THE COMICS JOURNAL TP (2025)

"Brian K. Vaughan, writer of Y: The Last Man, will take readers behind the scenes of the upcoming Y film, TV's Lost, his award-winning comic Pride of Baghdad and the politics that infuse his WildStorm series Deus Ex Machina, as well as his upcoming comics projects. Paul Karasik chats with Italian cartoonist Gipi about his Santa Maria video and animation studio, They Found the Car, Garage Band and Notes for a War Story. Visions of sugarplums and other holiday themes dance through the heads of comic-book and strip cartoonists in a special gallery drawn from 30 years of personalized Christmas cards."

"Edited by Gary Groth, Mike Dean & Kristy Valenti SC, 7.5 x 9.5, 200 pages, FC, $11.99 Our annual Best-of the-Year issue, featuring interviews with the best cartoonists of the year about their work. Plus, TCJ explores the international comics scene with a sampling of edgy works by contemporary Finnish cartoonists that have never before been published in English."

"TCJ #297 contains a career-spanning interview with Mort Walker, the creator of the long-running comic strips Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois. Graphic designer, editor and cartoonist Jordan Crane discusses his groundbreaking anthology NON, his internationally acclaimed all-ages graphic novel The Clouds Above and his Uptight series. Plus: An essay and comics gallery focusing on the work of the famous 17th-century caricaturist Thomas K. Rowlandson."

"In The Comics Journal #298, the multiple-Eisner-Award-winning Brazilian twins Gabriel Bá and Fabio Moon tell us about working together on graphic novels such as DeTales and Ursula and the anthology 5, as well as collaborating with My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way on Umbrella Academy, Joss Whedon on Sugarshock and Matt Fraction on Casanova. Perry Bible Fellowship creator Nicholas Gurewitch gives us the scoop on his BBC television pilot based on the strip, why he semi-retired the comic after its phenomenal success on the Web and in alt-weeklies and collections, and what it's like to achieve that level of fame by the age of 25."

"Edited: Gary Groth, Various Art: Various Cover: n/a In TCJ #299, The Pirate and the Mouse author Bob Levin tracks down the El Dorado of comics, a lost collection of unpublished strips by 190 of the world's most important cartoonists, including Will Eisner, Vaughn Bodé, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Art Spiegelman, Arnold Roth, Bill Griffith, Ralph Steadman, Don Martin, Gahan Wilson, Jeff Jones, Guido Crepax - even William Burroughs, Tom Wolfe and Frank Zappa! The comics were assembled in the 1970s by Michel Choquette (creator with Neal Adams of National Lampoon's Son o' God comics) for a book called Someday Funnies, which never saw print. Levin and Choquette reveal for the first time the whole catastrophic story of what might have been the comics anthology of the century. Plus: Pearls Before Swine creator and 2007 Reuben Cartoonist of the Year Stephan Pastis talks about his popular newspaper strip, making a living on the funny pages and working for Peanuts."

"edited by Gary Groth, Mike Dean & Kristy Valenti A spectacular anniversary issue featuring intergenerational dialogues between alt wiz Kevin Huizenga and reigning Maus king Art Spiegelman; indy comics publisher/cartoonist/musician Zak Sally and Love & Rockets co-creator Jaime Hernandez; Bottomless Belly Button auteur Dash Shaw and Asterios Polyp elder auteur David Mazzucchelli; inflammatory muckraker Ted Rall and editorial cartoonist Matt Bors; super-popular Zits! cartoonist Jim Borgman and newly syndicated Keith 'Knight Life' Knight; comics artist/teachers Joe Kubert and Steve Bissette; Martin Luther King chronicler Ho Che Anderson and American Flagg! creator Howard Chaykin. And much, much more... "

" Edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean & Kristy Valenti The Comics Journal has been, for over 30 years, the standard bearer of critical inquiry, discrimination, debate, and serious discussion of comics as art. TCJ provides its readers with an eclectic mix of journalism, commentary, interviews, reprints of classic comics and newspaper strips, historical essays, and reviews of contemporary work on a regular basis. Previously published as a bi-monthly magazine, The Comics Journal has adapted to the digital revolution by expanding its size, and recasting itself as a semi-annual book. Not only will it feature intellectually stimulating content - Gary Groth interviews The Book of Genesis Illustrated's R. Crumb, who also participates in a discussion with Biblical and comics commentators about the Bible and his Genesis adaptation; the art form's top cartoonists collaborate on an exclusive 'exquisite corpse' graphic novel; Joe Sacco talks politics and comics in a critical roundtable on his Footnotes in Gaza; Tim Kreider climbs the mountain that is the work and mind of Cerebus-creator Dave Sim; and much more - it will be designed as an objet d'art, designed by Eisner-Award-nominee Adam Grano. "

"This 600+ page edition features long interviews with Maurice Sendak, French graphic novel pioneer Jacques Tardi, Art Spiegelman hosting a critical forum on classic kids' comics and a roundtable with Robert Williams, Joe Coleman, Marc Bell, and Esther Pearl Watson about fine art and comics. Plus: 'How to Draw Buz Sawyer' by Roy Crane, comics by Lewis Trondheim, Tim Kreider on Chester Brown, a new 18-page satirical comic by Joe Sacco and a visual gallery of proto-comics. And more. The Comics Journal has been the world's foremost critical magazine about comics for 37 years and is now more vital than ever."

"The most award-winning, internationally acclaimed comics and graphic novel magazine in the medium's history returns to print! The Comics Journal, which is renowned for its in-depth interviews, comics criticism, and thought-provoking editorials, features Gary Groth in frank and often hilarious discussion with the satirist and children's book author Tomi Ungerer. Ungerer talks about the entire trajectory of his life and career: growing up in France during the Nazi occupation, creating controversial work, being blacklisted as a children's book author due to a backlash against his erotica. This issue, the first in its new twice-a-year format, covers the 'new mainstream' in American comics - how the marketplace and overall perception of the medium has drastically shifted since the 'graphic novel boom' of the early 2000s and massive hits like Persepolis, Fun Home, and Smile. It also includes sketchbook pages from French-born cartoonist Antoine Cossé, an introduction to homoerotic gag cartoons out of the U.S. Navy, Your Black Friend cartoonist Ben Passmore's examination of the role art and comics have in gentrification, a reconsideration of the comics canon by Eisner Award-winner Dr. Sheena C. Howard, and more."

"The Comics Journal #304 features a conversation with Simon Hanselmann, who discusses how his webcomic became an internationally acclaimed phenomenon. This issue also highlights labor and economics issues facing the medium plus a look at the unfinished graphic novel that Geoffrey Hayes was working on before his untimely death in 2017. Also, a peak inside the sketchbook of Sophie Franz, new work by Brazilian cartoonist Laura Lannes and a reconsideration of the comics canon by Shaenon K. Garrity. And more!"

"The Comics Journal #305 will shine a light on how the livelihood and artwork created by cartoonists is affected by chronic disease, disability, and our nation's health care system. This issue also features a hand-printed 'zine created in 1967 by the SNCC and the Black Panther Party reporting about a black community in Alabama that attempted to take back their voting rights in their local elections. There is also a profile on cartoonist Kevin Huizenga (Ganges) that asks the question: After you've finished your magnum opus, now what?"

"This issue features a major interview with Roz Chast, (Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?) plus a focus on the intersections between comics and politics, a meditation on Dilbert creator Scott Adams, a piece about African American political cartoonist Daisy Scott, a gallery of John Pound's code-generated comics, a selection of Spider-Gwen artist Chris Vision's sketchbook pages and more."

In addition to this issue's featured interview Cathy Malkasian, MLK graphic biographer Ho Che Anderson shares his animation storyboards, and Anya Davidson talks to Sally Cruikshank about how the underground comics movement influenced the latter's aesthetic in a career that encompasses indie shorts and Flash animation, as well as work for feature film credits and Sesame Street. Other features include: Jem and the Holograms cartoon creator Christy Marx talks about the behind-the-scenes advantages and disadvantages of both art forms, and Ben Sears (Midnight Gospel) contributes an unpublished comic. Plus! Sketchbook art by Vanesa Del Rey (Black Widow), an interview with Amazon warehouse worker-turned-cartoonist Ness Garza, Paul Karasik's essay on an unseen gem, and much more. For over 45 years, no magazine has contributed more to chronicling the continuum of the comic arts with more rigor and passion than The Comics Journal.

