Let’s start out this late St. Patricks Day roundup with Shaenon Garrity on two webcomics that adapt Irish Mythology:

I’ve said this many times before and I’ll say it many times again, but one of the joys of webcomics is their ability to cover every possible subject and fill every conceivable niche. Say, for example, you’re into early Irish literature and you want to read it in comics form. Webcomics are happy to help you out. At this very moment, in fact, there are at least two ongoing webcomics based on the Táin Bó Cúailnge, or Cattle Raid of Cooley, the central epic of the Ulster cycle: Patrick Brown’s The Cattle Raid of Cooley and M.K. Reed’s About a Bull. Thank you, webcomics! You’ve justified the existence of the Internet yet again!

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You won’t read a better piece of comics criticism this month than this and then be sure to check out Patrick Brown’s The Cattle Raid of Cooley (above) and M.K. Reed’s About a Bull (below, with art by Farel Dalrymple) and enjoy some REAL Irish culture this day.

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§ We’re very lucky that Qiana Whitted is writing more about comics; here’s an examination of meta-fiction in the work of M.F. Grimm and Howard Cruse.

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§ And Samantha Meier continues her look at some long neglected history of women in the underground comics movement with a piece on the sexual anthology Tits & Clits

From its inception, Tits & Clits was a fundamentally different anthology than Wimmen’s Comix. Not only was it more single-minded thematically, it completely lacked the collective structure and underlying democratic ideology of Wimmen’s Comix. Whereas Wimmen’s Comix at its inception was a collaborative effort aiming to unite all of the women currently in the underground comix world (and to bring in even more women), Tits & Clits began as a partnership between Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli, who created all of the material for Tits & Clits #1 and #2, Pandora’s Box, and Abortion Eve by themselves. (Farmer and Chevli produced seven issues of Tits & Clits between 1972 and 1987.)

§ The Tiny Report rejoices over John Pham as should we all:

Why isn’t John Pham super famous? I think he’s respected by most of us who are familiar with his work, but not enough indie comics fans are. This probably has something to do with the fact that a large portion of his work has been self-published or appeared in anthologies, so it tends to reach a limited market for a limited time. Maybe he’s a famous graphic designer, but I wouldn’t know it. That’s not my scene.

§ Dan Slott is truly a good sport.

§ An interview with Indie Age great Mike Baron reminds us some of that era wasn’t that great:

Q: I’ll be asking about your prose career, but first I wanted to ask you about comics. When I was thinking of people I wanted to interview, you were in my top five because of what you’re doing and what you’ve been doing for over 30 years: creator-owned comics. Before Image Comics and “creator-owned comics” were cool, you were doing them steadily and heavily with Nexus and later Badger. What was it like being a trailblazer?

A: Well, it was extremely exciting, but I do have to point out that when we originally signed the deals for Nexus and Badger we signed away the rights to those characters. It’s only thanks to Dark Horse Comics’ Mike Richardson that Steve Rude and I got the rights back to Nexus, but First still holds an interest in Badger. But since the creation of those two I’ve done numerous creator-owned series like The World of Ginger Fox, Spyke and Feud.

Flat Squirrel Productions

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