Tom Shapira

2 weeks ago | tcj.com | Tom Shapira

In ye olden times, on a social media platform that now only exists as a maggot-infested zombie, I asked my fellows: "Who was the best artist on popular British fantasy strip Sláine?" The answers divided the audience into two groups. The first, comprised of longtime fans of the veteran anthology 2000 AD, gave a myriad number of responses from the black and white period: Massimo Belardinelli, Glenn Fabry, Mick McMahon. The second group, those who were not "Squaxx dek Thargo" chose Simon Bisley.

1 month ago | tcj.com | Tom Shapira

Donald Duck: Vacation Parade belongs to a genre that I like to call "nothing more, nothing less." It gives you a promise early on: Donald Duck will go on a vacation and will suffer mischief in an entertaining manner, and for the rest of the story it tries and keep the promise. Simple? Yes, in theory at least. But consider: How many would-be humor comics actually made you laugh? How many action comics genuinely made you feel tension? How many adventure comics actually made you excited?

2 months ago | tcj.com | Tom Shapira

At this point - at any point during the 21 st century really - getting into Love and Rockets seems like more trouble than its worth. The reviews are still good, they've always been good, but there's just so much of it. And unlike one of these long-running manga serials with hundreds of collections, the Love and Rockets publication model is a rather convoluted affair.

2 months ago | solrad.co | Josh Bayer |Hagai Palevsky |Tom Shapira |Elias Rosner

Christina Lee, a busy illustrator whose work regularly appears in both new (Vox) and traditional media (Business Week, Wall Street Journal), introduced their comics to the wider world relatively recently, with a pretty solid beginner cartoonist’s mini which was followed shortly after by a major evolution with her books The Method and Object. Often at shows, I’m given work or traded comics but, sadly, I read less and less of it.

2 months ago | solrad.co | Tom Shapira |Elias Rosner |Hagai Palevsky

It seems impossible to imagine comics without Milton Caniff. It’s not just that he was popular during his time; many comics strips that were extremely popular in the first half of the 20th century are all but forgotten today. Not Caniff, though, his name and style lived on in the works of followers, which included talents like Kirby and Toth;  therefore, his name lives through their modern decedents as well. His influence, as both an artist and a writer, wasn’t limited to the United States either.