As you might expect from an artist who uses a pseudonym, Pierre La Police prefers to let his work speak for itself. And he’s got an impressively varied body of work to do the talking for him: Since starting out in the indie arts scene in France in the 1990s, La Police has made paintings, video installations, sculptures, as well as some of the most hilariously absurd comics I’ve ever encountered.  When I first came across La Police’s work, in the form of his comics series Masters of the Nefarious (Les Praticiens de L’Infernel in French), I was thoroughly impressed by his command of tone a ..read more

Changes afoot at TCJ this week, more on which can be read in this week’s links, below, but our collective perception of time remains a reassuring and/or terrifying constant, and so the upcoming weekend also brings with it the latest iterations of Free Comic Book Day, World Press Freedom Day, and Cinco de Mayo - one or more of which may also be mentioned below. poster I did for the NYU Game Center's spring showcase! pic.twitter.com/d9esMj128Q — SAJAN (@planetsmudge) April 30, 2024 This week’s news. • Making our way back into the courtroom this week, as a group of artists, including Sarah ..read more

  A Don Wright cartoon from 1969. Ted Rall never knew Don Wright. But like so many political cartoonists, he was touched by his work. “He was a defining liberal artist for the last few decades of the 20th century,” Rall, a veteran political cartoonist whose work has appeared at such outlets as Forbes, PennLive in Harrisburg, Pa., and the Daily Beast, told The Comics Journal. “Don's cartoons were consistently passionate without succumbing to blind rage … an example for the rest of us,” Rall said. Wright, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, who spent years skewering the powerful in the pages ..read more

  Hello all, welcome and thank you for joining us on this latest junket of the Comics Journal website. As you might already know, we are Chris Mautner and Sally Madden, the site’s new editors, taking the reins from Joe McCulloch who has left the world of comics to pursue an exciting career in absolutely none of your business. Ever since we first agreed to come on board as the new editors, we’ve been fielding questions from colleagues about our grand visions for the site (to keep it running), what we might change (the masthead), what we might keep (again, the site running), who is in charg ..read more

James Spooner is probably best known for Afropunk (2003), a documentary that explores what it means to be Black and a punk. This graphic memoir provides the background for how Spooner came to punk in the first place, focusing on his time in Apple Valley, California, a place not known for either punk rock or racial diversity. It also explores how he came to see punk as more than music or rebellion, but as a movement that believes in something beyond itself, even while he begins to understand the shortcomings of the people involved, including himself. ​Spooner’s childhood was rootless, as his p ..read more

I can see now why monarchs wait to die; an orderly transfer of power is a lot of damn work. In January of this year, preparations began at my suggestion for the arrival of a new editorial team. The fact is, I need to return to my own projects. With the assent of Tucker Stone, who has been on sabbatical, and the support of the editors of the print Journal, it was decided that the present era would conclude entirely, with two new editors selected. In fact, you have already seen some of their work at the site, as these are tasks that cannot rely only on theory; beginning tomorrow, they will forma ..read more

Jay Stephens, in a graveyard on Manitoulin Island (photo by John Stephens). All artwork throughout this interview by Stephens, unless otherwise noted. Jay Stephens has been around since the early ‘90s, when he burst on the indie comics scene, contributing to Reactor Girl, and his own anthology Sin (both for Tragedy Strikes Press). His success there led to animation, where he created the series Tutenstein and The Secret Saturdays (for Discovery Kids and Cartoon Network respectively). But his time in Hollywood took a personal toll, and he quit everything to put his life back together, taking a j ..read more

We find ourselves landed firmly in the middle of the uneasy, murky no-man’s land  between Record Store Day and Free Comic Book Day, two holidays devoted to mercantilism and the collectionist mindset, and so what better way to pass the time than to pore over the mint-in-box selection of this week’s links, below. A N N I H I L U S (all-brush inking, rare for me) (Kirby design) pic.twitter.com/4Ulqqz5jWa — Michel Fiffe (@MichelFiffe) April 23, 2024 This week’s news. • Starting the week with reports out of Tehran that cartoonist Atena Farghadani has been arrested and beaten by agents o ..read more

From Ronin Book II #4 (Aug. 2023); written & drawn by Frank Miller, inked & toned by Daniel Henriques, lettered by John Workman. Please note: Ronin Book II is presented entirely in the form of double-page spreads. All art sampled in this article should be considered 'details' from those spreads. It has of recent days fallen in my way to revisit the pages of Frank Miller’s Ronin, both the influential original and the freshly minted sequel. The former was printed over the course of a year, bridging the spring of 1983 and 1984, with the latter from November of 2022 through to late winter ..read more

Trina Robbins was larger than life, a force of nature whose impact on comics, on feminism, and on social movements spanned generations.   Her works inspired dozens of historians, hundreds of comic creators, and millions of readers. Presented here is a selection of tributes shared by scholars, artists, and friends, including some of the people who knew Trina best. All photos courtesy of Casey Robbins and all art by Trina Robbins unless otherwise noted. Lee Marrs (cartoonist) I first met Trina when I hired her to do the Panthea series for Alternative Features Service in 1971. The seri ..read more