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The Comics Journal

The original magazine of comics news,criticism, history and just plain comics.


Title Creator Publisher Series Price
The Comics Journal #301 Jim Woodring, Tim Hensley, Joe Sacco, R. Crumb and more ... Fantagraphics The Comics Journal $25.00
($30.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Two years in the making, this massive 624 page issue of the foremost periodical on all things comics is finally firmly ensconced here at Copacetic.   The lead off cover feature is an epic 170 page focus on R. Crumb's adaptation of the Book of Genesis that starts off with a 50 page interview with Crumb conducted by Gary Groth which is followed by a 120 page critical roundtable on the book by comics scholars Rick Marschall, Donald Phelps, Robert Stanley Martin, Jeet Heer, Tim Hodler, Alexander Theroux and Kenneth Smith.  Groth then moderates a lively 60 page conversation between Mad Magazine's legendary creator of the Fold-In® and Thrizzling® cartoonist Michael Kupperman, and later completes his trifecta of amazing interviews with an engrossing 50 page interview with Joe Sacco that focuses on his reportorial comics masterpiece, Footnotes in Gaza (which is also reviewed in this issue).  Chris Lanier writes on Brian Chippendale's Maggots, Warren Bernard alerts us to the large body of work created in the early 20th century by Chicago Tribune editorial cartoonist John T. McCutcheon, and Tim Krieder turns in what we will not have to go too far out on a limb to immediately declare to be what is now, surely, the definitive critical appreciation of Dave Sim's 300-issue masterwork, Cerebus.  On the art front, we have the complete Gerald McBoing Boing comics – 70 pages of full color comics lithely illustrated by UPA staffers in the early 1950s – as well as sketchbooks by Jim Woodring, Tim Hensley, and, surprisingly (bizarrely!), Stephen Dixon.  As this is the only issue of TCJ that will be available for all of 2011, we feel quite safe in saying, "If you read only one issue of The Comics Journal this year, this is the one!"
The Comics Journal #300 Kevin Huizenga, Art Spiegelman, Howrad Chaykin, Ho Che Anderson and more ... Fantagraphics The Comics Journal $12.75
($14.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		This is, reportedly, the last issue of the Journal in it's current format.  After this it will become a hybrid publication:  updated daily online with the news, reviews, and opinion pieces that have been Journal mainstays for many a decade now, and then, a semi-annually published deluxe book-like edition that sounds like it's taking its cue – at least somewhat – from Comic Art Magazine.  That said, this format is going out with a real BANG!  Its 286 pages are packed with some of the greatest comics conversations you are likely to find under one cover anywhere!  Check it out:  The ball starts rolling with a whopping 32-page exchange between none other than Art Spiegelman and Kevin Huizenga – this one alone is worth the price of admission; this is then folowed in due course by conversations between Jean-Christophe Menu and Sammy Harkham; Frank Quitely and Dave Gibbons; David Mazzucchelli and Dash Shaw; Alison Bechdel and Danica Novgorodoff; Howard Chaykin and Ho Che Anderson; Denny O'Neil and Matt Fraction; Jaime Hernandez and Zak Sally (!); Ted Rall and Matt Bors; Jim Borgman and Keith Knight; and Stan Sakai and Chris Schweizer... whew!  So what are you waiting for?  You know you can't pass this one up!
The Comics Journal #298 Trevor Von Eeden, Jiro Taniguchi, Gabrial Ba, Fabio Moon and more ... Fantagraphics The Comics Journal $10.75
($11.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		The Comics Journal #298 Fans of tell-all interviews can't afford to miss this issue's with long neglected comics ace, Trevor Von Eeden (and after you read it, we sincerely hope you spend the time and money to track down his amazing Batman Annual #8).  Also on hand this issue are interviews with Brazilian comics stars, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, as well as with Perry Bible Fellowship creator, Nicholas Gurewitch.  Then there's the sneak preview of manga maestro, Jiro Taniguchi's new multi-volume serial, A Distant Neighborhood and 32 pages of classic Skippy strips by Percy Crosby.  Yes, it's another issue of TCJ.
The Comics Journal #296 Lynda Barry, Amanda Vähämäki, David Hajdu, Dash Shaw and more ... Fantagraphics The Comics Journal $10.77
($11.99 list)
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Read more and comment... 		The Comics Journal #296 Yes, another year has past and it's time once again for the Best of the Year Issue.  Best picks from comics luminaries Kim Deitch, Lynda Barry, Anders Nilsen, John Porcellino and many others complement the Best of 2008 master list compiled out of the all picks.  This issues also features a great bunch of interviews:  Lynda Barry, Dash Shaw, Frank Quitely, David Hajdu and Mike Luckovich.  R.C. Harvey will fill you in on some great comics that made 2008 "a very good year."  There's nice full clor preview of the first book of C. Tyler's forthcoming book, You'll Never Know. And then there's a whopping 35 page comics section of fine Finnish comics, including an eleven-pager by the one and only Amanda Vähämäki that should whet your appetite for her soon to be released collection, The Bun Field, as well as reminding you that, if you haven't already, you need to get your hands on a copy of Drawn and Quarterly Showcase 5. 
The Comics Journal #292 Kim Deitch Fantagraphics The Comics Journal $11.75
($12.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Are you ready?  Do you think you can handle it?  Yes, this issue contains a mind-boggling 120-page interview -- over 100,000 words! -- with the Deitch family cartoon dynasty.  Starting off with big daddy Gene Deitch (read an excerpt here) who regales readers with tales of his storied career creating bebop illustrations, Saturday morning cartoons and Sunday newspaper comic strips, the interviews continue with underground comics legend, Kim Deitch, whose interview provides a fascinating tour of the 1960s underground comics scene, and whose interview was so long that they actually had to cut it (but the trimmings are available to read here, whew!) and his lesser known, but nevertheless talented siblings, Simon and Seth. 
The Comics Journal #288 Fantagraphics The Comics Journal $10.00
($11.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Behold! The wonder of the New Format!  Yes, it's true:  that cornerstone of the world of comics has undergone yet another make over.  This time around it has -- more or less -- been subjected to MOME-ization, in that has been shrunk to  7 1/2" x 9 1/2" (which is half way between the old Journal size and that of MOME) while seeing everything else about it upgraded to the MOME format:   stiff, glossy covers contain heavy, bright-white paperstock (except for the 44-page full color comics classics section, which is, at least this time out, appropriately printed on heavyweight cream stock), for a heftier and more solid feel, which shows TCJ following the medium in its migration from the ephemeral, rack-displayed and box-stored, magazine format, to the permanent, shelf-friendly, book format.  #288, the inaugural issue of this format, features "The Best Comics of 2007," along with interviews galore -- Paul Karasik, Bryan Talbot, Peter Kuper, Cathy Malkasian, Nick Bertozzi, and Joe Sacco interviewing Rutu Modan -- and, wonder of wonders, the comics classics section features 44 pages of that fashion illustrator turned Golden Age comics great, Tarpé Mills, the bulk of which is devoted to her greatest creation, Miss Fury!