Friday, December 15, 2023

Turkey I’m On Your Side – This Week’s Links

December 15, 2023 Philippines , Pinoy 0 Comments

Staggering to 2023’s home plate, one more links round-up left after this, below, of what has been a very long year, squinting exhaustedly at a slowly-failing social media feed that has Mark Millar repeatedly, and apparently unironically, using the term ‘cancel pigs,’ presumably coming to Netflix sometime in 2025, and wondering idly about what it would feel like to be able to defer $68 million of your annual salary, were it not for all the other life choices you had made up to this point and a resounding lack of natural baseball talent and skill.

This week’s news.

• Back to the courtroom once more, as Marvel and the estate of Steve Ditko announced on Wednesday that an amicable resolution had been reached regarding copyright disputes over Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, with no further details given regarding the monetary value of said amicability - this brings to a close the last of the lawsuits filed recently by the House of Ideas to dispute copyright termination claims by creators of various superhero characters.

• Elsewhere, five teenagers were convicted by a French court of involvement in a group preparing aggravated violence, with another convicted of having made false accusation charges and slanderous comments, for their complicity in the 2020 killing of teacher Samuel Paty, which was carried out after Paty showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, originally published in Charlie Hebdo, while teaching a class on freedom of expression - eight adults will also be tried next year for their alleged involvement in the killing.

• The Guardian reported this week that the fifth volume of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series has become the UK’s fastest selling graphic novel ever, shifting over 60,000 units in its first three days on sale.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, and news was shared of the death of artist Ian Gibson, illustrator of The Ballad of Halo Jones amongst others, who passed away this week at the age of 77, following a battle with cancer.

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Hank Kennedy reviews the impressive caricaturing of Sakina Karimjee and Nic Watts’ adaptation of C.L.R. James’ Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History - “Around a million slaves died due to the conditions of slavery in Haiti. The death rates of Black slaves on sugar plantations in Haiti were higher than those for slaves anywhere else. Karmeja and Watts mostly let the illustrations show the brutal treatment slaves faced.”

• Tom Shapira reviews the repeating concept of Rebellion’s Fiends of the Eastern Front - “A Romanian unit, led by the sinister Captain Constanta, joins WWII on the side of the Germans as they invade the Soviet Union. It won't surprise you too much to learn that this unit, which only fights at night and tends to survive encounters that would kill any normal man, is composed entirely of vampires. The fact that the protagonist is a German soldier, who must come to term with the horrors serving alongside him while disregarding the horror he serves under, is a powerful idea that the story constantly undermines by ignoring it.”

 

AIPT

• Colin Moon reviews the clever spin of Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, et al’s Masterpiece #1.

• Alex McDonald reviews the emotional peaks of Stuart Moore, June Brigman, et al’s Captain Ginger: The Last Feeder #2.

• Rory Wilding reviews the stunning details of Abigail Jill Harding’s Parliament of Rooks #2.

• Piper Whitaker reviews the jumbled themes of DC Comics’ Action Comics #1060.

• David Brooke reviews the intense action of Erica Shultz, Sergio Davila, et al’s Daredevil: Gang War #1.

• Collier Jennings reviews the high-concept horror of Charles Soule, Alberto Jimenez Albuquerque, et al’s The Bloody Dozen: A Tale of the Shrouded College #1.

 

The Beat

• Megan Grace reviews the engaging concepts of Owen D. Pomery’s The Hard Switch.

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the beautiful production of Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, et al’s Batman #428: Robin Lives!.

• Cy Beltran reviews the fresh twists of Melissa Flores, Enid Balám, et al’s Spider-Gwen: Smash #1.

• Christina Wong reviews the bold honesty of Shungiku Uchida’s Minami’s Lover, translated by H. Paige.

• Beau Q. reviews the twisting introductions of Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, et al's Masterpiece #1.

 

Broken Frontier

Andy Oliver reviews the aesthetic appeal of Rebellion’s Misty: 45 Years of Fear, the Essential Collection.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #116, X-Men #29, Alpha Flight #5, and Invincible Iron Man #13.

 

Multiversity Comics

• Brian Salvatore reviews the enticing core of Chuck Brown, Keron Grant, et al’s Titans Beast World Waller Rising #1.

• Alexander Jones reviews the blazing finale of Al Ewing, Yildiray Cinar, et al’s X-Men: Red #18.

• Christopher Egan reviews the layered mysteries of Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, et al's Masterpiece #1.

 

New York Review of Books

Mark Everett Stone reviews the satisfying preludes of Stephen King, Peter David, Robin Furth, Richard Isanove, Jae Lee, et al’s The Dark Tower: Beginnings Omnibus.

 

NPR

Tahneer Oksman reviews the thoughtful layouts of Élodie Durand's Transitions: A Mother's Journey.

 

PopMatters

Greg M. Schwartz reviews the innovative approaches of Dave Chisholm’s Miles Davis and the Search for the Sound.

 

Solrad

Keith Silva reviews the wrong footedness of Koren Shadmi’s All Tomorrow’s Parties – The Velvet Underground Story.

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Jon Holt and Shige (CJ) Suzuki present a translation of a 2002 interview with Ikegami Ryōichi on Supaidāman, early manga work, telling a singular shōnen story, and embodying an anti-authoritarian outlook - “In the beginning, I was drawing manga based on the translated originals from American comic books, but because the stories were too simplistic, I asked the editor to let me try my own original story. I totally switched over to my original version of the character after that.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Steve Orlando about Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver, Wizards and angels, writing the Maximoffs, and creative collaborations.

