Christmas Wrapping – This Week’s Links

Well the weather outside is increasingly constantly frightful, but below we have the final links of the year, which are intermittently delightful, so mull whatever you have that can be mulled and bid a fare-thee-well to another year for the record books. Onwards, into the future.

Not sure if the red caps on those mushrooms make this a Christmas painting but this year this as close as I’m going to get.

— Mike Mignola (@mikemignola.bsky.social) 2024-12-18T19:49:19.247Z

This week’s news.

• Koyama Provides announced the latest recipient of their grant program, providing a $1500 award to cartoonist, visual artist, and writer Jessica Campbell, which will go towards continuing to “...work on a new book (working title Lifeline), which follows the life of an aspiring stand-up comedian who is coping with the recent death of her partner.”

• A crowdfunder was shared to raise money for artist Matthew Clark – illustrator on Doom Patrol, Checkmate, Superman/Batman, Outsiders, and many more – with funds supporting Clark’s recovery following heart surgery, after undergoing a triple bypass.

Hello, comics folks! The 2024 Comics Advocacy Group Mini Grants are officially open! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

— Comics Advocacy Group (@comicsadvocacy.bsky.social) 2024-12-01T17:43:42.330Z

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Nicholas Burman reviews the invaluable history of Eddie Campbell’s Kate Carew: America's First Great Woman Cartoonist - “Campbell presents the story in a conversational yet precise style. He treats his subject with seriousness without veering into pretensions. Being an artist himself it is no surprise that he is able to highlight some of the specificities of Carew’s technique and tools, and he does this in a way that benefits the general reader as well as the specialist.”

• Claire Napier reviews the non-confrontational presentation of Tina Horne, Lisa Sterle, et al’s Deprog #1-2 - “There have been many comics about sex or ones in which explicit references to sex appear on the page, and they have come from the majority of name-brand publishers and presumably even more forgotten houses. To some degree this is good; normalization of a normal thing may be the ideal function of culture. To some degree it is critically impractical.”

AIPT

• Michael Guerrero and Christopher Franey review the villainous twist of Jeremy Adams, Lucas Meyer, et al’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow: World’s Finest Special #1.

• Colin Moon reviews the balanced focus of Christopher Cantwell, Sean Izaakse, et al’s Challengers of the Unknown #1.

• David Brooke reviews the multiversal charm of Katharyn Blair, Pere Pérez, et al’s TVA #1.

• David Canham reviews the editorial mandates of Kieron Gillen, Luca Maresca, et al’s Immortal X-Men: X-Men Forever.

• Collier Jennings reviews the solid action of Jimmy Palmotti, Patric Reynolds, et al's Deadly Tales of the Gunslinger #1.

The Arts STL

Sarah Boslaugh reviews the energetic efficiency of Hervé Bourhis’ The British Invasion!.

The Beat

• Zack Quaintance reviews the bold structuring of Dash Shaw’s Blurry.

• Samantha Puc reviews the perfect magic of Bree Paulsen’s The Firelight Apprentice.

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the impressive accessibility of Ram V, Evan Cagle, Jorge Fornés, et al’s The New Gods #1.

• D. Morris reviews the introspective start of Benjamin Percy, Raffaele Ineco, et al’s Hellverine #1.

• Clyde Hall reviews the masterful moments of Garth Ennis, Mike Perkins, et al’s Freddie the Fix.

• Sean reviews the honest depictions of Guy Colwell's Delights: A Story of Hieronymus Bosch.

• Merve Giray reviews the compelling details of Fumiya Hayashi’s Hereditary Triangle, translated by Alethea Nibley and Athena Nibley.

Broken Frontier

• Lindsay Pereira reviews the colourful history of Hervé Bourhis’ The British Invasion!.

• Andy Oliver reviews the touching poignancy of Liver & Lights’ Julie (Colossive Cartographies #60).

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ Uncanny X-Men #7, X-Factor #5, Phoenix #6, Storm #3, Dazzler #4, and Laura Kinney: Wolverine #1.

Journal of Anime and Manga Studies

• M. Sara Lowe reviews the conversational accessibility of Jillian Rudes’ Manga in Libraries: A Guide for Teen Librarians.

• Cetoria Tomberlin reviews the compelling argument of Martin de la Iglesia’s The Early Reception of Manga in the West.

Newcity Lit

Brendan Tynan Buck reviews the smoky moodiness of Maggie Umber’s Chrysanthemum Under the Waves.

— Mr. Joshua (@pantspants.bsky.social) 2024-11-27T13:57:46.198Z

This week’s best comics, graphic novels, and manga of the year lists.

