Truth, Beauty, Comics

Hellboy: Seed of Destruction

What do you get when the Spawn of Satan carries a rosary? You get Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, a half-demon, half-human creature adopted by a kindly, devout catholic and raised to fight supernatural evil as a member of the ​​Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Today Hellboy is a bestseller but his debut was a long-shot. Mignola was miserable and not playing to his strengths drawing typical super hero stories. Hellboy was his chance to draw what he loved: monsters, gothic castles, cemeteries, and churches with a gruff protagonist inspired by his father at the center. In March of 1994, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction hit the shelves. Today on Truth, Beauty, Comics!
We're reading from the Hellboy Omnibus, available on Amazon.
If you want to follow along as we flip through the pages, watch this podcast on Youtube.

Newspaper Comics: Classic Characters Take The Stage

After bursting on the scene in the first decade of the 20th century, newspaper comics were exploding in popularity: Weekend sections went from 4, to 8, then to 16, and even 32 pages in 1935. And all those pages made room for a flood of new strips by a talented group of cartoonists: Long-running stories, increasingly complicated characters and plotlines filled the newsprint. We’ll see the first appearance of Barney Google, Blondie, Uncle Walt and Skeezix – characters who still appear in newspapers today. With a massive, colorful canvas to explore and seemingly endless creative possibilities, comic strips would never again be so glorious as these prewar decades.
We're reading through the third chapter of the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams.
 
If you're listening to this episode, we recommend viewing the video on YouTube to follow along as we read though the comic pages: https://youtu.be/OsSWxE1uYn4
 
Read along with us here: https://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Collection-Newspaper-Comics/dp/0874741726/

Bleach, Vols 7 & 8: Crossing over to rescue Rukia

Up until now the world of Bleach has been contained to Ichigo's hometown, high school and circle of friends. That changes in a big way in Volumes 7 & 8 when we finally meet more of the mysterious Soul Society, who show up to arrest Rukia and bring her to justice. Ichigo will have to get stronger quick if he wants to rescue her from these warriors with seemingly unlimited powers.
 
Today we wrap up the first arc of Bleach discussing Volumes 7 & 8 on Truth, Beauty, Comics!

The Birth of the Newspaper Comic: The Yellow Kid, Little Nemo, and More

Yellow Kid, Little Nemo, Buster Brown – the first few decades of American newspaper comics saw a youthful cast of precocious heroes, villains and every shade in between. Subject matters ranged from the urban, practical jokes of Buster Brown to the vast, intricate dreamscapes of Little Nemo in Slumberland. In its first decades comics entered the world in a glorious explosion of art, vernacular dialogue, and whimsy. We're reading through the first chapter of the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams.
 
If you're listening to this episode, we recommend viewing the video on YouTube to follow along as we read though the comic pages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LxevUsMq-4
 
- https://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Collection-Newspaper-Comics/dp/0874741726/

Bleach: Quincy Archer Hates You

Ichigo Kurosaki has been acting as a soul reaper for several months now, but how much longer can his secret last? It seems inevitable that his friends will discover the truth, and, more concerningly, new enemies will too. In volumes 4, 5, and 6, Bleach’s world gets bigger, raising questions about friendship, heritage, and the balance between good and evil. We're talking about it today on the podcast.
We're reading from the Bleach 3-1 Volume 2, available on Amazon.
 

A Christmas for Shacktown by Carl Barks

It’s the holiday season in Duckburg and money is in short supply: Donald only has five dollars to scrape together for Christmas presents but nobody has it worse than the kids of Shacktown, the place where people in Duckburg live who are down on their luck. In a burst of Christmas Spirit, the ducks decide to throw a Christmas party for Shacktown with turkeys and a toy train. But to raise the money for the party, they’ll need twenty five dollars from Uncle Scrooge and it’ll take a miracle to get him to part with it. In this story Carl Barks channels Charles Dickens and creates “A Christmas for Shacktown”, one of the best comics in his bibliography.
 

Loss and Revenge: Bleach's "Memories in the Rain"

Ichigo is the quintessential steely tough-guy, never smiling, never crying. But he wasn’t always that way. In fact, before his mother was killed, he was altogether different. Today, on the anniversary of his mother’s death, old feelings and memories come back as he and his family visit her grave. But when a familiar ghost girl appears at the graveyard he’ll confront more than just memories from his past and be pushed to the limit to save his family from the same demon that took his mother.
We're discussing volume 3 from the 3-in-1 collection: Memories in the Rain.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Today, on a Very Special Episode of Truth, Beauty, Comics we switch up the format to Truth, Beauty, Holiday TV Specials and discuss the 1973 cartoon, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. (It's highly comics-adjacent so we thought we could get away with it.) It's our own Thanksgiving Special so curl up with a huge bowl of gravy and a generous helping of turkey and enjoy!