by Kevin Czap

I was reading the new James Kochalka book, Fungus #1 (from Retrofit Comics) and it struck me how complete Kochalka’s drawings were. He’s developed his cartooning to a point where he’s able to strike that perfect balance between black and white on the page. The simple imagery, however, disguises just how hard it is to get black and white drawings look this good.

by Kevin Czap

nods to Becky Cloonan for title (and of course the Wu-Tang Clan) – comics rule everything around me.

There’s a lot of ground to cover, so I’ll direct those looking for a preamble to my post last week. Ok cool, let’s get into it.

by Kevin Czap

While I was having an absolute blast at the Small Press Expo this past weekend, I couldn’t help but keep thinking about lofty things like history and community. Part of that preoccupation was a side-effect of having this weekly column, and wanting to have something substantial to write about. The other part was just from the sheer experience of it all – with each convention or expo I attend, I feel that much more enveloped in this big wonderful thing. When I started going to shows not so long ago, just being around one’s own people was satisfying to an overwhelming degree. That feeling is still there of course, now with the added texture of feeling that you’re a part of something. History and culture are not simply texts, these things are literally the accumulation of present actions by people doing their thing.

by Kevin Czap

Learning about the all the different comics scenes that inhabit the various cities of the world has become an increasingly important pursuit of mine over the past year. Inevitably, this has led to learn a lot more about Canadian geography than I had retained from high school, and now I have a much clearer idea of where each province is in relation to Cleveland (for future travel purposes). Anyway, today I’m taking a closer look at a portion of the Vancouver scene, in beautiful British Columbia, Canada (I have that phrase ingrained into my mind from the little bit of Nardwuar I’ve listened to). The occasion is the up-coming release of Cloudscape Comics‘ newest anthology, 21 Journeys. I was graciously let in on the book for review purposes, so here we go.