Friday, January 12, 2024

A Hazy Shade of Winter – This Week’s Links

January 12, 2024 Philippines , Pinoy 0 Comments

Back into the swing of things now, two weeks into this newest of years, back to the grind, the hustle, the pounding the pavement, back to lifting up random rocks that I see on the trail to find any stray links that might be hibernating underneath, turning them over in my frostbitten hands to see whether they’re about the comics industry, or, as is more often the case, just offering me a buy-in opportunity to what is emphatically NOT a cryptocurrency scam designed to remove whatever fiscal worth I might have remaining after multiple double-dip recessions and rampant inflation and rocketing interest rates, and so to this week’s selection of the web-offerings that made the cut, below.

This week’s news.

• Starting this week’s selection with awards news, and Comic Con International released a raft of updates about 2024’s Eisner Awards, including opening of submissions to its categories for this year, which now folds the journalism category into the Comics-Related Book or Periodical category, reminding everybody that “The judges may add, delete, or combine categories at their discretion.”

• CCI also announced the judging panel for this year’s Hall of Fame, which will have its own dedicated judging and prize giving ceremony for 2024, with the judges comprising William Foster, Michael T. Gilbert, Karen Green, Alonso Nuñez, Jim Thompson, and Maggie Thompson.

• Elsewhere, The Beat announced that they had named Sloane Leong as their Comics Industry Person of the Year for 2023, citing Leong’s involvement in co-founding the Cartoonist Cooperative as a key driver for this award - the full list of nominees and named winners in various categories can be found here.

• Boing Boing shared the announcement that cartoonist Ramona Fradon is retiring at the age of 97, no longer taking on commissions from prospective buyers, although art dealer Catskill Comics is quoted as saying that “from time to time she'll do a drawing or two to put up for sale on the website.”

• In Memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, and news was shared at the end of last week of the passing of comics artist Attila Futaki, who has died at the age of 39.

• News was also shared of the passing of scholar and writer David Kunzle, author of The History of the Comic Strip, and translator of How to Read Donald Duck, who has died at the age of 87.

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Chris Mautner reviews the varied genres of Lockin’ Out Records’ Cicadas, compiled by Riley Gale, and edited by AJ McGuire and Ned Russin - “Cicadas remains an impressive and highly entertaining collection of work, even if some of these stories have seen publication elsewhere in the years since its inception. It’s a genuine shame that Gale not only wasn’t able to see this book published, but isn’t around to put a second volume together. He had an eye for talent.”

• Tegan O’Neil reviews the stacked retrospective of Mark Stafford et al’s Salmonella Smorgasbord - “From horror and whimsy to romance, Stafford is a surprisingly versatile style. Every iconoclast should be lucky enough to find so gratifying an anthology as this.”

 

AIPT

• Ben Morin reviews the staid start of Jed MacKay, CF Villa, et al’s The Avengers: The Impossible City.

• David Brooke reviews the grounded beginning of Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto, et al’s Ultimate Spider-Man #1.

• Collier Jennings reviews the solid foundations of Kieron Gillen, RB Silva, et al’s Rise of the Powers of X #1.

• Ryan Sonneville reviews the enjoyable banter of Stephanie Phillips, Carlos Gómez, et al's Rogue & Gambit: Power Play.

• Chris Coplan reviews the hybrid delights of Matthew Erman, Lonnie Nadler, Robbi Rodriguez, et al’s Golgotha Motor Mountain #1.

• Justin Harrison reviews the quiet thrills of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Where the Body Was.

• Michael Guerrero reviews the spectacular balance of Naoya Matsumoto’s Kaiju No. 8 Volume 9.

• Rory Wilding reviews the dazzling visuals of Scott Snyder, Tula Lotay, et al’s Barnstormers: A Ballad of Love and Murder.

 

The Beat

• Beau Q reviews the overwrought retreading of Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, et al’s Adventureman Ghost Lights #1.

• Tim Rooney reviews the spectacular choreography of Dylan Burnett et al’s Arcade Kings.

• Marion Pena reviews the polarising setup of Yontaek Chae and Garam Han’s Get Schooled!.

