Comics Alternative Podcast 81: Hidden, Genesis, World War 3 Illustrated #45

Click here to listen, and for show notes!

On this episode of The Comics Alternative, Derek Royal and I review Hidden (Loïc Dauviller, Marc Lizano, and Greg Salsedo; First Second Books), Genesis (Nathan Edmondson, Alison Sampson, and Jason Wordie; Image Comics); and World War 3 Illustrated #45: Before and After (ed. Peter Kuper and Scott Cunningham; distributed by Top Shelf - still!). From a child's story of the Holocaust, to a SF meditation on the power of creation, to a socially conscious anthology about death, we've got you covered!

As always, click the link above to stream the episode, or you can subscribe via iTunes.

Comics Alternative Interview: Shannon Wheeler

Click here to listen, and for show notes!

On this episode of The Comics Alternative, Derek Royal and I have the pleasure of interviewing cartoonist Shannon Wheeler. Previously best known for his not-so-super hero Too Much Coffee Man, today Shannon is everywhere, from his one-shot Astounding Villain House (published by Dark Horse) to his cartoons for the Bible re-telling God is Disappointed in You (written by Mark Russell; from Top Shelf) to his cartoons in The New Yorker - out-takes from which are collected in I Thought You Would be Funnier, I Told You So, and I Don't Get It (Boom Town).

Derek and I had a blast speaking with Shannon - so much so that we all kept talking well after the recording had stopped. Unfortunately, you won't get to hear our plans for world comedy domination in the podcast itself, but you will hear about the widely varied career of a genuinely funny man.

As always, click the link above to stream the episode, or you can subscribe via iTunes.

Where I'll Be: Neil Hellman Library at The College of Saint Rose, April 9

Tomorrow evening I'll be speaking about my work with comics to students at The College of Saint Rose's Neil Hellman Library here in Albany, NY. I was invited to the event by librarian Kate Moss, after an introduction by my friend Kelly Meyer who also works at Saint Rose.

I'll be discussing the various research and other work I've done with comics, and also the types of comics which interest me (basically, all kinds!); but really, I'm most looking forward to talking with the students and seeing what their interests are. Kate tells me that she's heard a lot of enthusiasm for comics among the students there.

Also appearing will local cartoonist John Hebert, who was added to the program after this poster was already created. It's a small venue, so it's not really open to the general public. But who knows, this may be the start of more comics-related programming at the college!

- Poster by Jacqui Hopely, a colleague and friend of mine who also works at the Neil Hellman Library!

Tales from the Green Scrapbook #6: Captain America in TV Guide, 1979

In this installment of our once-in-a-great-while series, Tales from the Green Scrabook (featuring scans of items I taped into an old notebook when I was a child), we have TV Guide ads from the 1979 made-for-television Captain America movies. If you're looking for any sort of fidelity to the original comic book source material, just move along - there's nothing to see here.

IMDB helpfully summarizes Cap's origin from the first movie (broadcast January 19, 1979):

When a commercial artist is almost murdered by spies looking for his late father's secrets, he is saved in surgery when the FLAG formula is injected into him.

Uh huh. And that uniform is, how shall we say, non-standard.

Apparently, the super-steroids created by Steve Rogers' father enable him to jump just like Wonder Woman did on her television series...


Things got a little better in Captain America II (helpfully subtitled on home video as "Death Too Soon"), broadcast on November 23 of the same year, if only because they got the costume nearly right this time, and because Christopher Lee can't help but add a touch of class.

Dig those action-packed opening credits!


OK, I did say that things got only a little better...

If anyone knows who illustrated these TV Guide ads, I'd love to hear from you.