Friday, July 19, 2024

Hedgehog’s Dilemma – This Week’s Links

July 19, 2024 Philippines , Pinoy 0 Comments

Heat wave season continues, and so once again I thank my lucky little stars that it is only abject laziness and a distinct lack of natural talent that has cruelly kept me from being an Olympic athlete, which means that next week I’ll be sat with the curtains closed watching press releases churn out of the San Diego Comic-Con public relations machines, ready to be turned into links, this week’s selection of which can be found below, instead of engaging in final preparations to run the 10,000 metres in sweltering Paris next month.

This week’s news.

• As the second half of the year speeds along, ICv2 this week reported that US and Canadian comic book and graphic novels sales for 2023 were down 7% compared to 2022, but still up 70% compared to 2019, with estimated total sales of $1.87 billion - this reflects figures from the US book market in general, which saw around a 3% fall of print sales in 2023, compared to 2022, but annual sales from 2021 onwards consistently marking a steep spike when compared to pre-pandemic numbers - ICv2 also reports that Direct Market sales in Q1 of 2024 presented an uncertain outlook, with DC’s share dropping to 21.6%, fueling retailer worries, although the Distinguished Competition are launching a sizeable new-reader initiative that’s being heavily promoted in the run-up to next week’s San Diego Comic-Con.

• Keeping up with the summer’s comic awards news, as Anime NYC announced the shortlists for this year’s inaugural American Manga Awards, with the Best New Manga category comprising Shun Umezawa’s The Darwin Incident, translated by Cat Anderson; Shin’ichi Sakamoto’s #DRCL midnight children, translated by Caleb Cook; Tsumuji Yoshimura’s Just Like Mona Lisa, translated by Leo McDonagh; Umi Kusahara’s Mothers, translated by Jocelyne Allen; and Hidenori Yamaji’s Soara and the House of Monsters, translated by Ben Trethewey – winners in all categories will be announced on Aug. 22.

• Elsewhere, the Virginia Library Association announced the winners of 2023’s Graphic Novel Diversity Award, naming Elizabeth Colomba and Aurelie Levy’s Queenie: Godmother of Harlem as the adult category winner, and Jasmine Walls and Teo Duvall’s Brooms as the youth category winner.

• Finally, ahead of the Eisner Awards ceremony next week, a quick round-up of winners already announced, as Jo Duffy and Ralph Newman are the recipients of this year’s Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, and the Women in Comics Collective International are the recipient of this year’s Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award.

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Hank Kennedy reviews the narrative frustrations of David Lester and Marcus Rediker’s Under the Banner of King Death - Pirates of the Atlantic: A Graphic Novel - “Rediker’s introduction describes the comic as an adaptation of Villains of All Nations, but strictly speaking, that is not the case. Under the Banner of King Death can more accurately be described as historical fiction, influenced by Rediker’s earlier book. Our three viewpoint characters are all fictional: Dutch sailor Ruben Dekker, escaped slave John Gwin, and Mary “Mark” Reed, a woman who dressed and lived as a man.”

• Leonard Pierce reviews the integral wandering of Aidan Koch’s Spiral - “There is also a connection to the natural world, reflected in Koch’s periodic washes of blue and green, rendered in a lovely mélange of watercolor, pastel, and gouache. Spiral (whose title can be read any number of ways, from the organic patterns of the wild world to the downward trajectory of human emotion) does not, for all its looseness, lack structure.”

 

AIPT

• Collier Jennings reviews the solid start of Stephen Mooney, Staz Johnson, et al’s The Rocketeer Breaks Free #1.

• Chris Coplan reviews the fresh takes of Melissa Flores, Francis Portela, et al’s Biker Mice from Mars #1.

• Chris Showalter reviews the intelligent interrogations of Simon Spurrier, Aaron Campbell, et al’s John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America #7.

• Alex Schlesinger reviews the spectacular art of Peach Momoko’s Demon Wars.

• David Brooke reviews the packed plotting of Jason Aaron, Paul Davidson, Alex Lins, et al’s Namor #1.

• Colin Moon reviews the gorgeous artwork of Braba: A Brazilian Comics Anthology, edited by Rafael Grampá and Janaina de Luna.

• Jules Greene reviews the thrilling bite of Amy Chu and Soo Lee’s Carmilla: The Last Vampire Hunter.

