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January 25, 2022
The Surprising History of the Comic Book
Since their initial popularity during World War II, comic books have always been a medium for American counterculture and for nativism and empire.
J. Hoberman
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November 23, 2021
The Radical World of Chicago’s Black Comic Artists
An anthology of Black comic book makers from the the postwar era offers a glimpse into a genre of art that skewered the bigotry of white liberalism.
Zito Madu
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March 26, 2021
The Night the Nazis Came to Murder My Grandfather
John Heartfield was a lifelong foe of fascism who used his art as a weapon—and whose devastating portrayals of Hitler, Goering, and Mussolini nearly cost him his life.
John J Heartfield and Lance Hansen
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March 5, 2021
Don’t Stop Thinking About (Tom) Tomorrow
Cartoonist Dan Perkins increasingly turns to the iconography of science fiction to keep pace with the absurdity of the moment.
Jeet Heer
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December 28, 2020
The Groundbreaking Honesty of Joe Sacco’s Comics Journalism
His decades-long project of reportage in graphic form works like oral history—bearing witness to the historical traumas of his subjects.
Jillian Steinhauer
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August 10, 2020
Could Wonder Woman Save Us From Covid-19?
Our leaders are as bad as any comic book villain. But even they might be no match for Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth—or Spider-man’s web shooters or Shuri’s brain.
Elie Mystal
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September 30, 2019
Lynda Barry’s Infectious Genius
The award-winning cartoonist is not only a great artist but a wellspring of inspiration for others.
Jeet Heer
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September 12, 2019
One of America’s First Graphic Novels Was by a Blacklisted Socialist
William Gropper’s recently republished 1930 work Alay-Oop is an exciting addition to the comics canon.
Jillian Steinhauer
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April 26, 2019
Comic Book Catharsis: A Q&A With Brian Fies on His Powerful Graphic Novel About California Wildfires
His new memoir, A Fire Story, details what happened when the Tubbs Fire turned his and his neighbors’ lives upside down.
Elena Goukassian
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October 19, 2018
Jason Lutes’s ‘Berlin’ Sets a New Standard for Graphic Novels
This expansive work follows a cast of characters caught up in the massive upheavals happening in Germany between the world wars.
David Hajdu