Friday, July 5, 2024

Getting Lost in that Hopeless Little Screen – This Week’s Links

July 05, 2024 Philippines , Pinoy 0 Comments

While, I assume, US readers of this site will have spent yesterday eating naught but hot dogs and steamed hams, and bathed in the light of fireworks exploding overhead, it was election day at the time of writing here in the UK, and so this week’s links, below, brought much-needed relief from wall-to-wall party political broadcasts, briefly interspersed with continuing pontification on the trials/tribulations of England’s national football squad, and Sir Andy Murray pulling out of the Wimbledon singles tournament – comics, primus inter pares.

This week’s news.

Various outlets this week shared reports of sexual assault claims made against the writer Neil Gaiman by two women on the podcast Master: the Allegations Against Neil Gaiman, which details Gaiman’s former partners’ accusations of “rough and degrading sex” – Gaiman has denied the accusations, stating that all sex with the two women was consensual.

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

Helen Chazan reviews the transformative collection of Yamada Murasaki’s Second Hand Love, translated by Ryan Holmberg - “Second Hand Love finally renders any question of Yamada’s focus unshakeable, tying the themes of her prior works together with what is at once her most ambiguous narrative and her clearest statement – that women suffer deeply under patriarchy and that men recognize the harm in their role far too late to meaningfully affect the cycle.”

 

AIPT

• Collier Jennings reviews the emotional return of  Joe Clark, Kyle Higgins, Marcello Costa, Eduardo Ferigato, et al’s Radiant Black #29 and #29.5.

• Chris Coplan reviews the streamlined bombast of Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Stephen Mooney, et al’s Free Agents #1.

• Daniel Berlin reviews the musclebound adventures of Ralph Macchio, Andrew Wildman, Chris Batista, et al’s X-Men: The Animated Series - Feared and Hated.

• Colin Moon reviews the telegraphed twist of Steve Foxe, Carola Borelli, et al’s Spider-Woman Volume 1: Gang War.

• David Brooke reviews the high-stakes start of Mark Waid, Dan Mora, et al’s Absolute Power #1.

• Rory Wilding reviews the shallow narratives of Sabir Pirzada et al’s Dandelion.

 

The Beat

• Kerry Vineberg reviews the thought-provoking depths of Sabir Pirzada et al’s Dandelion.

• D. Morris reviews the brutal history of Chris Claremont, Edgar Salazar, et al’s Wolverine: Deep Cut #1.

• Zack Quaintance reviews the earned developments of Mark Waid, Dan Mora, et al’s Absolute Power #1.

• Clyde Hall reviews the steady pacing of Tom Sniegoski, Jeannine Acheson, Valeria Burzo, et al’s Soul Taker #1.

• Jordan Jennings reviews the modern sensibilities of Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Stephen Mooney, et al’s Free Agents #1.

 

Broken Frontier

• Lydia Turner reviews the admirable details of Blandine Le Callet and Nancy Peña’s Medea, translated by Montana Kane; and the blurred lines of Kris Bertin, Alexander Forbes, et al’s Hobtown Mystery Stories Volume 1: The Case of The Missing Men.

• Andy Oliver reviews the outstanding approach of Eric Orner’s Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank, and the fascinating accounts of Rowan Frewin’s A Potted Trans History.

 

From Cover to Cover

Scott Cederlund reviews the interwoven drama of Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips’ The Enfield Gang Massacre.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #3, Deadpool vs. Wolverine: Slash ‘Em Up Infinity Comic #2, X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #2, X-Men: Blood Hunt – Magik #1, Wolverine: Madripoor Knights #5, and Hellverine #2.

 

Kirkus Reviews

Have starred capsule reviews of:

• The empathetic charms of Victoria Grace Elliott’s Please Be My Star.

• The striking visuals of Ricky Lima, Daniele Aquilani, et al’s Undergrowth.

• The nuanced honesty of Tony Weaver Jr., Jes Wibowo, and Cin Wibowo’s Weirdo.

 

Montreal Review of Books

• Esinam Beckley reviews the visual evolution of Keenan Poloncsak's The Complete Pro-Canthology.

• Gabrielle Drolet reviews the nuanced complexity of Boum's The Jellyfish, translated by Robin Lang and Helge Dasche.

• Alex Trnka reviews the balanced narrative of Geneviève Bigué's When the Lake Burns, translated by Luke Langille.

• Ian McGillis reviews the affectionate satire of Walter Scott's The Wendy Award.

• Alexandra Sweny reviews the shining moments of Nino Bulling's Firebugs.

 

NPR

Tahneer Oksman reviews the delicious brightness of Jonathan Todd’s Timid.

 

The Statesman

Aparna Singh reviews the seamless pacing of Alaka Rajan Skinner’s Persian Nights: An Indian Child in Iran.

 

Women Write About Comics

• Masha Zhdanova reviews the complementary humour of Emma Oosterhous and Ollie Hicks’ Grand Slam Romance 2: Major League Hotties.

• Kat Overland reviews the wicked deeds of Rebellion’s 40 Years of SCREAM! - The Archival Collection.

