SKIM and THIS ONE SUMMER ...growing up before the glowing up

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December 12th, 2020

41 mins 48 secs

Season 2

Your Hosts

About this Episode

The artist Jillian Tamaki and her cousin the writer Mariko Tamaki each have dynamic careers in illustration and comics. You might have seen Jillian's art in The New York Times, or on the covers of Penguin Classics. And Mariko has sharpened her pen writing a variety of superhero comics including Harley Quinn, Hulk, and Supergirl. Most recently, DC Comics appointed her as lead writer on its storied "Detective Comics" title.

But the cousins have collaborated on more grounded fare - and This One Summer from 2014 and Skim from 2005. Each depict a turbulent, volatile, and confusing coming-of-age. In This One Summer, Rose and Windy, on the cusp of being teenagers, start to become aware of the adult problems that surround them. In Skim, the title character in her mid-teens deals with the reverberations of a suicide, and her growing social isolation.