Friday, April 5, 2024

April Now in Morning Clad – This Week’s Links

April 05, 2024 Philippines , Pinoy 0 Comments

If you are not especially plugged into comics-focused social channels, and in 2024 I think that is probably the correct decision to make, then please be aware that this week’s links, and prominent features on the majority of comics industry outlets linked to below, contain reference to and discussion of suicide, including in the Wild West of their varied comments sections, and so I’d advise reader-discretion if that is something you would rather avoid in its entirety.

This week’s news.

• Starting this week with news out of Japan, as Nippon.com shares figures showing that the combined domestic sales of print and electronic comics and magazines were at an all-time high in 2023, hitting ¥693.7 billion, or $4.573 billion, continuing a trend of record growth that started during the pandemic, when sales in 2020 broke ¥600 billion for the first time on record, with e-comics and titles with animated adaptations showing the strongest increases.

• Elsewhere, publisher TO Books announced that its CORONA EX platform will be offering certain titles utilising AI translation via Google Translate, which, they state, may contain errors, as one would likely expect.

• Marvel Comics' parent corp Disney announced this week that the proxy scuffle against activist investor Nelson Peltz, Peltz’s hedge fund Trian Partners, and former CEO Ike Perlmutter, has been settled, for the time being, as shareholders voted in support of CEO Bob Iger, re-electing the company’s current board.

• Staying with the House of Ideas, Marvel Comics this week announced that Roy Thomas will be named as a co-creator of Wolverine in the credits of the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine motion picture, with the character’s creation having formerly been credited solely to Len Wein and John Romita Sr. - Forbes’ Rob Salkowitz spoke with Thomas, who is quoted as “...only trying to finally get credit for something where the facts have been known for many years”, and with Christine Valada, Len Wein’s widow, who said of Thomas' claim that “This is not about finances. This is about stolen valor. This frankly calls my husband a liar for his entire career.”

• ICv2 share the news that Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel are asking for the return of art which appears to have been stolen from Insight Studios - the theft was discovered in 2022, after missing artwork appeared in a Heritage auction, leading to an investigation that determined that a large number of pages had been stolen and then sold onto collectors.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, and news was shared of the passing of artist M.D. Bright, co-creator of Valiant Comics’ Quantum and Woody, who has died at the age of 68.

• News was also shared of the passing of cartoonist Ed Piskor, creator of Hip Hop Family Tree and co-host of Cartoonist Kayfabe, who has died at the age of 41, due to an apparent suicide - publisher Gary Groth’s remembrance of Piskor can be read here.

(The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a trained listener, call 988. Visit 988lifeline.org for crisis chat services or for more information.)

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Tom Speelman reviews the propulsive melodrama of Naoki Urasawa’s Asadora!, translated by John Werry - “​Anyone familiar with Urasawa’s work knows he’s a sure hand at keeping his settings as detailed and accurate as possible. This is no exception: a quick Google search informs that his renderings of the Isewan Typhoon’s destruction are damn near identical to contemporary disaster photos. The story is further enhanced by the characters dropping ‘60s-appropriate references, with athletes like Abebe Bikila and Kōkichi Tsuburaya drawn in Urasawa’s signature style.”

• Kevin Brown reviews the important passages of Maurice Vellekoop’s I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together: A Memoir - “​Vellekoop’s memoir covers a number of ideas: how one becomes an artist; his faith and community; the complicated relationship with his parents, especially his mother; his attempts to understand his sexuality, and then act on it. Only the final section of the book ties these disparate strands together. It seems a bit tidy, but Vellekoop has structured the book around his favorite Disney movie, 1959's Sleeping Beauty.”

 

AIPT

• David Brooke reviews the detailed dystopia of Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok, et al’s Rook: Exodus #1; and the tantalising setup of Geoff Johns, Bryan Hitch, et al’s Redcoat #1.

• Collier Jennings reviews the fresh start of Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, et al’s Geiger #1.

