Cartoonist extraordinaire Jim Rugg recently launched a successful Kickstarter for a fluorescent blacklight comic book about a Russian Outlaw superhero called Octobriana. Check out samples and how to buy here.
This project began when Rugg made a blacklight screen print in 2014 with Telegraph Art & Comics. In the process, he wondered why no one had made a comic book using vivid, fluorescent inks. It would look spectacular. So he decided to make one himself.
The story is set in the 1970s, the period when blacklight posters were most popular (also the period of Rugg’s graphic novel, Afrodisiac). In 1971, the west learned about Octobriana - the outlaw Russian superhero comic in Petr Sadecky’s expose, Octobriana and the Russian Underground. Octobriana is part Barbarella, part Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. She’s an unusual cult character with a storied history. David Bowie tried to make a movie about her. Billy Idol has her likeness tattooed on his arm. As a child of the Cold War and fan of underground comix, Rugg identified Octobriana as the perfect character for his psychedelic outlaw comic!
The concept of Mtsyry: Octobriana 1976 is that underground American cartoonists made their own Octobriana comic book after reading Sadecky’s book. It was an effort to show solidarity with their Russian cartoonist comrades. Robot Stalin's got a new doomsday bomb! Can the Devil-Woman stop him before he destroys us all? Siberian labor camps, PPP secret orgies, motorcycle gunship train chases - this one has it all!
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No deep dive of this legendary comic exists online from a cartoonist's perspective, let alone 3 cartoonists! The boys, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Tom Scioli continue to unpack the Frank Miller 1986 Batman classic over the course of 4 jam-packed episodes, one chapter at a time!
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No deep dive of this legendary comic exists online from a cartoonist's perspective, let alone 3 cartoonists! The boys, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Tom Scioli continue to unpack the Frank Miller 1986 Batman classic over the course of 4 jam-packed episodes, one chapter at a time!
Part 1 here:
For more videos and deep dives like this make sure to subscribe to the Cartoonist Kayfabe YouTube channel
You can support the channel by grabbing some stuff from our Spreadshop! Read the rest
No deep dive of this legendary comic exists online from a cartoonist's perspective, let alone 3 cartoonists! The boys, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Tom Scioli continue to unpack the Frank Miller 1986 Batman classic over the course of 4 jam-packed episodes, one chapter at a time!
Part 1 here:
For more videos and deep dives like this make sure to subscribe to the Cartoonist Kayfabe YouTube channel
You can support the channel by grabbing some stuff from our Spreadshop! Read the rest
No deep dive of this legendary comic exists online from a cartoonist's perspective, let alone 3 cartoonists! The boys, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Tom Scioli unpack the Frank Miller 1986 Batman classic over the course of 4 jam-packed episodes, one chapter at a time!
For more videos and deep dives like this make sure to subscribe to the Cartoonist Kayfabe YouTube channel
You can support the channel by grabbing some stuff from our Spreadshop! Read the rest
Dennis in Hawaii by Alan Wiseman and Fred Toole
One of the most popular comics in American history gets the Kayfabe book club treatment with Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Tom Scioli.
In 1958, Pines and Hank Ketcham sent the Dennis the Menace comic book crew to Hawaii to research a 100 page Dennis the Menace special. The resulting comic book went on to phenomenal success and 9 printings over the subsequent decade.
Jaime Hernandez and Dan Clowes both sing its praises. What makes this comic book so special and how does it look 60 years later? Join us to find out!
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What better way to celebrate 2019, the year before the Neo-Tokyo Summer Olympics, than to revisit Katsuhiro Otomo's classic manga in a book club format with the Cartoonist Kayfabe crew, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Tom Scioli . Miss the earlier videos? No problem:
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Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg continue to dissect the turbulent comic book speculator boom on the 1990s while looking through antique copies of Wizard Magazine.
What to expect in this issue:
* Malibu's Ultraverse is announced!
* Chris Claremont's life after X-Men. An interview.
