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Secret Coders Cover

Teaching Comics, Learning Comics: A Conversation with Gene Luen Yang (Part 1 of 3)

By Paul Lai | Sep 28, 2015 | Longform

Gene Luen Yang is a little nervous about his next book. Why would the 2015 Eisner winner for Best Writer have even the faintest apprehensions about his latest graphic novel, “Secret Coders,” drawn by Mike Holmes, and releasing today, September 28th, from First Second? Holmes’ art is adept and charming. First Second’s publishing record is enviable and […]

Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez

What Censorship Looks Like: The “Palomar” Library Challenge Emails

By Greg Matiasevich | Jul 20, 2015 | Longform

The story of Rio Rancho High School pulling the Gilbert Hernandez graphic novel “Palomar” from their library due to a parent challenging it as “child pornography” has received a fair amount of attention since it broke last February. We’ve covered it several times on this site. But new facts have come to light. Specifically, internal […]

Welcome to the Spectrum Age

By Paul Lai | Jul 14, 2015 | Longform

Following Saturday’s Eisner Awards announcements at San Diego Comic Con, comics watchers’ commentaries will no doubt note that despite standbys like JH Williams III, Dave Stewart, and Darwyn Cooke, the industry is again spotlighting its diversity of subjects, audiences, and creators: “Lumberjanes” came away a big winner, Venezuelan artist Jorge Corona got Russ Manning Award-love, […]

Airboy #2 Cover

“Airboy” #2: A Discussion

By Brian Salvatore and Alice W. Castle | Jul 13, 2015 | Longform

We at Multiversity try to be an even handed bunch – sure, we get fired up about our funny books, but we always try to react to industry news or controversies with a measured response. So, when “Airboy” #2 got released, we wanted to comment on it, but we also wanted to do so in […]

Image Expo 2015

Image Expo: A Report From the Inside

By Paul Lai | Jul 3, 2015 | Longform

As usual, the news came fast and furious from Image Expo, the sixth since the company started the event in 2012 to unveil projects and promote its brand, Steve Jobs/Apple-style. With the privilege of attending the press conferences on behalf of Multiversity, I want to offer a day’s-end recap, with a promise for more observations […]

eisner awards 2013 comicon

In Conclusion: My Week with the Eisner Nominees for Reality-Based Work

By Paul Lai | Jun 12, 2015 | Longform

This week, we have glanced at the six Eisner nominees for Reality-Based Work in 2015, trying to distill an essence of how reality appears in comics. Looking over the titles, I am again struck by their range, as small as a single childhood and as global as the Great War. I’m reminded of the singular […]

eisner awards 2013 comicon

Comics Reality: 2015 Eisner Nominees for Reality-Based Work Introduction

By Paul Lai | Jun 8, 2015 | Longform

At the end of April, the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards announced its 2015 nominees, and publishers began planning reprints with gold-foiled, “E”-emblazoned stickers and awaiting the July 10 awards gala at Comic-Con. But I suspect my fellow comics omnivores most appreciate awards outfits like the Eisners not for the winners but for the lists […]

Looking for Something We Don’t Know: Exploring Denver Comic Con 2015

By Matthew Garcia | Jun 2, 2015 | Longform

1. I had gone to the wrong room. I had been trying to get to the Comics from Brazil panel, featuring Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba (“Daytripper”) and Rafael Albuquerque (“Ei8ht”), but I had accidentally misread my schedule. With only two minutes to go, my boyfriend and I raced through the throngs of people sporting […]

Daredevil s02 costume city

Why Daredevil Goes Dark: The Redemptive Dialectics of the Man Without Fear

By Paul Lai | Apr 6, 2015 | Longform

In the anticipation surrounding Netflix’s new Daredevil, fan chatter mingles excitement with some worry about what appears to be a darker, sterner corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While I am sympathetic to those questions, I look back at five decades of the character and can’t shake the conclusion that, as a hero rooted in […]

Sprawling Sagas of Place, and Questions of Race: Reflections on “Scalped” [Longform]

By Paul Lai | Mar 24, 2015 | Longform

Jason Aaron’s “Scalped,” among the last decade’s most immersive long-form works of comic fiction, is also one of the most troubling for me. I also think it’s one of the most important. What begins as a pulpy noir set in South Dakota Indian country becomes a multi-dimensional and layered epic of interlocking lives. As (I […]

