Issue Description

This month, The Comics Journal unearths a long-lost interview of the legendary cartoonist and illustrator Noel Sickles. Sickles drew the adventure strip Scorchy Smith that inspired Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon) to further refine Sickles' chiaroscuro style which was later championed by Alex Toth. The interview is conducted by another legendary cartoonist, the late Gil Kane, and the comics historian Ron Goulart. This is a fascinating conversation among three articulate members of the profession, part history, part shop talk. This issue boasts an expanded reviews section, featuring analysis of an amazingly broad spectrum of comics — from The Invisibles to Skibber Bee Bye to Peanuts, from Jack Cole to Rick Geary to Mark Kalesniko, and from Astro City to Berlin — as well as a number of fascinating essays about foreign comics. In addition to the award-winning news and analysis that the Journal is known for, The Comics Journal #242 also marks the return of critic R. Fiore and his Funnybook Roulette column.

The Comics Journal (1976)

Publisher

Fantagraphics

Volume Description

The Comics Journal is a magazine that covers the comics medium from an arts-first perspective, and one of the nation's most respected single-arts magazines, providing its readers with an eclectic mix of industry news, commentary, professional interviews, classic comics sections and reviews of current work on a regular basis. Due to its reputation as the American magazine with an interest in comics as an art form, the Journal has subscribers worldwide, and in this country serves as an important window into the world of comics for several general arts and news magazines.

Despite a contentious relationship with the rest of the North American comics industry, due in no small part to its investigative news stories and uncompromising review section, the Journal has won several industry awards, most notably the Utne Reader, Eisner and Harvey trophies.

In October 2009, we announced the next phase of the evolution of The Comics Journal, beginning in 2010 as a uniquely sized and formatted, evocatively visual and tactile semi-annual event, with expanded content at The Comics Journal website TCJ.com.

A comics magazine, which originally began as the New Nostalgia Journal, started in 1976 by Gary Groth and Mike Catron after the Nostalgia Journal (which ran 26 issues) lost their battle against the competing adzine, The Buyer's Guide. Gary and Mike, both in their twenties, had no plan, but somehow convinced the maker of the Nostalgia Journal to give them the paper.

As Gary Groth recalls:

I can’t remember how we talked them into this, but I suspect they were on their last legs and decided to hell with it, let’s give it to these two kids. Shortly thereafter, a box arrived in the mail with some back issues, a list of advertisers and a mailing list, and we were the proud new owners of Journal.

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Status: Not in Collection