Issue #50, part 1: Alex de Campi

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Welcome, lovely listeners and Precious Patrons of Pulp Pamphlet Parlay, to what may likely end up being part 1 of Issue 50 of Comics Squee. Each podcast our panelists, astride mighty battle pugs, discuss the comic books, graphic novels, and general sequential art geekery that excites them.

Taking the revolving 4th chair this issue is our guest, comics creator, writer of Archie meets Predator, and frequent guest of The Squee, Alex de Campi

In this issue of Comics Squee we have: twins adventures, a super cousin on the CW, a silent comic, killing kill kill, and a pair of books by the creator of Earthworm Jim

1. Chriss: Above the Clouds by Melissa Pagluica(starts at 00:02:17.667)

   his is a gorgeous indie comic that Chriss discovered at SDCC 2015. Above the Clouds is a silent comic and it’s very pretty and has a soft watercolor style that sucked her in. It’s set in what looks like Scotland. The main character gets a book from a friend, and the comic silent except for when she’s reading that book – which is about people who live in the clouds until a dragon destroys their home. And the main character is trying to get her friend to finish the story.

   It’s ongoing and you can find it at www.atcloudscomic.com/

2. Dave: Gravity Falls TV show (starts at 00:07:09.833)

   It is all kinds of amazing. An adventure story set in a podunk, fictional town of Gravity Falls in Oregon. Lots of weird stuff happens. The series, which is two seasons, take place over the course of one summer for the kids as they investigate weird happenings.

   It’s an awesome animated show with underpinnings of Lovecraftian things going on.

   Gravity Falls is like if the guys from Welcome to Nightvale decided to adopt Courtney Crumerin.

   The show is rated Y7 and is for kids, but it has a lot going on. Like, there’s a cypher at the end of every credit sequence to challenge the kids. And there are things that continue through the whole series.

   • 2a) Tangent 1: Origns of jumping the shark (starts at 00:10:54.500)
   • 2b) Tangent 2: Anime Modika Magica (starts at 00:10:54.500)
   • 2c) Tangent 3: Courtney Crumerin and the noseless valley (starts at 00:12:47.333)

3. Alex de Campi: Kill or Be Killed by Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (art) and Bettie Breitweiser (colors)(starts at 00:15:52.333)

   Alex has long been a fran of Ed Brubaker’s work and of Bettie Breitweiser’s coloring (for her money one of the top 3 colorists in comics right now). They put out a new thing with Sean Phillips on art called Kill or Be Killed from Image.

   Ed Brubaker writes a lot of thriller and noir. And honestly it’s better going in if you know as little as possible so you’ll enjoy it more as the story reveals itself.

   It is noir book with a supernatural element to it. And there is an unreliable narrator and a time scale that jumps around a bit. It’s more about discovery about the world.

   Kill or Be Killed feels very fresh, and Alex is always there for Phillips’ line art and Bettie Breitweiser’s colors (which are just masterfull).

   It’s three masters of the genre collaborating together and we would urge you to just pick it up and go along for the ride.

   • 3a) Tangent 4: Working in the arts is hard work (starts at 00:19:35.333)
   • 3b) Tangent 5: Fatale by Ed Brubaker (starts at 00:21:58.000)
   • 3c) Tangent 6: The founding of the concept of Nirvana (starts at 00:22:35.500)
   • 3d) Tangent 7: Not judging for not backing Kickstarters (starts at 00:23:22.833)
   • 3e) Tangent 8: Nickle and diming your way to success in the creative arts (starts at 00:24:06.833)

4. John: Supergirl TV show (starts at 00:25:31.667)

   Supergirl is fantastic and fun. This version of her, John would describe as a coming out story. Kara has been hiding and not using her powers because that’s what her foster parents wanted. She was sent to Earth to protect her baby cousin, but her flight got ‘delayed’ and she got caught in the Phantom Zone.

   So she arrives when he’s already grown up and doing super stuff. And she leads a normal life, hiding who she really is, until the plane her foster sister is on is going to crash and she saves it. And she feels so alive that she doesn’t want to go back to hiding.

   Each story explores finding your identity. From Kara having anger issues to trying to balance too many things in her life while figuring out show she is. And each job does a good job of ‘trying to figure out what your identity is’ as far as self exploration. While still having a bit of that monster-of-the-week kind of thing, since it’s a superhero show. So you’ve got the Phantom Zone prison break angle.

   • 4a) Tangent 9: Supergirl’s terrible outfits and weird past versions (starts at 00:26:45.500)
   • 4b) Tangent 10: Young Justice’s wall around Earth (starts at 00:34:58.333)
   • 4c) Tangent 11: Flash TV show is fun (starts at 00:36:39.667)
   • 4d) Tangent 12: Super Curl! (starts at 00:36:58.834)

April: Cardboard and Bad Island by Doug TenNapel (starts at 00:37:44.333)

hese two books dovetail, where one is about a rocky space giant who goes into battle against his father’s wishes and gets captured and hidden as an island on a planet, and the other is about a family trapped on an island that turns out to be the giant.

They’re by Doug TenNapel, who did Earthworm Jim stuff (the video game in the mid ’90s). Each book is a stand alone story, but they are parallel stories. Each does a good job of presenting a world in one volume without needing the setup of a bunch of other stories.

They’re published by an imprint of Scholastic, so they’re meant for young readers. Good books for 7 and up, that do a good job of building an entire world in just, like, 120 pages.

• 5a) Tangent 13: We live in a fort of library books (starts at 00:42:57.167)
• 5b) Tangent 14: Uzumaki by Junji Ito will mess you up (starts at 00:43:16.167)
• 5c) Tangent 15: Libraries will purchase books if you ask them to (starts at 00:43:55.000)
• 5d) Tangent 16: The Enigma of Amigara Fault by Junji Ito (starts at 00:44:06.333)
• 5e) Tangent 17: Helter Skelter by Kyoko Okazaki (starts at 00:44:45.500)
• 5f) Tangent 18: The Drifting Class Room by Kazuo Umezu (starts at 00:44:55.833)
• 5g) Tangent 19: Japanese horror comics can freak you out with PG no gore scares (starts at 00:45:34.167)

General tangential silliness ensues as we close out Part 1 of issue 50 of The Squee. Tunes in next week for Part 2, with our Question Time query where Chriss surprises the panel by inviting them to ask HER questions. And we give our forecasts of what we’re looking forward to next.

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