Palomar by Gilbert Hernandez

“Palomar” in Peril: Hernandez Graphic Novel Pulled From HS Shelves Pending Review

By Greg Matiasevich | Mar 11, 2015 | Longform

On February 24th, a 14-year-old high school student in Rio Rancho, NM, checked out a copy of the 2003 collection of Gilbert Hernandez’s award-winning ‘Palomar’ stories from his school library. After returning home, Catreena Lopez, his mother, looked inside the book and found images depicting what she would later describe as “child pornography” and “child […]

Never Just Say ‘That Sucks’: A Guide to Discussing Comics Art

By Mike Romeo | Mar 9, 2015 | Longform

I want to say something that I know will sound cliché, so I’ll get it out of the way now: for having just three letters, ‘art’ is a pretty huge word. Art has been a part of human lives since before most anything else. It’s been a part of who we are longer than written words and […]

DC’s Big Changes: Something Long Needed or Doomed Overcorrection?

By David Harper | Feb 9, 2015 | Longform

On Friday, DC Comics changed everything. And I don’t mean in the usual, all bark, no bite sort of way we see from the comic industry, but in a real, genuine way. Not unlike its original New 52 relaunch, DC made sweeping changes to its line, keeping 25 titles while revealing 24 titles that are […]

Gone in a Flash: An Appreciation of Jeff Parker and Evan Shaner’s “Flash Gordon”

By Brian Salvatore and Greg Matiasevich | Jan 28, 2015 | Longform

Today marks the end of the line for “Flash Gordon,” the eight-issue series written by Jeff Parker, illustrated by Evan “Doc” Shaner, and colored by Jordie Bellaire. With the release of #8, these creators have finished their story, and a new creative team jumps on for the (also released today) “King: Flash Gordon” miniseries. Before […]

Hello, I Must Be Going: Final Thoughts from a Former Editor-in-Chief

By Matthew Meylikhov | Jan 19, 2015 | Longform

There’s a type of article that you see crop up from time to time on certain websites. Every website has their fair share of staff members and personalities that stand out and resonate with an audience, and sometimes the people behind those personalities leave their writing establishment for whatever reason. Then comes the long goodbye […]

All-Ages Week: The Stories and Keys To All-Ages Comics Biggest Successes

By David Harper | Jan 9, 2015 | Longform

Throughout the week, we’ve highlighted all kinds of aspects of the comic industry and how they impact young readers, from libraries, comic shops and bookstores to publishers, parents and format. But one major aspect we haven’t really looked at is maybe the biggest question of them all: what is it kids want out of their […]

All-Ages Week: Do We Need a New Name for All-Ages Comics?

By David Harper | Jan 8, 2015 | Longform

When I was putting the idea for this week of content together, Multiversity’s Editor Emeritus Walter Richardson mentioned an idea I hadn’t really thought of. He brought up the idea that perhaps part of the reason why all-ages comics have struggled – or at least been perceived to – isn’t because of their quality, but […]

All-Ages Week: The 2015 Parent Survey Results and Responses

By David Harper | Jan 8, 2015 | Longform

When it comes to younger readers, sometimes the biggest roadblock to them becoming a fan of comics isn’t a lack of interest or anything like that. Even if a child is interested in reading comics, they may not be able to do so if their parents aren’t invested in the idea, and many parents still […]

All-Ages Week: The Secret Power of Your Local Library

By David Harper | Jan 7, 2015 | Longform

So far in All-Ages Week, we’ve talked about many of the ways kids and teens can acquire comic books. Amongst the most common ways are at comic shops, bookstores or at home on a phone or tablet, and those are enormously valuable in the overall mix for comics. But one element we haven’t talked about […]

All-Ages Week: What Format Do Kids Want to Read Comics In?

By David Harper | Jan 6, 2015 | Longform

No two comic readers are exactly alike. Each has their preference in terms of titles, writers, artists, colorists, lettering styles, publishers and everything else, and that’s what helps develop the diverse and sprawling published product we see today. While we’re all in pursuit of the same thing – comics that are “good” – the vast […]

All-Ages Week: The Direct Market vs. The Book Market

By David Harper | Jan 6, 2015 | Longform

Of all of the bizarre issues that face the comic industry, one of the oddest by far is the wild disparity of how all-ages comics perform in the book market (meaning bookstores, Amazon, and bigger stores like Target) when compared to how they perform in the direct market (meaning comic retail stores). At bookstores, all-ages […]

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