The Book Review: A Life Force
The Great Depression hits the inhabitants of Dropsie Avenue, and the spectre of Nazism looms. Rob Vollmar explores one of Will Eisner's most accomplished and most autiobiographical works.
31 January 2005

Discovering The Elephant: An integralist approach to understanding graphic novels, part four
What is a graphic novel? In the concluding part of his essay seeking to answer that very question, Rob Vollmar looks at the role the reader plays in the equation, and offers his final answer.
12 January 2004

Discovering The Elephant: An integralist approach to understanding graphic novels, part three
In the third part of Rob Vollmar's attempt to arrive at a working definition for the term 'graphic novel', he turns to the subject of formalism, and the questions thus raised about serialisation, length, sophistication and complexity.
15 December 2003

Discovering The Elephant: An integralist approach to understanding graphic novels, part two
Rob Vollmar continues his four-part study into defining the graphic novel with a look at the role played by authorial intent, with consideration of the works and words of creators Eddie Campbell and Osamu Tezuka.
03 November 2003

Discovering The Elephant: An integralist approach to understanding graphic novels, part one
Eisner-nominated creator Rob Vollmar returns to Ninth Art with a new four-part essay that aims to thoroughly address one of the great questions still troubling the comic industry. What exactly is a graphic novel?
06 October 2003

The Friday Review: Top Shelf: Asks The Big Questions
There seems to be no shortage of art-comics anthologies on the shelves these days, but is there room for one more? Top Shelf certainly thinks so, and with a little help from Robot Publishing, it's put together an impressive line-up to demonstrate the point.
04 July 2003

The Friday Review: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
You probably already know Robert Louis Stevenson's classic horror tale, but you may not be familiar with the work of Lorenzo Mattotti. Ninth Art discovers the ideal introduction in this extraordinary literary adaptation.
16 May 2003

Minority Report: The Mirror Crack'd, Part 3
Rob Vollmar concludes his application of Elaine Showalter's three phases of women's writing to the comics world, with a look at the female voice in modern comics, and the debate surrounding the creation of Girlamatic.com.
21 April 2003

Minority Report: The Mirror Crack'd Part 2
Rob Vollmar considers the feminist voice, the second of Elaine Showalter's three phases of women's writing, as it applies to comics, tracking the changes from WIMMEN'S COMIX to NAUGHTY BITS and beyond.
10 March 2003

Minority Report: The Mirror Crack'd, Part 1
Following his 'brief history' of women in comics, Rob Vollmar launches an exploration of the modern trends of female creators, taking a lead from literary theorist Elaine Showalter to examine the 'Feminine' paradigm.
10 February 2003

Minority Report: A Brief History Of Women In Comics, Part 2
The Three Faces Of Eve: Where did women turn as creators and as readers when offered few opportunities by the claustrophobic comics market of the 1970s? Rob Vollmar looks at three possible paths; ELFQUEST, Archie comics and the female superhero fans.
13 January 2003

The Friday Review: Ring Of The Nibelung
We're calling it the best bookshelf comic of 2002, and as Rob Vollmar attests, P Craig Russell's paper opera is also one of the most staggeringly beautiful comics ever produced. Ninth Art introduces an epic fantasy every bit as spectacular as Tolkien.
03 January 2003

Minority Report: A Brief History Of Women In Comics, Part 1
Continuing his series of essays on minority voices, Rob Vollmar traces the presence of female creators and the market for girl's comics through the 1940s, 50s and 60s, to see how economics and censorship helped drive both close to extinction.
16 December 2002

Minority Report: Super Like Me
THE CASTAWAYS creator Rob Vollmar returns to Ninth Art with a new series looking at minority voices in comics, beginning with a look at the artificial account of comics' diversity presented to us by the OVERSTREET aesthetic.
18 November 2002

The Occidental Tourist: East Eats West
Rob Vollmar wraps up his exploration of the world of manga with a look back over the manga boom of the past few months, and asks whether it's a major change for the industry, or a bubble just waiting to burst. Is SAILOR MOON just a latter-day mutant turtle?
23 September 2002

The Occidental Tourist: Manga By Name
When is a manga story not a manga story? Rob Vollmar tries to pin down the real identity of manga with a look at some of the 'titular mangas', such as the works of Yoshitaka Kiyama, Sanho Kim and Lea Hernandez.
26 August 2002

The Occidental Tourist: The Year Of Ordering Dangerously
The American market for manga is very different to the market for Western comics - and very different from the manga market of only a few years ago. Rob Vollmar looks at how SAILOR MOON and manga formats have created a minor boom.
29 July 2002

The Occidental Tourist: Woman Seeks Manga
This month, Rob ventures into a parallel world, where women not only read comics, but also make them! And the subject matter takes in everything from girls' adventure fiction to homosexual love stories. Join us now into a world they call 'Japan'...
01 July 2002

The Occidental Tourist: Ancestor Worship
He was called the God of Manga. And he earned that title. Rob Vollmar presents an introduction to Osamu Tezuka, a master of sequential storytelling whose great works truly demand your attention.
03 June 2002

The Friday Review: Flesh Colored Horror
To complement Rob Vollmar's recently launched series of essays on manga, Ninth Art presents a review of the collected early works of acclaimed and accomplished Japanese horror writer Junji Ito.
17 May 2002

The Occidental Tourist: Sex and the Modern Manga
There's more to the depiction of sex in manga than penetration by tentacles. In the second instalment of his manga column, Rob Vollmar looks at some of the English-language sex manga on the market.
10 May 2002

The Occidental Tourist: Rhymes With Conga
Introducing the latest addition to Ninth Art's stable of regular columnists, comic creator Rob Vollmar. Rob will be sharing his insight in the world of manga, starting with a look at how manga differs from what most of us know as 'comics'.
08 April 2002

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