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Gina Gagliano interviews Sara Varon about Detective Sweet Pea, storytelling origins, the Maurice Sendak fellowship, and Robot Dreams being adapted for the screen - “The size of the comics community in Chicago is a lot smaller and I haven’t really found my people. It’s been a little tough to create and to be creative without a community, but I’m definitely trying. From what I’ve gathered, the comics community here has much more of an indie and underground vibe? And maybe people are making comics more for adults than kids? But I can’t really say for sure since I’m outside of it.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Stephanie Phillips about Phoenix, the origins of the project, the bond between writers and characters, and Jean Grey and Scott Summers’ relationship.

• Chris Coplan talks to Simon Roy about Griz Grobus, video game influences, and serialising the story on Patreon and Webtoon before crowdfunding the print edition.

• David Brooke interviews Anthony Mauro and Quan Chu about Salvation, lessons learned from comics publicity, and favourite pages from the book.

 

The Beat

• Diego Higuera chats with Claudia Christian about Dark Legacies, the character decisions at the heart of the series, and crowdfunding the collected edition.

• Avery Kaplan speaks with Mark London about Underworld, the titles that comprise this shared universe, and the planning that goes into this kind of coordinated storytelling.

 

Broken Frontier

Andy Oliver interviews Jim Festante and James Asmus about Survival Street: The Radical Left, expanding out from the first series, and reality catching up with satire.

 

Forbes

Rob Salkowitz speaks with Webtoon’s Junkoo Kim And Yongsoo Kim about the company’s initial public offering, packaging intellectual property with consumer data, and AI investments.

 

Solrad

Eliza Harris talks to Shin Yu Pai and Justin Rueff about haiku comics and how the forms complement one another, and the wider importance of translation between mediums.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, William Schwartz writes on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys, its adaptation for the small screen, and the different approaches both versions take on the topics they choose to satirize - “But The Seven, led by the Superman/Captain America analog Homelander, care less about actually helping people so much as just enriching themselves. The violence in The Boys is grotesque, sexual, and fairly gratuitous to the point the Amazon Prime version of the show inevitably had to tone it down.”

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

• Jay Deitcher writes for Rolling Stone on the life and legacy of Steve Ditko, alongside remembrances from family and peers of an intensely private creator, who preferred to let the work speak for itself.

• For The Guardian, Rick Williams writes on the life and work of musician Don Drummond and dancer and singer Anita “Margarita” Mahfood, whose stories are the focus of Adam Reeves and Costantinos Pissourios’ Trombone Man: Ska’s Fallen Genius.

• Over at Women Write About Comics, Rebecca Henely-Weiss and Kayleigh Hearn observe the nuptials at the heart of X-Men: The Wedding Special, the goings on surrounding the happy couple and their guests, and ties back to previous marriages from the House of Ideas.

• Following Blackstone’s purchase of manga platform Infocom, and the Japanese government’s ramping up of its ‘Cool Japan’ cultural exports plan, Gearoid Reidy writes for The Japan Times on the potential of manga to continue growing in overseas markets.

• On a similar note, following last week’s initial public offering from Webtoon, for The Beat, Humberto Saabedra and Heidi MacDonald report on the figures and finances behind the company’s listing on the Nasdaq.

• Shelfdust’s friendship with Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen continues, as this week Anna Peppard dives into Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber’s opening issue of the series proper, the Silver Age history it mines, and the varied desires of Metropolis’ favourite photographer/features writer.

• Over at Broken Frontier, Lydia Turner reports from the Graphic Novel Reading Room pop-up at London’s Wellcome Collection, speaking with founder Gabi Putnoki about the initiative.

• From the world of open-access academia, in the European Journal of Humour Research, Ágnes Tamás presents a study on German, Austrian and Hungarian caricatures from the First World War, and their use as propaganda to incite hatred against enemies of the state.

• Paul O’Brien continues cataloguing the various villains of Daredevil, for House to Astonish, as this week the Tribune (briefly) lays down the law.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as presidential debates, presidential immunity, and presidential elections, somewhat unsurprisingly, took all of the headline focus.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Sally Madden was joined by Corinne Halbert to discuss the Thick Lines of Katie Skelly’s My Pretty Vampire, blood logistics and vampire lore, the films of Jean Rollin and Jesús Franco, and making comics as an escape from real life concerns.

• Brian Hibbs welcomed Rick Remender and Max Fiumara to the latest meeting of Comix Experience’s Graphic Novel Club, as they spoke about The Sacrificers, story making processes when writing and/or drawing, and letting characters tell you where a story needs to go.

• David Harper was joined by Ryan Stegman for this week’s episode of Off Panel, as they discussed X-Men and The Missionary, history with Marvel’s line of mutant comics, and some closing basketball chat.

• Heidi MacDonald was joined by Joe Casey for the latest edition of Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come, as they spoke about Jonny Quest, the status quo of the Direct Market and shifting reader foci, and the nature of creative partnerships.

No more links for this week - I must now spend all my remaining spare time watching various boffins breaking down voting exit polls until I fall unconscious.

The post Getting Lost in that Hopeless Little Screen – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.


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