Quarantined Comics

IN WAVES ...surfing thru grief, and history

October 15th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  36 mins 34 secs

This week we are reading IN WAVES, by AJ Dungo. A heartbreaking, sober work of a young man's love, along with a history lesson. This book is NOT just about the history of surfing, tracing the tales of Duke Kahanamoku and Thomas Blake,...it's also a heartfelt recollection of young love and loss, as the author recounts his time with his girlfriend Kristen, who succumbed to cancer.

MY FRIEND DAHMER + KENT STATE... delving into the dark side of Americana

October 12th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  38 mins 44 secs

In two graphic novels cartoonist Derf Backderf dissected two aspects of American history that most people would like to pretend never happened: the early life of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and the events in Kent State that led to the murders of four unarmed students. In this episode, we'll get into how Derf's expert storytelling makes sense of the senseless.

STAR WARS VISIONS ...plucky young fanimes + extra big lightsabers

October 2nd, 2021  |  Season 3  |  53 mins 25 secs

We're veering BACK veering off course -to a galaxy far far away for STAR WARS VISIONS - the new Disney+ series of anime shorts where the Japanese have their way with some sweet sweet Lucasfilm IP.

THE NEW WORLD... abandoned homes, empty offices, and alien invasions

September 27th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  43 mins

cartoonist, chris reynolds, comics, mauretania

What do you get when you cross film noir with a technical manual? You get the comics of Chris Reynolds! The indie cartoonist has been putting together strips since the 1980s and in this episode, we'll take a look at the collection, assembled by legendary cartoonist Seth, in the compilation The New World: Comics From Mauretania.

SHANG CHI ...kung fu, double dragons, and daddy issues

September 16th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  42 mins 52 secs

This week we're talking about Shang Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Based on the 1972 comics of the same name based on a VERY different context / pretense, Marvel's Shang Chi is a completely new story, carrying over only a some surface level elements of the source material. Shang Chi was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and features ALL the Asians -Simu Liu, Akwafina, Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, Meng’er Zhang, Ying Nan, Ronny Chiang, and even SIR Ben Kingsley (HALF INDIAN!), the movie tells the story of an exiled assassin martial artists moonlighting as valet parkers in the Bay Area to avoid their dark mysterious past. You know, the typical Asian American story. It’s basically Asian Black Panther, or is it?

DRAGON HOOPS ...hard choices + high school sportsball

September 10th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  44 mins 2 secs

This week we are FINALLY reading DRAGON HOOPS, written and illustrated by Gene Luen Yang. DRAGON HOOPS won a 2020 Eisner Award (the Oscars for comics, and not Yang's first). The book is a nonfiction account of the high school basketball team - Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd Dragons - where Yang was a teacher before we went full time into comics. Yang's not a fan of the sportsballs - which is what makes it such a great book about sports, and taking big steps.

NO LONGER HUMAN ...clowning around with other peoples' lives

September 6th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  42 mins 44 secs

Manga artist Junji Ito — famed for his horror comics — adapts Osamu Dazai's "No Longer Human," one of the most famous novels from Japan. A disturbing depiction of depression, the graphic novel is an improbable mixture of psychological turmoil, body horror, and slapstick comedy. For real.

I AM NOT STARFIRE ...teen angst (not) for the trolls

August 29th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  45 mins 32 secs

"I Am Not Starfire" written by Mariko Tamaki and artist Yoshi Yoshitani. tells the tale Mandy, a 17 year old who is NOTHING like her of super-famous superhero Starfire....a tall, gorgeous, sparkly, hot blooded hero, beloved by all...which Mandy is NOT. She has no powers, dyes her hair black and hates everyone but best friend Lincoln, and longtime crush Claire. To Starfire, who is actually from another planet, her daughter Mandy seems like a distant, angry alien, from light years away....

YEAR OF THE RABBIT ......a waking nightmare, that actually happened

August 20th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  48 mins 8 secs

This week we are reading "Year of the Rabbit" - written and illustrated by Tian Veasna. The book is an autobiographical depiction of the author's family journey in Cambodia, from the moment he Khmer Rouge took power...three days before his birth. Taking place in the late 1970s, the book is a harrowing, triggering account of one family's journey to make sense of, attempt escape, and survive what is now regarded as one of the great human disasters of the 20th century, that most people don't know, or don't talk about.

This book put us both in a very uncomfortable reflection...especially given history seeming to continuously repeat itself, most recently in Afghanistan with the Taliban resurgent...

GRASS & THE WAITING ...'the past is never dead. it's not even past.'

August 15th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  37 mins 8 secs

graphic novel, grass, keum suk gendry-kim, korea, the waiting

The Korean graphic novelist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim confronts the traumas created by World War II and its immediate aftermath in these two books.

Y: THE LAST MAN ...how bad could a pandemic get?

August 6th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  52 mins 40 secs

Y: THE LAST MAN is an award-winning, post-apocalyptic series by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra from 2002-2008 (soon to be adapted to a live-action TV series on FX / Hulu) — that imagines what if a global pandemic wiped out every male on earth...save one (+ his monkey). Featuring amazons, astronauts, agents, assassins, actors, antagonistas, androbots, atheists, angry Arizonans, and a whole mess of lesbians - you are taken through a # of seemingly realistic outcomes...of what would happen in our society if all the men in a male dominated world really did disappear. Airplanes would crash, (most) army's would fall, ...and neo feminist cults would arise to burn it all down?

SUMMIT OF THE GODS ...is growing up getting over the mountain?

July 29th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  54 mins 30 secs

This week, we're reading THE SUMMIT OF THE GODS (神々の山嶺, Kamigami no Itadaki) - an early 2000s manga by Jiro Taniguchi, based on a novel and script by Baku Yumemakura. The series traces several climbers' journeys across decades around the world - from the European Alps, to the peaks of Japan, to the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet - all bookended by the greatest summit - Everest.

MARVELS ...reality TV and the end of the world

July 22nd, 2021  |  Season 2  |  37 mins 15 secs

This week we're reading MARVELS, the 1994 mini series by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. MARVELS retells he origins of the Marvel Universe from a decidedly... pedestrian point of view. Over 4 volumes, we traverse New York City through the decades, from the eve of World War 2 and the first appearance of larger than life heroes, to the 60s and 70s when superheroes were a part of mainstream pop culture.

MIRA JACOB...has a Good Talk on Modern Minorities

July 16th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  1 hr 13 mins

BONUS EPISODE from Raman's other podcast "MODERN MINORITIES" where we talk to novelist and comics author Mira Jacob about her experience and work on GOOD TALK - a comic we reviewed with Sharon on a previous Quarantined Comics episode

CHAR STUDY (4/4) ...Batman gets Dicked

July 9th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  42 mins 33 secs

Dick Grayson - Character Study is a 4-part mini-series where Raman + Paresh examine the history of one of comics greatest superheroes, Dick Grayson. In Part 4 of 4, we look under the cowl of Dick’s on-again / off-again career as Batman...

CHAR STUDY (3/4) ...Nightwingin' It // There will be Blüd

July 2nd, 2021  |  Season 2  |  56 mins 44 secs

Dick Grayson - Character Study is a 4-part mini-series where Raman + Paresh examine the history of one of comics greatest superheroes, Dick Grayson. In Part 3 of 4, we follow Dick’s "adult" career as Nightwing - where he cements his reputation for being the glue of the DC Universe