Friday, September 13, 2024

Them’s The Vagaries – This Week’s Links

September 13, 2024 Philippines , Pinoy 0 Comments

If I’ve read anything over the last four years and change, it’s been a lot of statements from tech companies making promises vis à vis how many benefits they’re going to bring to the average consumer, and how much they’re going to improve the lives of creators who engage with their products, and yet… Well, I’m very hard-pressed to actually find any lasting examples of a positive trend in what they actually deliver, towards anything other than the average wage of your common garden business executive, or dividends to shareholders (or not, as the case may be), before running a classic fire sale when they don’t magically achieve quarter on quarter growth of 5%, and nuking whatever smaller companies they’ve acquired as part of a restructuring and liquidation process, which, I guess, is just an idle Friday the 13th musing presented for you to enjoy in the abstract before diving into this week’s links, below.

This week’s news.

• Potentially heading back to the courthouse once more, as a notice was issued regarding a pending class action suit for shareholders who lost money due to WEBTOON’s initial public offering, seeking a lead plaintiff to serve on the lawsuit, and alleging that “the IPO’s registration statement was materially false and misleading and omitted to state that: (1) WEBTOON experienced a deceleration in advertising revenue growth; (2) WEBTOON experienced a deceleration in IP adaptations revenue; and (3) WEBTOON experienced exposure to weaker foreign currencies which offset revenue growth,” and further stating that “WEBTOON stock has traded as low as $12.45 per share, a more than 40% decline from the $21.00 per share IPO price.”

• Cartooning for Peace and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists this week released statements condemning the arrest, enforced disappearance, and torture of Egyptian cartoonist Ashraf Omar, caricaturist for independent news outlet Al-Manassa, who was taken to an undisclosed location on the 22nd of July by security forces in Giza, before being charged with terrorism-related offences - activists have been calling for the release of Omar, and other journalists arrested by security forces, as the Egyptian government continues to increase its restrictions on freedom of speech in the country.

• Elsewhere, continuing this summer’s spate of record breaking comics auction news, as it was reported that a first edition copy of the inaugural issue of The Beano has sold for over $40,000, becoming the most expensive British comic ever sold - this copy is the only known complete edition of the comic, with its accompanying free gift of a ‘Whoopee mask’ still intact.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, and news was shared this week of the passing of artist John Cassaday, illustrator on Astonishing X-Men and Planetary amongst others, who has died at the age of 52 after being admitted to intensive care at the start of this month.

• News was also shared of the passing of artist Karl Moline, illustrator on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fray and Route 666, who has died at the age of 51.

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Leonard Pierce reviews the distinctive visuals of Boulet’s Notes: Back in Time, translated by François Vigneault - “Now, as Notes – which has published over a dozen collected volumes in French by Delcourt – celebrates its 20th anniversary, Oni is betting that English-speaking audiences will find it just as delightful. The first volume of a proposed ongoing series, Back in Time, is out in a handsome portable volume with a price tag that’s a bit steep, but well worth it.”

• Tegan O'Neil reviews the excellent kaiju of Andrew MacLean and Jake Smith's Godzilla: War for Humanity - “The pages are dense, stuffed with color and texture, filled with interesting storytelling decisions. It’s a fast read, despite being so meticulously put together. Definitely knows how to pull you along. You’ll want to go back to soak up all the detail.”

 

AIPT

• David Brooke reviews the horrific delights of John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, et al’s Summer Shadows #1.

• Chris Coplan reviews the increased liveliness of Gerry Duggan, John McCrea, et al’s Dead Eyes: The Empty Frames#1.

• Michael Guerrero reviews the perfect payoffs of Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto, et al’s Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 1: Married With Children.

• Collier Jennings reviews the unexpected swerves of Tim Seeley, Tony Fleecs, Kev Walker, et al’s Venom War: Wolverine #1.

• Christopher Franey reviews the continuing mystery of Saladin Ahmed, Aaron Kuder, et al’s Daredevil Volume 2: Hell To Pay.

 

The Beat

• Arpad Okay reviews the stylistic decisions of Huahua Zhu’s The King’s Warrior.

• Michael VanCalbergh reviews the layered surrealism of Erik Svetoft’s Spa, translated by Melissa Bowers.

• Jared Bird reviews the technicolour haze of David Arnold and Jose Pimienta’s Luminous Beings; and the unique combinations of Kelly Thompson, Mattia De Iulis, et al’s The Cull Volume 1.

• Steve Baxi reviews the complex conspiracy of John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, et al’s Summer Shadows #1.

• Clyde Hall reviews the shifting focus of Luke Lieberman, Alberto Locatelli, et al’s Red Sonja: Death and the Devil #1.

