Friday, December 1, 2023

Back to December – This Week’s Links

December 01, 2023 Philippines , Pinoy 0 Comments

Well, I guess that the spirit who said I’d be visited over the Thanksgiving break by three ghosts of linkblogging’s past, present, and future was telling the truth, and they absolutely would not shut up, so I suppose I’m honour-bound to provide you with transcription of what they imparted to me, which you can find below.

This week and last week’s news.

• Starting with comics prize news from the past fortnight, and the National Book Awards were announced last month, with Dan Santat’s A First Time for Everything winning the 2023 Award for Young People’s Literature - only the second graphic novel to win one of the awards in its history.

• Elsewhere, the Angoulême International Comics Festival announced their official selection for 2024, as well as exhibition programming for next year’s edition, with winners of the next Fauve awards to be presented at the festival in January.

• More awards news from the Continent, as l'Association des Critiques et journalistes de Bande Dessinée announced the five finalists for 2024’s Grand Prix de la Critique, and awarded this year’s Prix Jeunesse de la Critique to Vincent Zabus and Hippolyte for Mademoiselle Sophie.

• The University of Warwick announced that the 2023 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation has been awarded to Deena Mohamed for Shubeik Lubeik, with the judges commending the graphic novel’s “wittily inventive texts and dialogues.”

• News was shared of the launch of the Comics Advocacy Group, an organisation dedicated to making careers in comics more accessible and sustainable, including the call for applications to the inaugural CAG Mini Grant scheme, with 30 grants of $500 available, and a submission deadline of January 15th 2024.

• News was also shared of the creation of the non-profit Dwayne McDuffie Foundation, which has established the McDuffie Genius Grant, a scholarship for young African-American students attending Michigan’s The Roeper School, McDuffie’s childhood alma mater.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, and news was shared of the passing of Mike, designer and curator of Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, via a notice on the site, quoting passages from Sandman issues 43 and 71, and noting that Mike had made arrangements regarding the site’s continued operation.

This week and last week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Leonard Pierce reviews the dizzying strangeness of Josh Pettinger’s Warm Television - “Warm Television’s appeal is less in laugh-out-loud moments, or the disruptive emergence of extreme sexual, violent or scatological situations, as it does from an almost Lynchian sense of the everyday taken to the absurd. From the way they look to the way they dress, Pettinger’s characters exude an almost quotidian grotesqueness; something is deeply wrong, even if you never quite find out what it is.”

• Brian Nicholson reviews the solid assuredness of Anand’s Stories From Zoo - “Like the '90s alt comics generation of Tom Hart and Megan Kelso, Anand is an artist using comics as a medium for telling stories without seeming beholden to a tradition of influences; rather, it's taken as a challenge that each blank page should be filled with meaning. These are large pages, the proportions closer to a European album than a manga tankōbon, and they take time to read. One is not meant to glance quickly at them and move on.”

• Chris Mautner reviews the varied charms of The Atlas Comics Library No. 1: Adventures into Terror Volume 1, edited by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo - “If you’re hoping that Adventures into Terror is some sort of treasure chest of comic book greatness, heretofore unopened to the modern public, then you’re likely going to walk away disappointed. But if you recognize that the comics from publishers like Atlas during this era tended to be a mixed bag, with scattershot thrills and pleasures that sometimes arrive in spite of (or perhaps due to) the limitations of those working in the medium, then you’ll find much to enjoy here.”

• Tegan O’Neil reviews the disarming juxtapositions of Osamu Tezuka’s One Hundred Tales, translated by Iyasu Adair Nagata - “What always gets me about Tezuka, just about all the Tezuka I’ve ever read, is the contrast between the tone of his stories and the tone of his storytelling. This is by any standards a heavy tale, filled with heavy themes and uncanny subject matter, but the actual telling of the story is light. Tezuka’s figures are expressive, elastic, fundamentally cartoon characters despite their context.”

 

AIPT

• Connor Boyd reviews the swashbuckling action of Grant Morrison, Dan Mora, et al’s Complete Klaus Deluxe Haucover.

• David Brooke reviews the kid-friendly setup of Chynna Clugston Flores, Leah Williams, Juan Samu, Francine Delgado, et al’s The Addams Family: Charlatan's Web #1.