As well as being the season of peace, goodwill, and personal reflection, December also brings with it the booming drum of commerce and tiered rankings of creative pursuits, so, without further ado, let us check out this year’s selection of best-of lists, which include offerings from The Beat, Boing Boing, Book Riot, CBC, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, IGN, The Irish Examiner, Library Journal, NPR, New York Public Library, The New York Times, Polygon, Slash Film, and The Washington Post, and double helpings from AIPT (part 1 and part 2), GamesRadar (comics and manga), The Guardian (from James Smart and Rachel Cooke), Publisher’s Weekly (graphic novels and manga), and School Library Journal (graphic novels and manga).

— Steve Wolfhard (@wolfhard.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T20:09:24.491Z

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Tahneer Oksman interviews Mark McGuire and Alain Chevarier about Clay Footed Giants, collaborative processes, and the vulnerable moments contained in the book - “We call the book autofiction. It’s a mix of some things that happened directly to us and our families, and some things that might have happened in other generations or to people we know. I like to say that everything in the book is true, but not everything happened.”

ABC

Sam Wicks and Michael Dulaney speak with Scott Wilson about Dark Heart, developing an Aboriginal superhero universe, and the importance of First Nations representation in comics.

AIPT

Chris Hassan talks to Scott Aukerman about Astonishing Spider-Man, writing comics for the infinity scroll format, and having the jokes complement the plot.

The Beat

Meg Fabbri chats with JackSepticEye (aka Seán William McLoughlin) about Bad Egg Publishing and the ALTRVERSE, burnout, and favourite manga.

Boston.com

Peter Chianca interviews Jeff Kinney about Diary of a Wimpy Kid, big book tours, meeting your readership, and newspaper cartooning aspirations.

The Hollywood Reporter

Borys Kit talks to DC’s Jim Lee and Anne DePies about how the publisher has fared in 2024 and the changing business of superhero comics, and to Matthew Rosenberg and Stefano Landini about We're Taking Everyone Down With Us and the itch to create.

The Japan News

Shinobu Takanashi interviews Satoru Hiura about Hotaru's Way, four decades of manga making, and cheering up your readers.

Scroll.in

Arunava Banerjee speaks with Joe Sacco about Palestine, comics making origins, the importance of the underground comix scene, and educational pursuits.

The Washington Post

Jacob Brogan talks to Chris Ware and Adrian Tomine about Q&A and Acme Novelty Datebook, their processes and paths to publication, and the resonance they have with each other’s work.

— Lur Noise (@lurnoise.bsky.social) 2024-12-09T07:02:12.434Z

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, RJ Casey bids a hearty hello and a fond farewell to the last of the year’s Arrivals and Departures, as closing reading included Bernadette #1 (edited by Angela Fanche, Katie Lane, Juliette Collet and Clair Gunther), Tracy Chahwan’s Grmlkrz, and Trinket Comics #1 (edited by Minnie Slocum and Floyd Tangeman) - “It’s the end of the year and all the heavy hitters are coming out to play. In the last couple months we’ve had Burns and Blomerth, Ware and Westvind. We’ve had Schrauwen. We’ve had Edward Steed. We’ve had Jessica freakin’ Farm. One of these I’ve read four times cover to cover, the others I haven’t even cracked open yet.”

• Also for TCJ, Ian Thomas looks at the boozy noir and thoughtful flourishes of Matt Seneca's Pure Evil: Chronicle of Disintegration, and interrogates the comic's dive into the business of comics and the themes of class and race that it engages with - “Often foregoing subtlety, whatever artfulness may be lost at the expense of his directness bolsters the story and the characters’ places in it. It is not Dean’s ambition, but his sense of inferiority and self-loathing that drive him, qualities projected through the lens of a streetwise affect. Strategies and tactics that appear to Dean as the paths of least resistance would be rejected by a better-adjusted character- he hates himself, but he seems to hate most everyone else even more.”

• Finally for TCJ, Malcy Duff presents The Eyes of Fred Hembeck’s Eyes - “This is a strip I created for The Comics Journal, inspired by my work using comic book storytelling in art therapy. We once again meet The Uncertain Man, returning to a place he has never been to before, to reunite with characters that he has never met. A comic to be read through cartoon eyes that sit within the sockets of Davis.”

• Over at The Beat, Brian Hibbs is Tilting at Windmills one last time for 2024, this edition surveying how the previous year has treated the comics market, as numbers (cautiously) seem to be trending back up, but questions regarding long term trends, sustainability, and improvements remain, especially when it comes to distribution.

• For Scroll.in, Sayari Debnath writes on Marjane Satrapi’s Embroideries, looking back at the honest stories of marriage, sex, and surgery that the book focuses on.

