bendis and Sara Pichelli; Adams and O’Neil; Moore and…
Anatomy of a Panel: Rina Ayuyang BLAME(s) IT ON THE BOOGIE
Right out of the gate, let me say that Ignatz and Eisner Award-nominated Rina Ayuyang’s comics have me thinking a lot about movement and comics. Comics as movement: within the panel and between panels and page flips. Movement in content: all those physical and psychological emplotments. Movement within and across identities exquisitely shaped by creators…
Anatomy of a Panel: Søren Mosdal Paints a Picture of BASQUIAT
Comics artist, graphic novelist, and illustrator Søren Mosdal has been innovating at the heart of Danish comics since the turn of the 21st century. With Denmark’s comics scene historically gravitating toward comics for kids or satirical editorials, Søren’s work in Danish newspapers and magazines like Zoe, Euroman, and KBH in the late 1990s and early…
Anatomy of a Panel: Alex Sanchez Brings YOU BROUGHT ME THE OCEAN
Comics history is intermedial, seeing its evolution as a journey of creative cross-pollinations with stage, photographic, musical, film, animation, radio, and long and short form prose narrative arts. Along with this history, there have been notable creator cross-overs and bi-directional cross-flows. From comics to long form narrative fiction we have notables like Stan Lee, Alan…
Anatomy of a Panel: LA VOZ De M.A.Y.O. TATA RAMBO with Barajas and Gonzo
In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s an off-the-hook force of nature in the comics ecosphere: writer Henry Barajas and illustrator J. Gonzo. With Henry, think: razor-sharp instinct of a Joan Didion blended with the street-level acuity of a Carlos Monsiváis and the reportage panache of a Jorgé Ramos. With Gonzo, think: dynamism of Kirby, ligne…
Anatomy of a Panel: David F. Walker and BITTER ROOT
To say that David Walker is a creative super-force of nature would be an understatement. Prodigious author of award-winning comics. Author of widely acclaimed YA and adult fiction. Writer of incisive pop cultural criticism and journalistic scholarship. Maker of documentary films. Passionate and dedicated professor across all the storytelling arts at Portland State University. It’s…
Anatomy of a Panel: John Jennings, Damian Duffy, and PARABLE OF THE SOWER
Extraordinary comics creators in their own right, when joining forces the inestimable John Jennings (artist) and Damian Duffy (writer/letterer) pull off the superheroic. For over a decade, this virtuoso dynamic duo have channeled their co-creative talents into radical revolutionizing of the comics scene. Already in 2008, they pushed the art of comic book storytelling beyond…
Anatomy of a Panel: Jaime Hernandez’s TONTA
In the comics world and beyond, Jaime Hernandez needs no introduction. However, his place in the radical revolution of comics — mainstream and Indy — does merit some review. In 1982, Fantagraphics published (64-pages in magazine size) Jaime and his bro Beto’s Love and Rockets. Together they showed the comics world a radically new aesthetic,…
Anatomy of a Panel: Ezra Claytan Daniels and UPGRADE SOUL
Ezra Claytan Daniels is comics creation in the 21st-century. From his self-published debut sci-fi comic The Changers and his mini comic Are You At Risk for Empathy Myopia? to his Upgrade Soul and his cocreations BTTM FDRS (with Ben Passmore) and the Afrofuturist animation The Golden Chain (with Adebukola Bodunrin), Ezra has been redefining the…
Anatomy of a Panel: Ho Che Anderson and GODHEAD
From his erotic I Want to Be Your Dog (1990) as well as the masterfully braided narratives that make up Pop Life (1998) and Young Hoods in Love (1995) to his extraordinarily kinetic, hard-hitting three volume biography of King (1993-2002; 2010), genre bending Scream Queen (2005), and sci-fi existentialist extravaganza, Godhead (2018), since the early 1990s, Toronto based comics…