• David Canham reviews the shallow theology of Jordan Morris and Bowen McCurdy’s Youth Group.

 

The Arts STL

Sarah Boslaugh reviews the contrasting vibes of David Good and FLuX’s Good: From the Amazon Jungle to Suburbia and Back.

 

The Beat

• Zack Quaintance reviews the visual choices of Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, et al’s Nightwing #116.

• Jordan Jennings reviews the spot-on tone of Kelly Thompson, Paulina Ganucheau, et al’s Powerpuff Girls #1.

• Clyde Hall reviews the attractive veneer of Stephen Mooney, Staz Johnson, et al’s The Rocketeer Breaks Free #1.

• Christian Angeles reviews the masterful horror of David Pepose and Alex Cormac’s The Devil That Wears My Face.

• Merve Giray reviews the thought-provoking humour of Luke Healy’s Self-Esteem and The End of the World.

• Arpad Okay reviews the emotive silence of Matt Emmons’ The Winter King.

 

Broken Frontier

• Ellie Egleton reviews the affordable frights of Dark Horse Comics’ Creepy Archives Volume 6.

• Andy Oliver reviews the tactile presentation of Gareth A Hopkins’ Rainlight Cope Aesthetic: Temporal Eructation.

 

From Cover to Cover

Scott Cederlund reviews the narrative shift of Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti, et al’s G.O.D.S..

 

The Guardian

Rachel Cooke reviews the existential humour of Walter Scott’s The Wendy Award.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #5, X-Men #1, X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #3, Wolverine: Blood Hunt #3, and Deadpool vs. Wolverine Slash ’Em Up! Infinity Comic #3.

 

PopMatters

Elisabeth Woronzoff reviews the thoughtful portrayals of Eddie Ahn’s Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Have capsule reviews of:

• The trippy sprawl of L. Pidges’ Infinite Wheat Paste: Catalytic Conversions.

• The delicious horror of Ram V, Filipe Andrade, et al’s Rare Flavours.

 

Solrad

Hagai Palevsky reviews the hungry density of Brain Dead Studios’ Peep, curated by Sammy Harkham and Steven Weissman.

This week’s interviews.

AIPT

• Chris Coplan interviews Alien Books’ Matias Timarchi about Valiant’s Resurgence event, and how it fits into Alien Books’ wider publishing work.

• David Brooke talks to Carmen Carnero about Exceptional X-Men, favourite mutants, and creative collaborations.

 

The Beat

• Ricardo Serrano Denis speaks with Steven DeKnight about Hard Bargain, the real-life inspiration for the book, and the perfect setting for hardboiled detective stories.

• Avery Kaplan talks to Heather Antos about IDW’s line of Star Trek comics, editorial lessons learned, and the road to Star Trek #500.

 

Broken Frontier

Andy Oliver interviews Letty Wilson and Aly Fell about the 2024 Misty Special, childhood comics reading, and visual inspirations from family photo albums.

 

CITY

Daniel J. Kushner speaks with Will Perkins about Goblin, the narrative drive at the heart of fantasy stories, and the real-life moments tied into making a book.

 

Forbes

Josh Weiss talks to Steven DeKnight about Hard Bargain, making the move from television to comics, and horror genre influences.

 

Prospect

Lucy Scholes interviews Posy Simmonds about career recognition in France, cartooning for The Guardian, and favourite presents.

 

Print

Steven Heller speaks with Liza Donnelly about Women Laughing, and how the documentary acts as an extension to the Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Women Cartoonists books.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

• Cheryl Klein talks to Julia Heffernan about Babe in the Woods: Or, the Art of Getting Lost, memories as branches, and the things that graphic memoir allows you to say.

• Chris Barsanti interviews Charles Burns about Final Cut, a life spent drawing, creative struggles, and leaving stories behind once they’re finished.

 

Smash Pages

JK Parkin talks to Jordan Morris about Youth Group, secret comics origins, putting cringe experiences on the page, and the influence of horror comedy that takes the horror seriously.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Sean McCarthy reports from the 2024 Whitney Biennial, Even Better Than the Real Thing, interrogating the relative paucity of comics to be found in the museum, and asking whether comics really needs the fine art world - “The Comics Journal promotes the view that comics are fine art, and of course the French tend to agree—a major comics exhibition is open at the Centre Pompidou as I write this—but the Biennial would suggest that the U.S., or at least the museum dedicated to cataloging its art, is more reluctant to bequeath this designation.”