• D. Morris reviews the compelling leanness of Saladin Ahmed, Martín Cóccolo, et al’s Wolverine #1.

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the touching goodbyes of Joshua Williamson, Juan Ferreyra, et al’s Batman and Robin #13.

 

Broken Frontier

• Lydia Turner reviews the spellbinding narratives of Laura Pérez’s Ocultos, translated by Andrea Rosenberg.

• Andy Oliver reviews the wistful melancholy of Ed Firth’s There is No Alternative.

• Lindsay Pereira has reviews of:

 

Four Color Apocalypse

Ryan Carey reviews the confident delivery of Fran López’s Must Be a Happening.

 

The Guardian

Rachel Cooke reviews the rich immersion of Charles Burns’ Final Cut.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #13, Savage Wolverine Infinity Comic #6, and Exceptional X-Men #1.

 

Solrad

Hank Kennedy reviews the timeless evocations of Naji al-Ali’s A Child in Palestine.

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Robert Aman interviews Thierry Van Hasselt about Fréon and Frémok, La Véritable histoire de Saint-Nicolas, wearing various hats to tell stories, and shared artistic ambitions - “Our secret lies in minimal overhead costs; apart from compensating artists, the graphic designers, and a modest salary for Lilian Philippe, responsible for PR, no one else receives payment. We operate on a lean budget, prioritizing artistic endeavors over commercial viability. If a project exceeds our financial means, we patiently wait until we can afford to bring it to fruition.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Murewa Ayodele about Storm, filling your day with comics, and figuring out the character flaws of Ororo Munroe.

• David Brooke chats with Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta about Absolute Batman, the ideas behind DC’s ‘All In’ initiative, and the asking the questions ‘what is Batman?’.

• Chris Coplan talks to:

  • Matt Bors about The Toxic Avenger and the joys of mutants.
  • Jeph Loeb about Batman: The Last Halloween and the artists working on the series.
  • Declan Shalvey about Terminator and sticking to the core principles of the source material.
  • Adam Cahoon about Greetings from the Maglev and the prolific revenge to be found in its pages.
  • Gerry Duggan and John McCrea about Dead Eyes: The Empty Frames and the long gestation of the project.

 

APTN News

Cierra Bettens interviews David A. Robertson about God Flare, the book’s place in the Reckoner Rises series, and comics as a platform for Indigenous storytellers to share their stories.

 

The Beat

• Christian Angeles talks to Tri Vuong about The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn, building the comic’s readership on WEBTOON, and keeping things fun by keeping things campy.

• Deb Aoki speaks with Orange Inc’s Rei Kuroda about the specifics of the company’s use of AI for translating manga, and UX and UI design considerations for digital platforms.

 

Forbes

Rob Salkowitz interviews Phil Collen about Def Leppard’s Hysteria — The Graphic Novel, writing stories while on tour, and the perils of celebrity.

 

Inverse

Jake Kleinman speaks with Manu Larcenet about The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, adapting Cormac McCarthy’s work, and learning when to accept chance occurrences.

 

Print

Steven Heller talks to John Hendrix about The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien and fairy tale origins; and to Bob van Dijk about expressive comic art and childhood comics interests.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Jay Gabler speaks with Darrin Bell, Michele Cobb, Simone Barros, and Nick Long about adapting The Conversation to audiobook form.

 

Smash Pages

JK Parkin interviews Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson about Justice Warriors: Vote Harder, childhood comics reading, and getting readers to care about characters.

 

Women Write About Comics

Lisa Fernandes talks to Chris Cummins about World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #34, canine adoptions, and the Moose and Midge romance.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Helen Chazan considers the contorting bodies to be found in Bhanu Pratap’s Cutting Season and Katie Lane’s Perception Through a Gap, and what we talk about when we talk about how figures move through space - “These are bodies held together by the materiality of illustration, that crash against the logic of linear time, whose meaning can be felt immediately by the reader yet ever so slightly defies description. Neither pornography nor horror yet unafraid of either meaning, these comics are erotic in a way that scratches at the boundaries of what the medium could mean.”

• Also for TCJ, Austin English and Crowdfundr’s former president David Barach make public a tête-à-tête on the company’s sponsorship of the Small Press Expo, and the wider issues regarding crowdfunding’s place in the comics market and the ongoing relationship between for-profit tech platforms and comics creators - “[Barach:] Now, I can't speak for SPX. Right? So you can question whether SPX should be allowed to email its own subscriber list with a paid promotion, or should they not? That's an entirely different conversation. And I can't have that with you because I'm not SPX. You can argue with their business practices around table fees, you can argue with all kinds of things, but yeah, they choose to accept one sponsor and they choose to work with that sponsor in a way that is both beneficial for SPX and for the sponsor.”

