Friday, June 21, 2024

All the Time in Sunny Beach – This Week’s Links

June 21, 2024 Philippines , Pinoy 0 Comments

There is a lot to be said for taking a week off to sit out in the sun, listening to a brook babbling away, watching little bunny rabbits gambolling across a verdant lawn, however, there is even more to be said for shutting oneself indoors and obsessively poring over this week’s links, below.

This week’s news.

• Starting this week on the continent, as The Beat shares the news that Groupe Delcourt founder Guy Delcourt is apparently looking for a buyer for the company, which would lead to a new owner for French publishing houses Delcourt, Soleil and Tonkam - last summer saw the shuttering of Delcourt’s digital webtoon platform, Verytoon, after just two and a half years of operation.

• The Japanese government’s plans to preserve manga artwork are starting to take shape, as this week it was announced that the Media Arts National Center will be founded, as originally mooted in 2018, alongside a storage facility based at the Sagamihara branch of the National Film Archive of Japan, to collect, archive, and preserve original manga artworks, as well as train specialists to do such work, in order to prevent cultural artifacts from ending up in private collections overseas.

• Spending some more time in the courtroom, as the US Department of Justice this week filed a lawsuit against software company Adobe, developer of the Photoshop and Illustrator programs, amongst others, alleging that “Adobe has harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms.” Adobe made the unpopular shift from sales of individual software and suites of packages to the Creative Cloud subscription model in 2013, but more recently had to walk back language in its terms of service, after users interpreted these to mean that the company would be using their work to train its generative AI model and could potentially breach non-disclosure agreements with their clients.

• A brief check-in with the swipe files this week, as artist Adi Granov has made allegations on Facebook regarding a cover image produced by Francesco Mattina, claiming that it had been generated by an AI model, due to various discrepancies in its composition, and an extraneous spur on the ‘S’ of Superman’s iconic chest emblem.

• The recipient 0f 2024's Make More Comics Arts Grant was announced earlier this week, as the judging panel selected Mihaela Erceg, aka Mihe, to be awarded funding of $1000 for the comics project Salty Banana - more information on the grant program can be found here.

• Cartoonist Rich Tomasso has launched a GoFundMe in support of moving his mother out of a sub-standard assisted living facility, and is seeking to raise $4,000 to cover associated costs - the fundraiser can be donated to here.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, as news was shared this week of the death of illustrator and Playboy cartoonist Don Madden, who has passed away at the age of 96.

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

Tom Shapira reviews the combat philosophy of Garth Ennis, Patrick Goddard, et al’s Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley - “So between a middling series and a writer whose best work is elsewhere, how can Blighty Valley come out well? Answer: take the focus away from the science fiction war and make it into one of the wars Garth Ennis actually cares about. In this case, World War I, with our far-future warrior flung by some technobabble nonsense to the days of trench warfare, joining a British crew making their way back to base through enemy territory.”

 

AIPT

• David Brooke reviews the villainous worldbuilding of Dan Watters, Andrei Bressan, et al’s Destro #1.

• Chris Coplan reviews the thoughtful satire of Owen King, Jesse Kellerman, Marianna Ignazzi, et al’s Self Help #1.

• Collier Jennings reviews the winning weirdness of Josh Gad, Max Berkowitz, Ben Berkowitz, Ariel Olivetti, et al’s The Writer #1.

• Alex Schlesinger reviews the energetic vibrancy of Simon Spurrier, Lee Garbett, Javier Pina, Matt Milla, et al’s Uncanny Spider-Man.

• Ryan Sonneville reviews the tonal shifts of Torunn Grønbekk, Diogenes Neves, et al’s Realm of X.

• Chris Showalter reviews the brilliant subtext of Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, et al’s John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America #6.

• Kevin Clark reviews the varied frights of Dark Horse’s Creepy Archives Volume 6.

 

The Beat

• Arpad Okay reviews the perfect details of Jade Armstrong’s Food School.

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the organic resetting of Chip Zdarsky, Michele Bandini, Steve Lieber, et al’s Batman #149.

• Adam Wescott reviews the cosy desolation of G. Willow Wilson, Chris Wildgoose, et al’s The Hunger and the Dusk.