• Also for TCJ, RJ Casey opens up a great big can of fresh Arrivals and Departures, which this month comprise Death Spark #1, edited by Thomas Campbell; Clamp #5, edited by George Olsen; Stardust/Fantomah, edited by Ryan Alves; Peephole #1, edited by Juliette Collet; and Clusterfux Comix #6, edited by Cameron Hathaway - “A character in one of Peephole’s stories states, “speak to me straightly, not sweetly.” And that’s really the motif of it all: finding the truth through art. Thankfully this anthology and the contributing artists are going to allow me to get a few winks of sleep, not because the comics are boring, but because it proves that we can have nice things.”

• Finally for TCJ, there is a preview of Braba: A Brazilian Comics Anthology, edited by Rafael Grampá and Janaina de Luna, excerpting Amanda Miranda's story from the book.

• For ICv2, ahead of the summer sprint through convention season, Milton Griepp presents thoughts on the ramifications of Random House’s acquisition of BOOM! Studios and DC’s shrinking share of the Direct Market.

• Over at Shelfdust, David Brothers writes on David Lapham’s Stray Bullets: Killers #7, and how the black and white series contains shades of grey to spare in the juxtapositions of its crime stories.

• For Polygon, Susana Polo questions the need for DC and Marvel’s clinging to continuity in their longform storytelling, the contrasting manner in which the publishers approach this, and whether an infinite loop of reboots and retcons is needed.

• For PopMatters, Hank Kennedy writes on the history of the choppy relationship between comic books and the US military, and the subversion of their use as potential propaganda tools that has been seen across theatres of war since World War II.

• From the world of open-access academia, in Medical Humanities, Livine Ancy A and Sathyaraj Venkatesan present an article examining how Brian Fies’s Mom’s Cancer, Sarah Leavitt’s Tangles and Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits portray objects becoming a source of care for people experiencing illness.

• In the Journal of Medical Humanities, Ishani Anwesha Joshi and Sathyaraj Venkatesan investigate the spatial crises that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how He Zhu’s Lockdown; Rivi Handler-Spitz’s Morning Commute; Yang Ji’s Quarantine; and Thi Bui, Will Evans, Sarah Mirk, Amanda Pike, and Esther Kaplan’s In/Vulnerable portray the way people experience different spatial transformations.

• For the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Neal Curtis writes on various forms of narrative ellipsis to be found in three works of graphic medicine, comprising  Bishakh Som’s Spellbound, Hilnama’s I’m a Terminal Cancer Patient, But I’m Fine, and Margaret Kimball’s And Now I Spill the Family Secrets, and the interpretation required by readers when faced with such intentional omissions.

• From Batman and the Shadows of Modernity, Rafael Carrión-Arias’ chapter, ‘The Savior and Nihilism’, explores the “ultra-centric” nature of vigilantes, and the ties between the Caped Crusader and the Gothic novel.

• Paul O’Brien’s census of the villains of Daredevil continues, over at House to Astonish, as this edition The Committee is convened and then rapidly decommissioned.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, for The Daily Cartoonist, as regular election coverage shifted focus to, somewhat unsurprisingly, attempted assassinations and gun control.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Sally Madden was joined by Bread Tarleton to discuss the Thick Lines of Little Lit: Folklore and Fairy Tale Funnies, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, as well as the platonic ideal of trucks, and recycling realities.

• Gil Roth welcomed Maurice Vellekoop to this week’s edition of The Virtual Memories Show, as they spoke about I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together, sex depictions in memoir, first draft rewrites, and translating your life into print.

• John Siuntres was joined by Dan Slott for a trip in the Word Balloon, as they talked about Spider-Boy, relative writing speeds, putting favourite characters in the spotlight, and Saturday morning cartoons and cereal bars.

• A crossover episode for this week’s Off Panel, as David Harper was joined by Heidi MacDonald to preview next week’s San Diego Comic-Con and discuss the recent buyout of BOOM! Studios by Penguin Random House.

• More discussion of the Boom PRH deal from MacDonald with Calvin Reid and Meg Lemke on Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come, as well as the launch of 23rd Street Books and DC’s attempts to bring readers back into the fold.

That’s your lot for this week - next week: San Diego Comic-Con, and all which that entails.

The post Hedgehog’s Dilemma – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.


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