Tips to Improve Your Productivity

Over the last decade, I’ve gone from producing one or two comics a year to producing over a dozen comics yearly, along with webcomics, short stories in anthologies, a few graphic novels, and helping produce the very newspaper you hold in your hands. On top of all that, I’m also happily married, a father of three wonderful children, and work a full-time non-comics related job. Before you ask, no, there’s not two of me. In fact, I accomplished this level of productivity by making a few simple changes in my life.

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My First Comic

A Retrospective of Bugman

The youth of the nation was enraptured in the throws of Ninja-Turtle-mania and Simpsons-mania. At the same time, the Hollywood hype machine was in full swing for what was soon to be a blockbuster movie, Dick Tracy. It was 1990 and, in this swirl of pop culture, I decided to sit down and make my first comic.

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Dinosaurs Marching and Other Dreams Brought to Life

A Brief History on the Dual Life of Winsor McCay

The Palace Theater in Chicago was silent the night of February 8, 1914 as a lone well-dressed man stepped onto stage out of the darkness. The man was Winsor McCay, a cartoonist known for crafting imaginative comic strips for the New York Herald and New York American, he was carrying a whip. No one in the audience knew what to expect as McCay began talking about something new called “animation,” this was a vaudeville act, a stage play, after all. Then McCay turned to the film screen beside him and introduced “the only dinosaur in captivity.”

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10 Questions with Bryan Christopher Moss

Prolific artist Bryan Christopher Moss is a well-known Columbus figure, having been interviewed by every major Columbus publication, as well as appearing on Good Morning Columbus, and WOSU’s art centric program Broad & High. He is known for working in a variety of mediums including comics, fine arts, and murals and recently completed work on the graphic novel The Eightfold Path published by Abrams Books. Among his other comic credits include Rita’s Adventures, Outer Heaven, and the upcoming The Evangelists. Besides his comic work, Moss has been a teacher for Columbus city schools, the manager for Aminah Robinson’s house, and had his art displayed around the city. Columbus is fortunate to claim him, and we appreciate the time he took to answer our questions.

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Dawn of the Comic Book

A brief history on the birth of the comic book and Famous Funnies

By the end of the nineteenth century, every newspaper had a comics section, and the comics featured in that section determined the popularity of the paper. Comics were the driving force in selling newspapers. Since they were popular with readers from every walk of life, it wasn’t long before books of various shapes and sizes began appearing at newsstands and general stores featuring reprintings of comic strips. The comic book we think of today, however, would end up being created out of a need to keep an expensive printing press running. It would be an innovation spawned by two crafty salesmen who would inadvertently create an industry.

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The Many Births of the World’s Most Famous Reporter

The Origins of Hergé and Tintin

The platforms on Gore du Nord train station were overcrowded by hundreds of eager faces, all excitedly awaiting the return of a reporter from the “land of the Soviets.” The reporter was a young boy with a cheerful sounding name composed of just two simple syllables, Tintin. His exploits had been appearing in the weekly comic newspaper supplement, Le Petit Vingtième, for a little over a year. As a way to rally readers, the editorial staff dreamed up the welcome home event for their daring fictional foreign correspondent. They hired 15 year old Boy Scout Lucien Pepermans to play the comic strip character. Tintin arrived home in Brussels on May 8, 1930. Nothing could have prepared the young boy for the crowd that awaited him.

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10 Questions with M.S. Harkness

M.S. Harkness is a graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and a relative newcomer to Columbus, moving here in 2020. She is best known for her black and white autobiographical comics, such as self-published Dope Dealer and Rotten, as well as her first graphic novel Tinderella, originally published by Kilgore Books in 2018 and recently reissued by Uncivilized Books. Sometimes humorous, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes heart-wrenching, Harkness’s comics offer a fearless look into the world of online dating, sex work, selling drugs, and physical fitness. Her second memoir, Desperate Pleasures, (also published by Uncivilized Books), depicts her search for fulfillment and forces her to deal with her own past trauma. Her forthcoming book, Time Under Tension, is due out from Fantagraphic Books in 2023. Besides her comic work, Harkness also works as a personal trainer. Columbus welcomes this fresh voice in the cartooning world.

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10 Questions with Darryl Banks

Darryl Banks is an artist that has been working professionally in comics since the late 1980’s. Born in Columbus, he is best known for his work on Green Lantern, but has completed work for series such as Wild Wild West and Doc Savage. Besides his professional work, he’s helped to shape many artists in our community by teaching Illustration and Comic Book Design at our famed Columbus College of Art & Design.

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Men of Steel

A brief history of Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Superman

June 2nd, 1932, was a typical evening in Cleveland, Ohio. Jerry Siegel was hard at work on the next issue of his science fiction fanzine. Across town, his father, Mitchell, was busy closing up his men’s clothing store when the front bell rang.

Later that evening, a neighboring shop owner noticed the door to Mitchell’s shop was ajar. The light was still on long after closing time, but no sign of the store owner. He poked his head in only to find Mitchell’s lifeless body lying in a pool of blood from two bullet holes and an empty cash register on the counter. This is the catalyst that would make young Jerry Siegel dream of a hero that bullets would bounce off of. With the help of his friend, Joe Shuster, and a lot of science fiction stories, their creation would change the face of modern entertainment forever.

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