• Kicking off a triptych of reading round-ups from around the web this week, Inkstuds’ Robin McConnell shares some recent literary gifts and pulls from the book bag, including Ding Pao Yen’s From Dream Dimension, Hiroki Shono’s Yoruko, Hironori Kikuchi’s Alchemical Graphics, Phil Baker’s Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London’s Lost Artist, work by bpNichol, mini comics by Roman Muradov, Mirion Malle’s This Is How I Disappear, and Progressive Energies Company’s Comic Book #1.

• Over at Solrad, Daniel Elkin presents thoughts on recent reading, with a fresh selection of Books in Bites, including Flo Woolley’s Skin Deep, Keezy Young’s Sunflowers, Ewa Stańczyk’s Cartoons and Antisemitism: Visual Politics of Interwar Poland, and Adam Geczy and Jonathan McBurnie’s Litcomix: Literary Theory and the Graphic Novel.

• For more reading selections, the team at Women Write About Comics have a new edition of WWACommendations, which includes Nio Nakatani’s God Bless the Mistaken, John Moore and Neetol’s Ditching Saskia, Kasia Babis’ Breadcrumbs, Jen Wang’s Ash’s Cabin, Adam de Souza’s The Gulf, and DSTLRY’s Come Find Me: An Autumnal Offering.

• Over at Shelfdust, Steve Morris considers the coda of Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Journey Into Mystery #645, the cyclical nature of stories, superhero legacies, and what the series asked of (and gave to) its readers.

• For Forbes, Rob Wieland writes on Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Die and the interplay between the comic and the tabletop roleplaying game of the same name, as it exists in the comic’s narrative and as an RPG in the real world.

• From the world of open-access academia, in the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, Karen Curtin and Satomi Newsom present a translation of Takekuma Kentaro's seminal survey of manga iconography (manpu) and ‘shape metaphors’ (keiyu), originally published in 1995’s How to Read Manga (Manga no yomikata).

• Elsewhere, from the University of Calgary, Mary Grace Lao, Pree Rehal, and Jessica Bay present Diverging the Popular, Gender and Trauma AKA The Jessica Jones Anthology, wherein a group of scholars explore varied aspects of the evolution of the superheroine across various comics series and other media.

• For the International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication, Sun Tae Hwang writes on how the monetisation of webtoon platforms has transformed the storytelling that readers will find on such portals, conducting comparative analysis of Dubu’s adaptation of Chugong’s Solo Levelling and S.I.U.’s Tower of God.

• From the 2024 Kyoto Conference on Arts, Media & Culture, Johanes Park presents a paper on Sarah Myer’s Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story, writing on the depictions of acculturation strategy found in the book, and the cultural hegemony present in transnational identities that are formed under the influence of popular culture.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as fascism, health insurance, polio, and the incoming administration were all on the docket.

Z E G △ S • △ R C △ D E

— Michel Fiffe (@michelfiffe.bsky.social) 2024-11-27T17:06:42.741Z

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Catching up with recent entries of the Virtual Memories Show, as Gil Roth spoke with Eddie Campbell about Kate Carew: America’s First Great Woman Cartoonist and research into the history of American comic strips, and (live) with Ken Krimstein about Einstein in Kafkaland and Einstein and Kafka’s time in Prague.

• Heidi MacDonald, Calvin Reid, and Kate Fitzsimons reconvened for Publisher’s Weekly's More to Come, as they discussed recent manga bannings in libraries in the U.S. and some of the best comics (banned and unbanned) of 2024, and MacDonald spoke with Caitlin McGurk about Tell Me A Story Where The Bad Girl Wins: The life and Art of Barbara Shermund.

• David Harper welcomed a trio of DC’s Absolute Universe writers to Off Panel, as Jason Aaron, Scott Snyder, and Kelly Thompson spoke about new beginnings for Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, and what goes into a line-wide revamp and how you make something like that sustainable.

• Brian Hibbs welcomed Li Chen to the latest meeting of the Comix Experience Graphic Novel Club, as they spoke about Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat, childhood reading, architecture and webcomics, publication pathways, and editorial processes.

• Closing out the year with footage from the 78th annual National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Awards ceremony, recorded in August at this year’s NCS conference in San Diego, with presentations of this year’s Gold Key and Gold T-Square awards, as well as the winners of this year’s divisional awards and the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

s ᴋ ʏ ᴅ ᴏ ᴄ ᴋ

— ᴄᴀʟᴜᴍ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ᴡᴀᴛᴛ (@calumalexanderwatt.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T10:04:54.137Z

No more links for this year, so we shall have to wait on tenterhooks for all the fresh new ways to astound and amaze that 2025 has in store for all of us.