• Jonathan Jones reviews the perfunctory box-ticking of Gerry Duggan, Joshua Cassara, et al’s X-Men #33.

• Ryan Sonneville reviews the disjointed visuals of Marvel Comics' Wolverine Epic Collection: The Return of Weapon X.

 

The Beat

• Samantha Puc reviews the confident fantasy of Fern Haught’s The Baker and the Bard.

• Jordan Jennings reviews the solid stakes of Cullen Bunn, Baldemar Rivas, et al’s Godzilla vs Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II #1.

• Cy Beltran reviews the flowing action of Cody Ziglar, Rogê Ântonio, et al’s Deadpool #1.

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the captivating interactions of G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, et al’s Poison Ivy #21.

 

Broken Frontier

Lindsay Pereira reviews the gorgeous interpretation of Yann Damezin’s Majnun and Layla: Songs from Beyond the Grave, translated by Thomas Harrison and Aqsa Ijaz.

 

The Harvard Crimson

Rachel A. Beard reviews the engaging complexities of Mirion Malle’s So Long, Sad Love, translated by Aleshia Jensen.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #132, X-Force #50, Wolverine #46, and Cable #3.

 

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

Kevin Rebecchi reviews the nuanced perspective of Julie Dachez and Mademoiselle Caroline’s Invisible Differences: A Story of Asperger’s, Adulting, and Living a Life in Full Color.

 

Library Journal

Tom Batten has starred capsule reviews of:

- The relentless pacing of Atsushi Kaneko’s Search & Destroy, adapting Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo.

- The unique immersion of Emil Ferris’ My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book 2.

- The emotional complexity of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo: 40th Anniversary Reader.

- The thrilling surrealness of Pierre La Police’s Masters of the Nefarious: Mollusk Rampage, translated by Luke Burns.

 

Multiversity Comics

Ramon Piña reviews the complex depths of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Where the Body Was.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Have capsule reviews of:

- The accessible insightfulness of Nate Powell’s adaptation of James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me.

- The pleasant meandering of Alison McCreesh’s Degrees of Separation: A Decade North of 60.

- The fitting sleaziness of Graham Chaffee’s Light It, Shoot It. 

 

Women Write About Comics

Emily Lauer reviews the engaging concepts of Elise Gravel’s Club Microbe, translated by Montana Kane.

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

MariNaomi interviews Leela Corman about Victory Parade, the genesis of longform storytelling projects, the nature of transgressive art, and being confrontational in one’s creations - “As for the humor, dark humor is what Ashkenazi Jews specialize in. I want to say "especially Polish Jews," but I suspect I'd have some angry Lithuanians and Ukrainians at my door. I'd let them in; we could all side-eye each other's borscht and one-up each other on the dark jokes.”

 

The Africa Report

Olivia Snaije speaks with Edwige-Renée Dro about translating Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie’s Aya, Claws Come Out and the intricacies of translating the book’s dialogue.

 

AIPT

Chris Coplan talks to Murewa Ayodele and Dotun Akande about Akogun: Brutalizer Of Gods, and their collaborative creative processes and publishing together; and to Juni Ba about The Boy Wonder, the allure of Damian Wayne as a character, and the influence of manga and bande dessinée.

 

The Beat

Christian Angeles chats with Karl Christian Krumpholz about In The City, indie comix show experiences, the true events that inspired the book, and The City as a character and a setting.

 

Broken Frontier

Shelly Bond talks to L. Pidge about Infinite Wheatpaste, forming relationships with your own characters, the importance of single issues, and plans for the future.

 

Deutsche Welle

Sarah Hucal interviews Moom Comics’ Lukasz Majcher about Back Then, and using the comics form to share stories of queer people over the age of 50.

 

Forbes

Rob Salkowitz chats with Mathew Klickstein, David Permut, and Oscar Boyson about their upcoming (and unauthorised) documentary looking back at the history of San Diego Comic-Con.

