James Reitano grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and Nineteen Eighty-Five is his semi-autobiographical tale of a teenager attempting to experience and participate in graffiti culture while living in a small seaside town. It’s a unique kind of historical Hip-Hop fiction, a not-quite-first-person account of searching for a place in the world, seeking out...
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Czarface- s/t (Brick Records, 2013) Czarface is a new project that features the dynamic rap duo 7L and Esoteric joining forces with Inspectah Deck (of Wu-Tang Clan) to produce fourteen tracks of action-packed boom-bap, and it’s an inspired combination. The formula is pretty simple and totally irresistible: pulse-pounding drum loops and rapid-fire lyrics, guest...
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE “Hip-Hop And Comics: Cultures Combining” panel to take place at New York Comic-Con Depth Of Field Magazine brings together renowned comic creators and Hip-Hop legends to discuss ties between the forms, upcoming projects, and shared inspirations On Saturday, October 13th, from 5:15-6:15pm, Depth Of Field Magazine is proud to present Hip-Hop...
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The story of Hip-Hop and Comics is long and convoluted. Hip-Hop began as a communal expression, a bunch of kids in the South Bronx looking for a way to have a good time and move away from the world of gangs and crime that filled their day-to-day lives. Parties in parks and housing projects,...
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Hip-Hop comics are difficult to define, much as Hip-Hop itself is. They’re an entirely different thing than Pop Music Comics, and they deserve their own forum for discussion. This is an important distinction to make, because Hip-Hop is more than just music; it’s a culture based around four elements – the music (DJing), the...
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The Only Living Boy #1 (Bottled Lightning Comics) The Only Living Boy is an entrancing ballad of a little boy lost, an epic fantasy with an intimate focus. It conjures a fully-realized environment of mysterious ruins and gladiators and monsters that evokes ‘Planet Hulk‘ and ‘Planet Of The Apes‘ equally; a bountiful feast of...
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When I wrote about Superman Family Adventures #1, I talked about the things it did well. And it did many things very well. But I also brought up a few of the places I thought it fell short when it came to filling the hole left by the ending of the all-ages, gender-balanced, kid-centered...
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While some pop comics focus on trying to evoke emotions through particular musical references, that’s not the tack that David Lapham took with his (sadly short-lived) Young Liars series. Two song titles emblazoned on a cassette appear at the start of each chapter, giving emotional cues to the action that follows; from then on,...
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Art Baltazar and Franco, the pair responsible for bringing us 50 issues of Tiny Titans, have launched their latest project: Superman Family Adventures. It’s a monthly all-ages comic book featuring Superman in and out of his Clark Kent persona. Tiny Titans favorites Superboy and Supergirl join the fray, and so does Krypto the Superdog,...
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There are times where certain subjects rise to the top of pop culture. Motifs suddenly become the flavor of the month, and ideas pop up in different places — similar concepts appearing from separate sources. Right now, for example, two of my new favorite comic series feature wildly differing takes on a few common...
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The Gorilla Thinks Otherwise! (comicallyvintage @VintageCool2/vintagecoolillustrated)
Some panels are better without context.
