Culture

by Alex Dueben At a time when many comics are criticized for their approach to female characters, it’s interesting to read a comic which is about...

We talk with series writer Paul Cornell about his Four Doctors crossover event for Titan, his Dark Horse limited series This Damned Band, a recently announced Warcraft graphic novel due out next year and the one comic he walked away from.

MAD Magazine is often overlooked as one of the longest running and most successful properties that DC Entertainment publishes. Of course, the early Harvey Kurtzman edited run, and seminal work by Will Elder, John Severin, Wally Wood, Al Jaffee and Sergio Aragones is justly lauded among comics history buffs, but with issue #535 coming out next week it's also the longest continually running comics periodical in the US. If it was just puttering along with jokes about these kids today and boring TV shows, perhaps it would be allowed to stay in its pasture, but in truth it's still putting out sharp satire with bold visuals and presenting the work of some of today's finest cartoonists—including Al Jaffee and Sergio Aragones.

This weekend's new superhero movie is Fantastic Four, not to be confused with Fantastic Four or Fantastic Four Or even The Fantastic Four The 1978 cartoon version...

On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin became the first human being to achieve Earth orbit, effectively winning the space race. At NASA,...

Rarely do I get to learn the story of people who have moved away from the comics industry. Artist and creator Thomas Boatwright is...

Masashi Kishimoto, creator of the 205,000,000 copies in print Naruto comic, will be making an extremely rare appearance at this year's New York Comic Con with two special signings—one at Books Kinokuniya and one at the Tribeca outpost of Barnes and Noble. It's not only Kishimoto-sensei's first appearance in the US, it's also his first con appearance ever. And probably one of the few times he's left his house during the 18-year run of the international smash hit. We're kidding a little about the leaving the house bit, but as we've mentioned here many times in the past, manga creators can lead a pretty monastic lifestyle, even with the help of assistants. Since Naruto ended last year, he's been busy with various manga about Boruto, Naruto's son, and also writing the Naruto movie, but hopefully he's been enjoying some time off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpVEbuuhLxc In his latest weekly video, Cerebus creator Dave Sim reveals that an anonymous donor has agreed to leave a bequest of $500,000 to The...

Fans of the Comics Blogosphere of the Aughts, The Wild Bunch is back for one more ride. Trouble with Comics is relaunching for the...

We get a lot of requests to mention Kickstarters here at the Beat, and rather than slight this one or that one, I hardly mention any. Only the worthiest. But I do HEAR about a lot of kickstarters as they get tweeted and promoted about the web. Here's one that only crossed my radar only recently (probably my fault more than anything, since it got written up in HuffPo, WaPo, Mother Jones and other places no one reads) but it doesn't seem to need much help. Tom Tomorrow, the veteran (no offense) political cartoonist is Kickstartinga compendium of the last 25 years of his comic, "This Modern World" and it's doing very well: it just passed the $250,000 mark and has a few days to go to kick it up a bit more.

Autograph authenticator Steve Grad has a collection of 100s of Star Wars cards signed by the original cast, and he's posted a gallery on...

Just in case you missed my explanation of how manga helped pave the way for a more diverse comics industry, here's a video of me and then-Marvel editor Bobbie Chase in 1996 trying to explain why women might want to read comics. It's from a TV show called The Anti Gravity Room, which was shown on the SfiCi Channel as it was then known, which was a US version of Canada's Prisoners of Gravity. Both shows covered the whole "comics, nerd world" with taped interviews and comics-friendly segments that seem commonplace now, but were unique at the time. I think I co-hosted an episode or two, and I can't wait until those tapes surface.