This issue of the award-winning magazine focuses on the intersections of comics and activism: Gary Groth interviews editorial cartoonist Pia Guerra (Y: The Last Man), Civil Rights activists talk about the creation of the Black Panther Party symbol and their tactics to battle voter suppression, and much more. In this issue, Gary Groth conducts a career-spanning interview with Y: The Last Man comics artist Pia Guerra about her turn to editorial cartooning and future projects. John Jennings explores the vision behind the graphic imprint Megascope, devoted to "rediscovering powerful speculative work by and about people of color." Jennie S. Law interviews Civil Rights activists Jennifer Lawson and Courtland Cox about their ingenious strategies - comics pamphlets about gaining political power, going undercover, mass meetings - to register voters in Lowndes County circa 1965. Nicknamed "Bloody Lowndes," 80% of its population was Black, and only two Black people were registered to vote. Also: a gallery of Frank Leet's one-panel cartoons illustrating Don Marquis's (Archy and Mehitabel) verse, a conversation with Alex Graham about self-publishing a 400-page graphic novel, a Rob Guillory (Chew, Farmhand) sketchbook, an original comic by Meg O'Shea, and more.

From the trenches of independent/small press comics publishing, two art comics publishers talk - Gary Groth (Fantagraphics) interviews Annie Koyama (Koyama Press). This issue of the award winning magazine focuses on international small press comics publishing and distribution. A civilized conversation between two North American advocates of comics as art and publishing as an avocation. An interview with Koyoma Press publisher Annie Koyoma by Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth leads into The Comics Journal #309's focus on international small press comics publishing and distribution. John Porcellino, the King Cat of zines and carefully observed autobio comics, speaks to Inés Estrada, cartoonist (Alienation) and publisher/distributor of comics and zines in Mexico. Also: a gallery of Henriette Valium's work, from his drawing table at the time of his passing. Cartoonist (Beta Testing the Ongoing Apocalypse) and publisher (Uncivilized Press) Tom Kascynski debates comics critic Alin Rautoiu about crypto and comics. And: a biography/ gallery of Sharon Smith and her classic comic strip, Button 'n' Beax; a brand-new comic from Betty Kim; a deep dive into Nick Drnaso's oeuvre; a deconstruction of the Image comics aesthetic; a spotlight on cartoonist Hyena Hell; the debut of two new columns focusing on new and classic manga, avant-garde European comics, and much, much more.

Multimedia artist and satirist Gerald Scarfe, best known globally for his Pink Floyd's The Wall and Disney's Hercules iconography, talks to Gary Groth about his scabrous film, TV, and comics career, spanning 60+ years. Also: in-depth journalism covering Bill Jemas' vice presidency and the creation of the Marvel Ultimates Universe during the wild last days of pre-movie monolith Marvel, when Ike Perlmutter roamed the halls; art-comics creators Aidan Koch and Lale Westvind in conversation; plus, original comics, archival material, and more.

This issue features an in-depth, personal conversation between Kate Beaton and Sarah Glidden about depicting history, humor, and social issues in comics form; a profile of Gilbert Shelton; an interview with musician and cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis and much more. Featured in this issue: An in-depth, personal conversation between Kate Beaton (Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Hark! A Vagrant) and Sarah Glidden (Rolling Blackouts), from the Pizza Island comics collective, about depicting history, humor, and social issues in comics form; a profile of Gilbert Shelton (Zap, Fabulous Furry Freak Bros.), which includes a never-before-published-in-English "Shelton Hagiography" by French cartoonist Pic; and an interview with musician and cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis (12 Crass Songs, Fuff). Plus: "An Imaginary Publication Cover Gallery" by Marc Bell (Hot Potatoe); a new manga column that puts classic and contemporary manga (Kamen Rider and Hunter X Hunter) in concert; a publishing roundtable on how to grow the adult audience for comics; a deep dive into an underdiscussed Charlton cartoonist, Enrique Nieto; a case for fine artist Dorothy Iannone's work as comics, and much more.