• Zack Quaintance reviews the worthwhile addition of Dan Watters, Andrei Bressan, et al’s Destro #1.

• Beau Q. reviews the mulitversal mechanics of Jason Aaron, Paolo Mottura, Francesco D’Ippolito, Lucio De Giuseppe, Alessandro Pastrovicchio, Vitale Mangiatordi, Giada Perissinotto, et al’s Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime #1.

 

Broken Frontier

• Lydia Turner reviews the painstaking honesty of Hayley Gold’s Nervosa; and the radical messaging of Mia Oberländer’s Anna, translated by Nika Knight.

• Andy Oliver reviews:

 

Four Color Apocalypse

Ryan Carey reviews:

• The winning curation of Venomous Feathers’ A Thousand Years, edited by Fergus Nm.

• The enjoyable nostalgia of Peter Bagge’s Hate Revisited #1. 

• The anarchic spirit of Death Spark #1, edited by Thomas Campbell.

 

The Guardian

Rachel Cooke reviews the delightful chronicling of Séverine Vidal and Kim Consigny’s George Sand: True Genius, True Woman, translated by Edward Gauvin.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #1, Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII #2, and X-Men: Blood Hunt – Jubilee #1.

 

Kirkus Reviews

Have starred capsule reviews of:

• The chilling infusion of Charles Burns’ Final Cut.

• The memorable grossness of Jorge Cham’s Oliver’s Great Big Universe: Volcanoes Are Hot!.

• The signature humour of Uprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Have capsule reviews of:

• The glimmering insights of Dash Shaw’s Blurry.

• The wry charms of Allison Conway’s A Pillbug Story.

• The routine action of Ibrahim Moustafa’s Cyn.

• The eerie claustrophobia of Jenna Cha and Lonnie Nadler’s The Sickness.

• The sharp satire of Luke Healy’s Self-Esteem and the End of the World.

• The wild ride of Kevin Eastman, David Avallone, Ben Bishop, et al’s Drawing Blood: The Story Behind the Stories.

 

Solrad

Tom Shapira reviews the constraining formula of Val Holding and Hugo Pratt’s War Picture Library: The Iron Fist.

 

The Village Voice

R.C. Baker reviews the urban poetry of Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions, and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995.

 

Women Write About Comics

Paulina Przystupa reviews the strange omissions of Palgrave Macmillan’s Comics and Archaeology, edited by Zena Kamash, Katy Soar, and Leen Van Broeck.

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

William Schwartz interviews Dan Schkade about Flash Gordon, eschewing the idea of starting from scratch, getting a sense of yourself as a cartoonist, and daily strips with big casts - “That’s what makes Flash and the gang such useful characters — they’re not royalty, but they have the ear of the royals. They can walk in both worlds, which gives us a much more comprehensive view of what life on Mongo is actually like. And it’s not all bad, either, in fact there’s a lot about the planet that’s pretty amazing. There’s just also Death Patrols.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman about X-Men, living up to the work that came before you, and writing magical characters.

• David Brooke talks to Jim Zub about Conan the Barbarian, creative collaborations, publisher changes, and the core of Conan.

• Chris Coplan interviews:

 

The Beat

Deanna Destito talks to Tad Stones about Darkwing Duck, the origins of the eponymous character, moving away from fowl spy tropes, and the resurgence of Drake Mallard.

 

CBC

Elizabeth Witten chats with Black Panel Press’ Andrew Benteau about settling down to expand the publisher’s slate, and lessons learned while travelling.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Sonia Jaffe Robbins interviews Stan Mack about Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies, the origins of the strip, projects after the strip ended, and the grammatical specifics of oral sex.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, RJ Casey directs more Arrivals and Departures, this month presenting thoughts on Virgil Warren’s Crux #2, Rafael Zaiats’ Makinaphobe, Ana Woulfe’s Out on the Girl Farms #2, and M. Yaxam’s Tales from Qyleoth #1–3 - “There’s no blatant “looks of a time” cheesiness here. I find most fantasy work (in all mediums) to be a slog, but this series doesn’t pander to genre suckers. The vibes are much more Mouseton than Middle-Earth. I don’t want to completely gild the lily, but to me (a four-time Eisner-losing critic), this little gem of a series is nearly flawless.”