• For Artnet, Min Chen reports from the Katzen Arts Center’s ‘Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing’ exhibition, speaking with Steadman about using cartoons to educate the world, and with Sadie Williams, Steadman’s daughter and executive director of the Ralph Steadman Art Collection, about the research that went into the illustrations.

• Over at TexasMonthly, Dan Solomon writes on the return of Uncle Sam to print in this election year, speaking with Steve Darnall and Alex Ross about revisiting the book almost three decades after its original publication.

• Robin McConnell’s return to Inkstuds continues, as this week sage lessons in back issue collection are shared, along with thoughts on Shirakawa Marina’s UFO Mushroom Invasion, Anand Pagalkuta’s Zoo No.4, Cliff Biggards and Mark Bagley’s After Apocalypse, Leo Burdak’s Gear Foot Wrecks, Fantagraphics’ Kaktus Valley (curated by John Carlin and Gary Panter), and Krystine Kryttre’s Death Warmed Over.

• Tom Ewing’s Discourse 2000 retrospective of 2000 AD for Freaky Trigger this week gets to (arguably) the biggest of them all, namely, Judge Dredd, as well as the even bigger (lbs for lbs) Shako, and then the even bigger still (in terms of position on the publication’s organogram) Tharg the Mighty, discussing their place in the distinctly anti-authoritarian history of the galaxy’s greatest comic.

• For Shelfdust, Holly Raymond writes on Ann Nocenti and Rick Leonardi’s Daredevil #249, the engagement of superhero comics of the late-80s and 90s with the AIDs crisis, and the effect that the systemic neglect that embodied this period of widespread death and grief had on narratives of the time.

in• Over at AIPT, David Canham runs the maths on some Marvel magic, and considers whether supernatural forces in the 616 are beholden to the inverse-square law.

• Four Color Apocalypse’s Ryan Carey announces the first title from Four Color Publishing - bringing Darya Foroohar's The Hammer to print - sharing thoughts on Foroohar’s work, and on the decision to cross the aisle into publication.

• From the world of open-access academia, for Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, Jane Tolmie writes on Sarah Leavitt’s Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me, queer creativity as a learning aid in classrooms, and how using graphic novels in teaching can help fight back against hate directed at minority groups.

• Paul O’Brien’s cataloguing of the various enemies of Daredevil continues, for House to Astonish, as this week the Dark Messiah fails to rise again, while Steve Gerber has entered the chat.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as talk of Russian influence on this year’s presidential election preceded the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Bill Kartalopoulos hosted the two most recent meetings of the New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium, as Alex Dueben spoke with Nancy Burton (aka Panzika, aka Nancy Kalish, aka Hurricane Nancy) about the Hurricane Nancy retrospective, and Domingos Isabelinho spoke about The Reading Gaze and the expanded and restricted fields of comics.

• For Artnet’s Art Angle podcast, Ben Davis speaks with James L. Hussey about the documentary WHAAM! BLAM! Roy Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation, issues surrounding ownership rights of comics art, and the lack of knowledge in the art world regarding the artists whose work appear in Lichtenstein’s paintings.

• A couple of talks from this year’s Library of Congress National Book Festival, as Megan Halsband spoke with Vera Brosgol and Kazu Kibuishi about fantasy worldbuilding for graphic novels, and Dianne Choie spoke with Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham about the making of Lunar New Year Love Story.

• 2000 AD’s Thrill-Cast returned with another recording from this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, as Gail Simone, Ram V, and Abigail Harding discussed classic genre considerations for the return of Misty and Roxy with MOLCH-R.

• David Harper welcomed Caitlin Yarsky to this week’s edition of Off Panel, as they discussed Living Hell, the origins of the series, artistic influences, the allure of folklore and myths, and the business side of comics-making.

• Meg Lemke and Calvin Reid convened for the latest episode of Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come, as they spoke about recent graphic novel releases, in the form of Sole Otero’s Mothballs and Charles Burns' Final Cut.

• Finally this week, ahead of the latest iteration of the Small Press Expo arriving this weekend, comes a series of exhibitor interviews from last year's SPX, as Joe Mochove and Rusty Rowley spoke with Ashley Jablonski, James Nelson, Eric Gordon, Johnny Parker II, Kristen Shull, Cody Owens, Mary Dumas, Claire Folkman, Kelly Phillips, Mike Watson, Giancarlo D'Alessandro, Nick Forker, Travis Nichols, BluRaven C. Houvener, Curt Merlo, J.R. Hughto, and Pidge.

No more links this week, lest the unluckiest day in the calendar take umbrage and bring the brunt of ill-fortune to bear on TCJ’s servers.

The post Them’s The Vagaries – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.


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