* Joe Quesada is talking is hopes and dreams about wanting to leave a mark on the industry.
* Ron Wagner, the Morbius Artist, cuts promos on the series writer, Len Kaminski
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Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg continue to dissect the turbulent comic book speculator boom on the 1990s while looking through antique copies of Wizard Magazine.
Some of this issues contents:
• Jae Lee takes center stage and talks Youngblood: Strikefile, WildCATs Trilogy, Namor, John Byrne, and more!
• Liefeld interview 2: Youngblood, Bloodstrike, Brigade, Prophet, Image, editors, publishers, and late books
• Star Trek comics
• Ray Bradbury comics at Topps and the all-star lineup of artists drawing them: Richard Corben, Al Williamson, Mike Mignola!
• Topps' Kirbyverse comics: Steve Ditko draws the Secret City!
• The Comics Code, Mike Allred in Palmer's Picks, and Wizard's editor vows to never read manga - a proclamation that upsets Jim and Ed so much that they make a new t-shirt in response:
• PLUS - the winners of the Cable cover contest in Brutes & Babes!
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The boys, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Tom Scioli got hold of a couple animation cels from the classic anime and couldn't help but show them off. A fun glimpse into the analogue way of producing animation. Come for the cels, stay for the Katsuhiro Otomo storyboard books.
Also, in case you missed the Cartoonist Kayfabe coverage of the Akira manga:
Subscribe to the Cartoonist Kayfabe YouTube channel for more vids celebrating the medium of comics. Read the rest
Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg continue to dissect the turbulent comic book speculator boom on the 1990s while looking through antique copies of Wizard Magazine.
Some of this issues contents:
* Jack Kirby comes back to comics via his line of Topps Comics
* Palmer's Picks. Rick Veitch
*Jae Lee's Youngblood Strikefile is on the horizon!
* Larry Hama's origin story
* Mike Mignola talks about drawing the Topps adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula
* Dave Sim writes an issue of Spawn
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Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg unpack the tale of Human Torch creator, Carl Burgos's, bitter attempt to agitate the mainstream comics publishers of the 1960s with his very own Captain Marvel character (and Plastic man, Dr Doom, Dr. Fate, and The Bat).
For further reading:
Marvel, The Untold Story, By Sean Howe.
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The main event begins! The boys, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, and Tom Scioli give their kayfabe commentary on the first volume of Katsuhiro Otomo's Magnum Opus, Akira!
Get your hands on the newish 35 year anniversary box set and read along!
Two earlier episodes tracked Otomo's previous works leading up to Akira:
Part 1, Fireball
Part 2: Domu: A Child's Dream
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What's an outlaw comic? Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg attempt to answer that question as they examine this misunderstood comic book subgenre. Outlaws comics are a strain of offensive, ink-drenched, violence-soaked indie comics began to spread through the direct market in the 80s and 90s. These comics featured nightmarish visions of graphic torment far beyond the vanilla, Comics-Code-approved 4-color fantasies. Welcome to comic book hell!
SUPPLEMENTAL LINKS:
Ed and Jim highlight Bootleg Comics
Tim Vigil
Faust 1
Faust Love of the Damned movie trailer
Benjamin Marra
Terror Assaulter
American Blood
Traditional Comics ad
Lawrence Hubbard
Real Deal Comix
Jason Karns
Fukitor
Hart D. Fisher
Boneyard Press ad:
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Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg continue down the 1990s comic book speculation bubble:
• ANIA - the Association of Black Publishers is born!
• Image and Malibu breakup
• Palmer's Picks: Ted McKeever, Eddy Current, Metropol, and more!
• Elfquest's influence on a young Eddie P
• Spawn 9 and its legacy: Todd McFarlane v Neil Gaiman
Supplemental Links:
Neil Gaiman's 2002 deposition
Todd McFarlane 2002 deposition
ANIA - Unsung Heroes of the Black Comics Movement,
1992 CBS Evening News Feature on Omega 7 Comics
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