• Yazmin Garcia reviews the supernatural fun of HYBE, EHYPHEN, et al’s DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR.

• Ricardo Serrano Denis reviews the complex terrors of Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

• Kelas Lloyd reviews the engaging atmosphere of Matthew Erman, Lonnie Nadler, Robbi Rodriguez, et al’s Golgotha Motor Mountain #1.

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the pleasant surprises of Jason Aaron, John Timms, et al’s Action Comics #1061.

 

Broken Frontier

Andy Oliver reviews the diverse potential of ThirdBear Press’ Boxes #1, edited by Steven Ingram; and the eloquent silence of Chris W. Kim’s Adherent.

 

Green Left

Andrew Chuter reviews the brutal realities of Janet Biehl’s Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the war on ISIS.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #120 and Fall of the House of X #1.

 

Kirkus Reviews

Have starred capsule reviews of:

- The nuanced humour of Maysoon Zayid and Shadia Amin’s Shiny Misfits.

- The savage catharsis of Leela Corman’s Victory Parade.

- The honest insights of Tessa Hulls’ Feeding Ghosts.

- The visceral horror of Sam Romesburg, Sam Freeman, Rodrigo Vásquez, et al’s Hound.

- The memorable empathy of Ernesto Saade’s Just Another Story: A Graphic Migration Account.

- The thrilling action of Maple Lam’s Monkey King and the World of Myths: The Monster and the Maze.

 

Los Angeles Times High School Insider

Kai Wilhelm reviews the complex themes of Art Spiegelman’s Maus.

 

Multiversity Comics

Alexander Jones reviews the forgettable plot of Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, et al’s Adventureman Ghost Lights #1.

 

Solrad

Tynan Stewart reviews the unassuming style of Lewis Hancox’s Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure.

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Robert Aman interviews Jean-Christophe Menu about L’Association and L’Apocalypse, early history with comics, and creative identities - “I don’t think I’m being unfair in saying that L'Association today is a shadow of its former self. Fewer books, weaker choices, fewer discoveries, less innovation, and not enough young cartoonists.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Jordan D. White about Fall of the House of X, tying up loose ends, crafting a satisfying conclusion, and what’s next for mutantkind.

• David Brooke chats with Jason Aaron about Action Comics, the return of Bizarro, looking back to DC’s Gold and Silver Age, and writing for characters with idiosyncratic patterns of speech.

 

The Beat

Avery Kaplan talks to Miyuli about Morgana and Oz, bringing the story to print from its WEBTOON origins, and creative inspirations.

 

The Guardian

Sam Jones interviews Rodrigo Terrasa and Paco Roca about El abismo del olvido, and the desire that the book will serve both to remind people of the atrocities carried out by the Franco regime, and of the family members still looking for closure in their wake.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

• Deirdre Coyle speaks with Emily Hampshire about Amelia Aierwood - Basic Witch, the origins of the project, and reality TV show inspirations.

• Pooja Makhijani talks to Liana Finck about How to Baby, making narrative sense of pregnancy and having a child, and finding the middle ground between parody and memoir.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Tom Shapira writes in remembrance of the life and work of artist John M. Burns, prolific illustrator of stories across a career spanning almost seven decades, who passed away at the end of last year - “Despite his popularity, despite the appreciation of the critics and fellow artists, and despite the populist appeal of his work, so much that Burns has done remains inaccessible, so that the work of his available to the general public is but the tip of a spear, represented mostly by 2000 AD despite his already being an established name when the magazine first launched, and taking quite a while to get there.”

• Also for TCJ, Tom Herpich returns with thoughts on a fresh selection of comics in the third instalment of Outbox, with recent reading this time out comprising Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières’ Valerian and Laureline: The City of Shifting Waters, Rand Holmes’ Harold Hedd in Hitler’s Cocaine #1-2 and Anus Clenching Adventures with Harold Hedd #2, Chester Brown’s Daphnis and Chloe: An Adaptation of the Ancient Story by Longus, Kim Deitch’s The Amazing Enlightening and Absolutely True Adventures of Katherine Whaley, Melinda Gebbie’s Fresca Zizis, and Morgan Vogel’s Nightcore Energy - “The Platonic example of the robot style is Nick Drnaso. I haven’t read his books but friends tell me they’re great. Maybe so, but they’re not cool. The robot style hides a lot, but it doesn’t hide your effort. Like a brick wall, it’s totally opaque, but obviously didn’t happen by accident.”