• Chris Coplan reviews the solid start of Andy Samberg, Rick Remender, Joe Trohman, Roland Boschi, et al’s The Holy Roller #1.

• David Canham reviews the thought provoking questions of Zack Kaplan, Fabiana Mascolo, et al’s Beyond Real #1.

• Jonathan Jones reviews the triumphant reframing of Simon Spurrier, Wilton Santos, et al’s X-Men Blue: Origins #1.

• Christopher Franey reviews the marvelous nostalgia of D.G. Chichester, Netho Diaz, et al’s Daredevil: Black Armor #1.

• Michael Guerrero reviews the fast-paced action of Tom Taylor, Ivan Reis, et al’s Titans: Beast World #1.

• Collier Jennings reviews the brutal spectacle of Jaron Aaron, Doug Mahnke, et al’s Batman: Off-World #1.

• Andrew Isidoro reviews the atmospheric immersion of Sam Hamm, Joe Quinones, et al’s Batman ‘89: Echoes #1.

 

Asian Journal of Communication

Diah Ayu Candraningrum and Hanipa Yansari reviews the rich information of Brian Yecies and Ae-Gyung Shim’s South Korea's Webtooniverse and the Digital Comic Revolution.

 

The Beat

• Steve Baxi reviews the disjointed shift of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Where The Body Was.

• Michael Kurt reviews the gory terror of James Tynion IV, Fernando Blanco, et al's w0rldtr33 Volume 1.

• Jordan Jennings reviews the entertaining bleakness of Andy Samberg, Rick Remender, Joe Trohman, Roland Boschi, et al’s The Holy Roller #1.

• Matias De la Piedra reviews the captivating rawness of Yoshiharu Tsuge’s Nejishiki, translated by Ryan Holmberg.

• Merve Giray reviews the intricate beauty of Toryumon Takeda’s One More Step, Come Stand by My Side, translated by Jason Moses.

• Yazmin Garcia reviews the spicy romance of 945’s The Dangerous Convenience Store, translated by Su-a Min.

• Adam Wescott reviews the charming appeal of Nao Iwamoto’s Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom, Translated by Alan Cheng and Rowena Chen.

 

Broken Frontier

• Lindsay Pereira reviews the twisting horror of Emily Carroll’s A Guest in the House.

• Andy Oliver has reviews of:

- The emotional connection of Tim Bird’s Golden Days.

- The universal communication of Nancy ArtMusic’s Legato Loss.

- The confident line of Sammy Ward’s Not Another Haunting!.

- The unsettling visuals of Alexander Tucker's Entity Reunion 3.

 

Four Color Apocalypse

Ryan Carey reviews the unflinching choices of Harry Nordlinger’s Night Cruising, and the vibrant vistas of Mark Peters And Will Cardini’s Cosmic Gossip.

 

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Victoria Aarons reviews the skilful arrangement of But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust, edited by Charlotte Schallié.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #113 & 114, Jean Grey #4, Astonishing Iceman #4, Children of the Vault #4, Dark X-Men #4, Uncanny Avengers #4, Alpha Flight #4, Deadpool: Seven Slaughters, Immortal X-Men #17, Uncanny Spider-Man #4, Wolverine #39, and Invincible Iron Man #12.

 

Library Journal

• Martha Cornog has a capsule review of the immersive details of Julia Wertz’s Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story.

• Tom Batten has capsule reviews of:

- The nuanced revising of Matt Wagner’s Grendel: Devil by the Deed - Master’s Edition.

- The sharp satire of Rick Altergott’s Blessed Be.

- The accessible action of Mark Millar and Pepe Larraz’s Big Game. 

- The provocative meditations of Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tokyo These Days, Volume 1.

 

Montreal Review of Books

Connor Harrison reviews the disarming illustration of Chris Oliveros' Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?.

 

Multiversity Comics

• Matthew Blair reviews the haunting intensity of James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixon, et al’s The Deviant #1.

• Robbie Pleasant reviews the distinctive characters of Faith Erin Hicks, Peter Wartman, et al’s Avatar: The Last Airbender – Azula in the Spirit Temple.

