Time Codes: 00:00:26 - Introduction 00:02:17 - Listener tweets! 00:08:18 - Interview with Annie Koyama 00:31:51 - You & a Bike & a Road 00:50:09 - Sunburning 01:07:19 - Crawl Space 01:24:45 - Condo Heartbreak Disco 01:38:05 - Volcano Trash 01:50:13 - So Pretty/Very Rotten 02:03:14 - Wrap up 02:04:18 - Contact us For this week's review episode the Two Guys with PhDs turn a critical spotlight on Koyama Press and its spring 2017 releases. They devoted an entire episode to Koyama a couple of years ago, but this season there are just so many great titles coming out from the press that the guys wanted to look at all of their releases and not just two or three scheduled across several weeks. First, though, they share a brief conversation with the press' founder and publisher, Annie Koyama, who provides an overview and history of the Canadian publishing house. Then the guys start discussing the new releases, beginning with Eleanor Davis's You & a Bike & a Road, a diary comic of her time biking from Arizona to Georgia and the various experiences and encounters she had along the way. Reading this book has even gotten Derek back exercising on his bike, although Andy wasn't inspired in quite the same way. After that they look at another autobiographical work in diary form, Keiler Roberts's Sunburning. The Two Guys have discussed Roberts's work on the podcast previously, but this is the first time the both of them have focused on one of her entire books, her first Koyama Press release. Next, they turn to Crawl Space, the latest from Koyama creator Jesse Jacobs. This is a visually unique work, combining Jacobs's geometric abstractions with a straightforward, yet self-reflexibly revealing, storyline. Another experimental work is Eric Kostiuk Williams's Condo Heartbreak Disco. At the center of this narrative are Komio and The Willendorf Braid, two figures whose stories are part of Williams's Hungry Bottom Comics series, of which neither of the guys are familiar (unfortunately). Then it's on to Volcano Trash, the follow up to Ben Sears's Night Air which was leased last year. This all-age adventure featuring Plus Man and Hank is one of the highlights of the week, and the guys hope Sears continues developing this series. And finally, Andy and Derek wrap up with Jane Mai and An Nguyen's hybrid text, So Pretty/Very Rotten: Comics and Essays on Lolita Fashion and Cute Culture. This is a fascinating exploration of a cultural trend that neither of the guys really knew much about -- at least in detail -- and one that caters to their scholarly sensibilities.