• Heidi MacDonald presents the closing entry in The Beat’s industry-spanning survey of the comics market on how 2023 went, and what 2024 could/should have in store for the funny book business, and also covers the ignominious end to last year as experienced by a certain high-profile comics-grading company.

• For Shelfdust, Ewan Paterson writes on Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Pulp, and the way in which the comic engages with the established themes of Brubaker and Phillips’ stock and trade noir stories, as well as deconstructing the legends of the Old West.

• From the world of open-access academia, Francesco Piraino and Matteo Stefanelli present a special issue of the Mediascapes Journal focused on comics and the invisible, exploring how the medium can be considered as both an invisible art and as an art of the invisible, spinning out of the Comics and the Invisible conference of 2022 and the Invisible Lines project.

• From ComIn, the international conference on comics in India, Ritam Sarkar and Somdatta Bhattacharya present a paper on the transition and evolution that Indian comics are undergoing, and the growth of the graphic novel in the Indian market as part of this period of change.

• In Feminist Media Histories, Nicholas Sammond has an article on the role of underground women’s and queer comics in driving the formation of communities and liberation movements, and the importance of letters pages in this context. (Open-access version might be a bit finicky to open, but the google scholar tab on the right of the page seems to be working for downloading a PDF of the paper.)

• Paul O’Brien’s comprehensive survey of the villains of Daredevil continues, over at House to Astonish, as this week the Ox steps onto the field, for the first (but not the last) time.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, as the spectre of January 6th loomed large, while the conflict between Israel and Hamas continued.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Katie Skelly and Sally Madden kick off Thick Line’s 2024 with a look back at their favourite comics from 2023, with written versions of their lists also available as part of TCJ’s best-of mega-post.

• The new year sees the return of Mangasplaining, as Christopher Woodrow-Butcher hosts this week’s episode, with the team looking at the distinctly adult content of Kyoko Okazaki’s River’s Edge, and some other stories in that classic vein of messed up teenagers.

• Gil Roth welcomed Ed Subitzky to this week’s edition of The Virtual Memories Show, as they discussed Poor Helpless Comics! The Cartoons (and More) of Ed Subitzky, the inclusion of prose in the book, and National Lampoon memories.

• Brian Hibbs was joined by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca for the latest meeting of the Comix Experience Graphic Novel Club, as they spoke about Street Angel: Princess of Poverty, the joys of the short story format, and differing publisher experiences.

• David Harper talked with Chicago's Challengers Comics + Conversation’ Patrick Brower on this week’s episode of Off Panel, as they discussed the current state of retail and the holiday season just gone, and current thoughts on the Direct Market.

• Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come celebrated the arrival of the new year with their 600th episode, as Calvin Reid, Heidi MacDonald, Kate Fitzsimons, and Meg Lemke looked ahead to what 2024 might have in store, and a look back on 2023’s 50th anniversary of the Direct Market.

• A few visits to the Word Balloon with John Siuntres, who was joined by Franco to talk about Teen Titans Go to the Library and prepping for new crowdfunded projects, Mike Allred to talk about work for the Big Two and emergency backup careers in broadcasting, and Mark Waid to talk about Shazam! and the current state of the superhero publishing market.

• Closing out the week with some Cartoonist Kayfabe, as this week Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor started a retrospective of Marvel Comics’ monthly output, were joined by Bryan Moss and Shawn @JapanBookHunter to take a look at some classic Garo anthology issues, by Geof Darrow to talk about the work of Taiyō Matsumoto, and by Mike Allred for a chat about work with the Big Two and childhood memories.

That’s all the links for this week, back again next time with more, more, more for twenty twenty four.

The post A Hazy Shade of Winter – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.


By at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)