• Gregory Ellner reviews the slow start of Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, Peter Bergting, et al’s Mortal Terror #1.

• Kate Kosturski reviews the fun beginning of Andy Samberg, Rick Remender, Joe Trohman, Roland Boschi, et al’s The Holy Roller #1.

• Greg Matiasevich reviews the solid adaptations of Z2’s Iron Maiden: Piece of Mind.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Have capsule reviews of:

- The vibrant mosaic of Yann Damezin’s Majnun and Layla: Songs from Beyond the Grave, translated by Aqsa Ijaz and Thomas Harrison.

- The light romance of Sarah Vaughn, Sarah Winifred Searle, and Niki Smith’s Ruined.

- The boisterous effervescence of refrainbow’s Boyfriends.

 

Solrad

Tom Shapira reviews the flattened rage of Don Simpson’s X-Amount of Comics: 1963 - When Else!? Annual!.

 

Victorian Periodicals Review

Brian Maidment reviews the illuminating foci of Comic Empires: Imperialism in Cartoons, Caricature and Comic Art, edited by Richard Scully and Andrekos Varnava.

This week and last week’s interviews.

TCJ

• John Kelly presents conversation and questions from Mark Newgarden and Owen Kline with Ed Subitzky, plus audience, at the Rizzoli Bookstore launch for Poor Helpless Comics! The Cartoons (and More) of Ed Subitzky - “I was always the shy person huddled over my drawing table or a keyboard at my computer. I never really got involved in all the stuff that was going on, so I have to not answer that question completely because, although I was there, I wasn't really there in a certain way.”

• Jake Zawlacki interviews Chris Wisnia about Doris Danger: Giant Monsters Amok, metatextual explorations of the enjoyment of serial media, and the repeating conventions of superhero comics - “[Jack] Kirby is such a master of motion and action. All his work is so big, visually and storytelling-wise, and I've been trying to turn that on its ear and use that imagery to portray talking heads discussing absurd conspiracy theories. I feel that’s something that was absolutely not intended in any of the original work. Back then, comic books were about these amazing, larger than life images.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Chris Claremont about Wolverine: Madripoor Knights, steering clear of contemporary continuity, and what happens to characters when you’re no longer writing them; and with Jason Loo about Howard the Duck, inducting Howard into the X-Men, and trading card obsessions.

• Chris Coplan chats with Tom Taylor about Titans: Beast World, making the fans cry, integral tie-ins, and elevating your characters; and with Declan Shalvey and Drew Moss about Thundercats, giving the story some contemporary tweaks, and the science fiction elements of the source material.

• David Brooke interviews Tyler Marceca about Lunar Lodge, keeping werewolves relatable, and their relative sparsity in the current media landscape compared to other monsters.

 

The Beat

Deanna Destito talks to Roger Langridge about Justice Ducks, an enduring enjoyment of Carl Barks, and favourite fowl.

 

Hyperallergic

Samantha Anne Carrillo chats with Carmen Selam about Rezbians, the nostalgic colouring of the comic, and avoiding queer narrative tropes.

 

ICv2

• Dan Gearino presents a three-part conversation with Steve Geppi on Diamond Distribution’s origins, growth, and changing place in the contemporary Direct Market.

• Milton Griepp presents a two-part conversation with Dark Horse’s Mike Richardson about retail origins and the launch of the publisher, and growth across media in the U.S. markets.

• Brigid Alverson speaks with Matias Timarchi and Danielle Ward of Alien Books about attaining the licence for Valiant Comics, and manga licensing deals.

 

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

• Darnel Degand interviews Barbara Brandon-Croft about Where I’m Coming From, family cartooning history, and some creator commentary on selected strips.

• Ishani Anwesha Joshi and Sathyaraj Venkatesan speak with Meredith Li-Vollmer about Graphic Public Health: A Comics Anthology and Roadmap, and working to transform public health.

 

The Los Angeles Times

Jevon Phillips talks to Paul Dano about The Riddler: Year One, family comics history, the psychology of supervillains, and Gotham as a character.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Shaenon K. Garrity speaks with Tracy Butler about Lackadaisy, the comic’s origins, the accessibility of webcomics, and adapting the comic to animation.