• Chris Coplan talks to Joe Casey about Kneel Before Zod, the cosmic challenges of writing General Zod, and subverting reader expectations.

 

The Beat

Deanna Destito chats with Declan Shalvey and Drew Moss about Thundercats, childhood memories of the source material, and favourite felines.

 

The Guardian

David Barnett interviews Joe Sacco and Gary Groth about Palestine, the comic’s original publication, and its enduring relevance in the face of the current hostilities in Gaza. 

 

ICv2

Heidi MacDonald presents a two-part conversation with Maggie Thompson on the history of Comic Arts and the Comics Buyer’s Guide, cataloguing pre-internet, and a life in comic books.

 

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

Nandhitha Muruganandan and Sathyaraj Venkatesan interview Samarth about Suit, the book’s expansion of the way in which creators in India engage with the social issue of casteism.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Shaenon K. Garrity speaks with Dave Maass and Patrick Lay about Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis, the book’s origins in the Holocaust, and the research that went into the project.

 

Third Stone

Julian Chambliss interviews Tim Fielder about INFINITUM: An Afrofuturist Tale, pushing back against casual visual racism, and making Afrofuturist work since childhood.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, William Schwartz looks back on Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki’s Pluto, its adaptation for the screen in animated form, and the looming spectre of Astro Boy over both its forms - “But the context of 2023 is different from the 1964, or the 2003, or even the 2009 context of the prior iterations of this story. The whole idea of "robots"—artificial intelligence—has radically changed since then; AI has shifted the terrain away from something aspiring to be close to human, but rather employed as an imitation of human action.”

• Also for TCJ, Valerio Stivé reports from this year’s Lucca Comics & Games, as a boycott of the event by Zerocalcare, over the Israeli embassy's patronage of the festival, became a large focus of 2023’s edition - “But reactions came from well beyond the comics scene. In fact, what happened after Zerocalcare’s announcement was something never before seen in Italian comics. As big (in terms of visitors) and important (for the whole entertainment industry) as the Lucca festival is, it has never attracted so much attention from the media.”

• More for TCJ, as RJ Casey ushers in some fresh Arrivals and Departures, this month checking the tickets of Ian Mackay’s Duck Comics #1, Brian McCray’s Beautiful Duck Comics, Chaddy-Ann Newton’s Going 4 Free, and Mitch Lohmeier’s Michael Mouse - “The main takeaway from all of this nonsense is: there is no better time to bring back Critters! (This would go near the top of my list of projects that I would push—but would realistically eventually go nowhere—if I was still working at Fantagraphics.”

• For The Washington Post, Chris Ware writes on the English language publications of the works of Yoshiharu Tsuge, and the revelatory storytelling to be found in the most recent volume,  Nejishiki.

• The Women Write About Comics team reconvenes for more WWWAComendations, including thoughts on Koreangry, The Infinity Particle, Lunar New Year Love Story, Rigsby WI, and The Full-Time Wife Escapist.

• For Shelfdust, Justin Harrison sings the praises of Mira Ong Chua’s I Want to Be Your Doll, the comic’s sharp sweetness and body language, and the craft in its conclusion.

• From the world of open-access academia, in Comparatismi, Giorgio Busi Rizzi writes on Richard McGuire’s Here, and the nostalgic and anti-nostalgic features to be found therein.

• For the Harm Reduction Journal, Leah H. Harvey, Westyn Branch-Elliman, Jacqueline Boudreau, Samantha K. Sliwinski, Allen L. Gifford, Minh Q. Ho, Elizabeth Dinges, and Justeen Hyde present a study on using comics to engage with veterans in substance use programs about the risks posed by injection drug use, and potential strategies to mitigate these risks.

• Paul O’Brien’s census of the varied villains of Daredevil continues, over at House to Astonish, as this week The Organizer arrives under a somewhat antithetical cloud.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as misinformation is the word of the year over at X (formerly Twitter), and debate surrounding the compensation of student athletes goes into overtime.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Katie Skelly and Sally Madden reconvened to discuss the Thick Lines of Anand’s Stories From Zoo, the varied delights to be found in a good short story collection, and the singular feeling of watching fictional characters being humiliated.

• Noah Van Sciver hosted a fresh cartoonist chat, this edition speaking with Josh Bayer about Unended, accepting and developing into your individual creative identity, the source material for Unended, and the importance of anthologies.

• David Harper closed out the Off Panel year with a triple header, speaking with Katie Pryde, Heidi MacDonald, and Jamal Igle about how 2023 has looked from across the comics industry, and how things might develop into the rest of the decade.

• Calvin Reid talked to Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee for the latest edition of Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come, as they discussed adapting C.L.R. James’ Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History, the research that went into the project, and the challenges inherent in making such a book.

• Closing out the penultimate linkblogging week of the year with some Cartoonist Kayfabe, as a rotating cast of Jim Rugg, Ed Piskor, Bryan Moss, Geof Darrow, and Shawn @Japanbookhunter took a look at Daniel Clowes’ The Uggly Family, Marvel Comics’ Popcorn magazines in Japan, Wally Wood’s EC Stories Artist’s Edition, Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece #1098, the Fist of the Northstar 40th anniversary exhibition catalogue, and Alan Moore and Rick Veitch on Superman and Swamp Thing.

That’s all for this week, next time: the end of the year and the end of year lists!

The post Turkey I’m On Your Side – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.


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