Comics Journal #301: The Comics Journal

The Comics Journal has been, for almost 35 years, the standard bearer of critical inquiry, discrimination, debate, and serious discussion of comics as art, and the object of love and devotion among the comics cognescenti — and hate and scorn among the philistines, natch. We published our 300th issue over a year ago and spent that time re-conceptualizing the institution as an annual book-length "magazine" — over 600 pages long, chock full of the kinds of criticism, interviews, commentary, and history that has made it the most award-winning and critically lauded magazine in the history of comics.

This volume features a focus on R. Crumb's most commercially successful project of his career, his comics adaptation of Genesis, including the most extensive interview he's given on the subject as well as a long critical roundtable among six comics critics reviewing the book and debating each other over its merits; plus:

     • An interview with Joe Sacco about his recent journalistic masterpiece, Footnotes in Gaza;
     • A peek into the private sketchbooks of (and accompanying interviews with) Jim Woodring, Tim Hensley, and the novelist Stephen Dixon;
     • A conversation between Mad Fold-Out creator Al Jaffee and Thrizzle auteur Michael Kupperman;
     • A complete full-color reprinting of the 1950s Gerald McBoing Boing comic;
     • The first significant biographical essay charting the turn-of-the-century cartoonist and illustrator John T. McCutcheon;

and essays and reviews by R. Fiore, R.C. Harvey, Chris Lanier, Rob Clough, and others.

Gorgeously re-formatted and completely re-designed, The Comics Journal #301 is no mere magazine but a gigantic compendium covering comics past and present that will shock and delight every truly curious comics reader.

Crumb's Genesis is showcased in this first issue of a new format.

Crumb s Genesis is showcased in this first issue of a new format.

The Comics Journalhas been, for over 30 years, the standard bearer of critical inquiry, discrimination, debate, and serious discussion of comics as art. It is one of the most respected single-arts magazines in both its online (tcj.com) and print forms. The multiple award-winning magazine provides its international readership 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 Journalhas adapted to the digital revolution by expanding its size and recasting itself as a semi-annual book, a cross between a literary journal and a coffee table book with the critical content of the former and the design and print quality of the latter.

Not only will it feature intellectually stimulating content — Gary Groth interviews R. Crumb, who also participates in a discussion with Biblical and comics commentators about the Bible and his Genesisadaptation; 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’artthat anyone would be pleased to place on his bookshelf, designed by Eisner-Award-nominee Adam Grano. Nominated for a 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award: (Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism).

Comics artist Kevin O"Neill explains how he broke into the comics field at 16 and discusses how his artistic vision meshes with writer Alan Moore"s on the hit series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the title"s switch from DC to indy publisher Top Shelf. Syndicated political cartoonist and Academy-award-nominated animator Bill Plympton also talks about his long and varied career.

Gary Grothlives in Seattle and spend his days at Fantagraphics Books.