 

Solrad

Chris Kindred chats with Olivia Stephens about Darlin’ and Her Other Names, storytelling as catharsis, Afro-indigenous family stories, evolving creative processes.

 

Women Write About Comics

Lisa Fernandes interviews Timmy Heague, Danielle Paige, and Michael Northrop about Fear the Funhouse: Toybox of Terror, and EC Comics history.

This week and last week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Tegan O’Neil considers the value proposition of the current Marvel Tales line of reprints, and the stories to be found in the recent Moon Knight vs. Werewolf edition of the series - Comic book stores of all stripes live and die on the cover price of Marvel comic books. That’s a fact of life, and has been since the founding of the direct market. Ten bucks for a new comic was a bridge to far for me, but am I paying $5 for new issues of Al Ewing’s The Immortal Thor? Yes, and I can’t help but feel like a sucker for it, even as I know full well it’s a good comic I’m going to enjoy a great deal and read multiple times, possibly even write about at some point. But man, $5 is still steep.”

• Also for TCJ, RJ Casey returns with November’s edition of Arrivals and Departures, this month taking a look at Grayson Bear’s Business Insider, Philadelphia-originated anthology Reptile House #12, and Leo Fox’s Prokaryote Season - “You got to love a title that sends you to Merriam-Webster. A "prokaryote" is a single-celled organism of a type the small ensemble cast of this 168-page graphic novel more or less wish to revert back to. They’re envious of the simple lifeform’s ability to simply be, existing without lust and lies, wants and needs.”

• Cynthia Rose returns to TCJ, writing on the work of Posy Simmonds, on the occasion of a launch of a new exhibition at the Pompidou Centre, and speaking with Simmonds on a life and career in comics - “From her effusive Wendy Weber to selfish Cassandra Darke, all Simmonds' characters are essentially types. Each is familiar and appears benign. But their trials revolve around something more private, which is those compromises bourgeois life demands. The toll it exacts–the false friends, casual betrayals and crushed ideals–provides many of Simmonds' laughs and supplies comic energy. But they also constitute a warning that, if such tradeoffs become reflexive, you get more than just social absurdity. You, like her characters, become a chronic opportunist.”

• More for TCJ, as Tom Shapira opens the crypt door to rattle the bones of contemporary reprints of horror comics originally published by EC Comics, Warren Publishing, and Atlas Comics - “It’s a golden age for horror reprints. The age in question may be around 50, which is that of the readers, but it is golden nonetheless. Recent years have seen a blessed rise in the republication of ye olde tales of terror, and the stuff that once gave rise to the Comics Code Authority and horrified the parents of a nation for pennies on the dollar is now packaged in deluxe format and sold to a new generation of parents for explosive sums.”

• Finally for TCJ, Hagai Palevsky profiles the work of Ron Regé, Jr. through the lens of lessons learned regarding spirituality, and the teachings these comics attempt to impart, imperfect or otherwise - “Even if we exist beyond these confines, even if at present we only exist as in a mirror dimly, that mirror is still real in the experiential, and thus is worthwhile. After all, doesn't the idea of eternal life imply with it an eternal community?”

• Over at ICv2, Milton Griepp responds to recent hot-takes on the purported impending demise of the Direct Market, looking at the decline in superhero comics sales, and migration of creators away from the Big Two; with subsequent responses from Comix Experience’s Brian Hibbs and Mile High Comics’ Chuck Rozanski.

• For Shelfdust, Jay Doe looks back on the political horror and realities to be found in Simon Spurrier and Aaron Campbell’s John Constantine: Hellblazer #11, and Armaan Babu unpicks the lies burdening the characters of Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi’s The Good Asian.

• Shaenon K. Garrity covers the boom of webtoons and webcomics in the context of their translation to print collections, for Publisher’s Weekly, speaking with key players publishing infinite scroll stories and webcomics in physical formats.

• From the world of open-access academia, Participations has a special issue in appreciation of the work of former-editor Martin Barker, with an essay by Roger Sabin on Barker’s contributions to the field of comics studies, and a paper from Henry Jenkins on debate surrounding Uncle $crooge comics in the context of Barker’s critique of Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart’s How to Read Donald Duck.

