#the comics journal

[zegas]

My exit interview is now live! TCJ continues to be the premiere institution of comics criticism, and it's been personally influential since I discovered it ages ago. You know this is huge for me.

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Magazines - The Comics Journal (Sept2003)

[vertigoartgore]

1979's The Comics Journal #50 cover by artist Dennis Fujitake.

[ungoliantschilde]

the Comics Journal # 70, by Frank Miller.

[comicarthistory]

Anything Goes! #4 cover. 1986. Art by George Perez.

[crisisofinfinitemultiverses]

by Kevin O'Neill for The Comics Journal (2022)

[goldkeycomics]

No.1 comic find of 2025 [already]

[bclaymoore]

Jim Aparo ADVENTURE COMICS covers featuring the Spectre.

For a brief time in the mid-70s, Aparo worked with writer Michael Fleisher on a series of ultra-violent Spectre stories that sparked some controversy, and ultimately helped lead to a multi-millionaire lawsuit by Fleisher against author Harlan Ellison and Gary Groth's THE COMICS JOURNAL.

[omercifulheaves]

Frank Miller's variant covers for Ronin Book Two.

And here's a great little write up by Tegan O'Neil at The Comics Journal about the original and it's sequel.

[tomoleary]

Joe Kubert - The Comics Journal No. 85 cover of Robert Kanigher (October 1983) Source

[beyondthespheres]

In case you were wondering, what my favorite comics in 2023 were

[zegas]

Come for the Kevin Nowlan cover, stay for the great & awkward panel by Gary Groth, Gil Kane, Howard Chaykin, and Walter Simonson:

GROTH: Mainstream comics are juvenile trash, recycled pap. Artists should do better

KANE: The art’s where the value lies but the stories are still subliterate. It’s the publishers’ fault. They should do better

CHAYKIN: I fall in between you two

SIMONSON: I’m sitting right here, guys

For the record, I’m into what everyone’s saying. Groth as a critic (and competitor) posits diversity in style & ideas; that has played out over time. Kane as a self-critical artist demands the same values of his peers. Chaykin’s American Flagg! leads the charge of making quality product. Simonson had every right to sound as defensive as he did. He was just a dude making a living by writing & drawing THOR. The subject of values seemed too broad to tackle in an hour, especially with one panelist maybe feeling attacked.

All in all, file under: Essential Reading

[disneyweirdness]

[vertigoartgore]

1984's Comics Journal #93 cover by Stephen Bissette (penciller) and John Totleben (painter).

[pulpsandcomics2]

The Comics Journal #69 December 1981

[smashpages]

One of cartoonist Joe Sacco’s earliest works was Palestine, a nonfiction graphic novel about the two months he spent in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the early 1990s. During that time, he interviewed hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis about their daily lives and the ongoing plight of the Palestinians.

The current conflict between Israel and Hamas has brought renewed interest in Palestine and Sacco’s work in general, and as a result, his publisher has announced not only a reissue of the original graphic novel, but also a series of webcomics that are currently running on The Comics Journal website.

Read more