• Also for TCJ, Joe Sacco’s series of visual columns ‘The War On Gaza’ continues, with previous instalments also available to read here.

• For the Cartoonist Cooperative, Virginia Paine writes on various scams doing the rounds, targeting freelance creators, and how to protect oneself from becoming a victim of these.

• As part of Broken Frontier’s Pride month coverage, KitsuneArt provides some creator’s commentary on the making of Starlit Lovers, and how this collaboration with Lor Phoenix came about.

• Forbes’ Rob Salkowitz marks Juneteenth 2024 with some recent reading recommendations that focus on Black history, including Joel Christian Gill’s adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning, Sybille Titeux de la Croix and Amazing Ameziane’s Ms Davis, David Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson’s The Black Panther Party, Walter Greason and Tim Fielder’s The Graphic History of Hip Hop, and Paul Peart-Smith’s adaptation of W.E.B. Dubois’ The Souls of Black Folk.

• For more recent reading recommendations, look no further than Women Write About Comics, as contributors to the site share their opinions on Ngozi Ukazu and Mad Rupert’s Bunt!, Shima Shinya’s Glitch, Maria Sweeney’s Brittle Joints, Seya Wynn’s Ardent, and RD’s Nina’s Magic Chest.

• Steve Morris’ Journey Into Mystery continues, over at Shelfdust, as Kieron Gillen and Carmine di Giandomenico’s issue #643 is faced with the fairly important question of how many double crosses can a narrative endure before collapsing in on itself to form a singularity of betrayal.

• Over at Mental Floss, in an age of surging book bannings, Jake Rossen writes on the history of comic book burnings in the 1940s and 50s, looking back on Frederic Wertham’s flawed work involving young readers at the time, and the development of the Comics Code Authority.

• From the world of open-access academia, in the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Michelle Ann Abate has an essay on the history of maps and mapping in sequential art, and how Bil Keane’s dotted line strips in The Family Circus offer an entry point into the field of comics cartography.

• For the Scientific Journal Of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shasha Liu and Jinling Wang present an article on the translation of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix stories from French to Chinese, in the context of a 2013 New Star Press translation that engages with the wordplay to be found in the original script.

• Paul O’Brien continues tabulating the varied villains of Daredevil, for House to Astonish, as September 1970 saw Phoenix (but not that Phoenix) rise from the ashes before immediately floating back down again.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as flags, felons, and football all took the headline focus.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Beginning this week’s selection in the education sector, as the University of Washington shared a discussion between librarians Anne Davis and Allee Monheim, speaking on the curation of graphic novels and zines for university collections, and why making grey print media available for students and faculty is important.

• NHK World released another official English-language edition of Urasawa Naoki’s Manben, with this episode focusing on the creative processes of Terada Katsuya, aka Rakugakingu, while working on Saiyuki Daienou (The Monkey King).

• The Cartoonist Cooperative presented a panel discussion between Rose Bousamra, Julian Cormac, and Nero Villagallos O'Reilly, as they spoke about queerness as a concept in genre comics, and differences in storytelling between these and other media.

• PBS’ John Yang spoke with Raina Telgemeier about portraying your own experiences in works of graphic memoir, sibling commonalities, and new waves of younger readers discovering your work.

• CBC’s Tom Power was joined by Walter Scott for a recent edition of Q, as they discussed the return and departure of Wendy, the decision to pursue new creative outlets, and what to expect from The Wendy Award.

• David Harper welcomed Terry Dodson to this week’s episode of Off Panel, as they spoke about AdventureMan and The Manchurian, European comics travels, a life in comics and how the industry has changed, and creative collaborations with wife Rachel Dodson.

• Calvin Reid and Meg Lemke discussed a pair of recent graphic novel releases for Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come, as they spoke about John Vasquez Mejias’s The Puerto Rican War: A Graphic History and Anna Härmälä’s Single Mothering.

And so to the end of the links once more, as I must continue consuming ~5 hours of international football matches a day, as recommended by my primary care physician.

The post All the Time in Sunny Beach – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.


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