• In the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Robert Hagan writes on adult to child violence in UK comics of the 1970s focused on Dennis the Menace strips from the Beano, and Sathyaraj Venkatesan and Prerna Tolani examine the effectiveness with which Elodie Durand conveys the complexities of epilepsy in Parenthesis.

• For REDEN, Troy Michael Bordun assesses Grant Morrison and Yannick Paquette’s Wonder Woman: Earth One, interrogating the use of violence in superhero narratives as a means to pursue justice.

• Michał Szawerna and Neil Cohn present a chapter on iconicity in the visual lexicon of comics, from The Oxford Handbook of Iconicity in Language, exploring how modality corresponds systematically to meaning in comics.

• For Nature, Hikaru Ikuta, Leslie Wöhler, and Kiyoharu Aizawa present a paper on the viewing times given to comic book panels, from a data set of readers, and the commonalities and variables that affect this.

• In Pakistan Languages and Humanities Review, Sehrish Aslam and Fauzia Janjua present a study the subversion of social mores and empowerment of women in Ngar Nazar’s Gogi cartoons, and how these encourage the participation in nonviolent resistance.

• For Children’s Literature in Education, Julieta Alós has a paper on the translation of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid into Arabic, and how the paralanguage used fails the source material and prospective readers.

• Writing in Geriatrics, Ryuichi Ohta, Yumi Naito, and Chiaki Sano present a study on depictions of community social workers in manga, and the attitudes these depict towards the work of alleviating social isolation in older population groups.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as the looming expulsion of George Santos, US-China relations, the implosion of OpenAI, economic divides, and the continuing conflict between Israel and Hamas all proved fertile illustrative ground.

This week and last week’s audio/visual delights.

• Two meetings of the New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium, as Lilli Carré hosted a talk from Shary Boyle on comics work, zine-making, and performance, and the work of  Inuit story-drawers from the Arctic; and Bill Kartalopoulos hosted a presentation from Melek Zertal and Christina Svenson on Today’s Special and comics-making with poetry as its foundation.

• Recorded programming from September’s edition of the Small Press Expo is now available on YouTube, with panels, spotlight interviews, and live podcast records for your viewing/listening pleasure.

• Katie Skelly and Sally Madden convened to consider the Thick Lines of Shungiku Uchida’s Minami's Lover, the relationship it depicts, its place within Uchida’s career and personal life, and the practicalities of making tiny clothes.

• Noah Van Sciver had a two-part conversation with Seth, as they discussed Palookaville, working processes in the modern world, appreciating the past, and the exercise of structuring and designing a book.

• Recorded at this year’s Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, Gil Roth sat down with Matt Bors for The Virtual Memories Show to speak about the end of The Nib, its decade of publication, and moving onto other projects like Justice Warriors.

• A couple of episodes of Off Panel, as David Harper spoke with Skottie Young about Twig and career progressions, and with Alex De Campi about recent books with Image Comics and the research processes fundamental to storytelling.

• Calvin Reid, Heidi MacDonald, and Kate Fitzsimons covered all the big comics industry news stories for Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come, before MacDonald interviewed Matt Lesniewski about recent comics projects.

• Jesse Thorn welcomed Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki to Bullseye as they discussed Roaming, the relationship dynamics and pains of growing-up that it depicts, and the experience of seeing This One Summer targeted by book challenges.

• A pair of visits to Comix Experience, as Brian Hibbs assembled the store’s Graphic Novel Club, speaking with Colleen Madden about Shelley Frankenstein! CowPiggy, and with Navied Mahdavian about This Country.

• Journeying up in the Word Balloon with John Siuntres for some comic book chats with Sina Grace about Superman: The Harvests of Youth, Keith Champagne about the Jump and Uncovered crowdfunding campaign, and Matt Fraction on recent work for page and screen.

• A selection of Cartoonist Kayfabe’s output to close out the week, as Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor took a look at Wally Wood on Heroes Inc., Presents Cannon, Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon #266, Ralph Steadman’s A Life in Ink, John Byrne’s NextMen, Graham Ingels’ EC Stories: Artist’s Edition, and the chaos of Image Comics’ X Month swaperoo.

Those are all the links for this week, and to all a bah humbug.

The post Back to December – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.


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