 

Four Color Sinners

Present a conversation with artist Andy Olsen, who, in 1973, received an honorable mention for submission of The Wolverine to FOOM's Marvel Character Contest, which further confuses recent claims regarding the creative lineage of the superhero, as mentioned in this week's news (above).

 

Polygon

Joshua Rivera speaks with Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay about Somna, making a self-indulgent book, and keeping scary sexy.

 

Women Write About Comics

Rosie Knight talks to buttercup about UM, the various other forms the story might have taken, and the epistemic injustice of not having more dark skinned people in media.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Hagai Palevsky writes on the speculative work of Sergio Toppi, as found in Future Perfect, and the manner in which Toppi approaches culture when looking forward, rather than back to days gone - “These are stories about people reliving their ever-decaying, ever-fabricated memories of the past; more than they are running away from active external threats, they are running away from the vacancy of their true reality. This is the distillation of Sergio Toppi's future: where the past is enshrined in narrative, at once constructed and consecrated, the future offers no such luxury.”

• For Artforum, J. Hoberman looks back on the history of Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy, and examines Bill Griffith’s Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy through this lens, considering what the book has to add to the storied practice of reading Nancy.

• Over at Shelfdust, Shaenon K. Garrity writes on the cultural impact of Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles, and the manga’s journey to a complete English translation.

• A trio of features for those looking for reading recommendations, as Desmond Reed looks at a selection of mini-comics for Solrad, editors and contributors to Hyperallergic present 12 graphic novels to read as the season changes, and Print’s Steven Heller judges 4 graphic novels by their covers.

• From the world of open-access academia, for Adaptation, Chris Grosvenor presents analysis of the trailers for films adapted from comic book sources, and the ways in which promotional materials disavow the medium of said sources.

• Paul O’Brien continues a survey of the various villains of Daredevil, over at House to Astonish, as this week consideration is given to the Very Special history of one Biggie Benson.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, for The Daily Cartoonist, as the UK’s sewage-ridden waterways, various issues pertaining to this year’s presidential election, Turkey’s recent election results, and the ongoing conflict and killing of civilians and aid workers in Gaza all made the news.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Ben Katchor hosted the latest meeting of the New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium, as artist, translator, and historian Clemens Krümmel spoke on the life and work of artist Feliks Topolski, as well as other noted reportage artists.

• The Society of Illustrators shared video from the recent launch event for Frank Johnson, Secret Pioneer of American Comics, as editors Chris Byrne and Keith Mayerson, were joined by Mark Newgarden and Karen Green to discuss the book, and the discovery and importance of Johnson’s work.

• Gil Roth welcomed Leela Corman to this week’s episode of The Virtual Memories Show, as they discussed Victory Parade, the influence of Primo Levi and Lisa Carver, the nature of autobio comics, and future projects.

• 2000 AD’s Thrill-Cast returned, as MOLCH-R spoke with Liam Sharp about a career in comics, apprenticing with artist Don Lawrence and the importance of mental health, returning to the UK after living in the U.S., and the excitement of first discovering the work of Jim Lee

• David Harper welcomed Inklore's Rebecca "Tay" Taylor to the latest edition of Off Panel, as they discussed the work of the Penguin Random House imprint, editing periodical and graphic novels, and connecting with comics markets and their audiences.

• Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come returned with further coverage of this year’s MoCCA Arts Fest, discussion on Disney’s unilateral posthumous awarding of legend status to Steve Ditko, and the physical cost of manga publishing schedules on creators.

• Closing out the week with a few visits to the Word Balloon with John Siuntres, who was joined by Mathew Kickstein and Scott Shaw to discuss their upcoming Comic-Con documentary, Mark Russell to discuss Batman: Dark Age, Paul Cornell and Rachael Smith to discuss Who Killed Nessie?, and Phillip Kennedy Johnson to discuss Crocodile Black and Green Lantern: War Journal.

That’s all for this week, back again in 7 days with more.

The post April Now in Morning Clad – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.


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