The Prehistory of the Graphic Novel

Whatever the term “graphic novel” actually means, it is one that rose to mainstream use in the 1980s. But most people seem to agree that the term was first applied in 1978 to Will Eisner’s ...

Ishii, Arriola, and stereotypes

The MoMA just posted a comics biography of Ruth Asawa done by Jillian Tamaki. On the second page, Tamaki mentions Chris Ishii and a comic strip created about life at the Japanese-American concentration camps. I ...

Jesse Hamm, 1975-2021

I was shocked to hear on the morning of the 12th that the cartoonist Jesse Hamm had died suddenly. Jesse, as he was for many of us, was my ambassador into the community of comics. ...

Ink Test

When I write about inks, I tend to focus on their blackness, consistency, and flow. Of course, there is a more fundamental concern: will the ink work on the paper that you want to use? ...

Tree and Roots

When it comes to memoir, I can’t seem to get my head round a full narrative. Yet I keep having ideas that I want to try out. So, at least for now, I guess whatever ...

Deleter 4 Ink

I’ve heard about the Deleter inks for a long time, but had never tried any of them. This is partly because I got into pen-and-ink before the boom in interest in manga in the U.S. ...

Someone to Watch Over Me

This is something that I started last July, but had trouble continuing. I like how the colors turned out. Maybe I’ll continue it some day, or at least add it to the other memoir comics ...

Comic Book Stores

Following along with my comics reading history… I’m finding it healing to control the narrative like this. For example, here I was able to turn figures from my childhood who frightened me into jokes. As ...