Captain January – This Week’s Links

And lo, we return to the world of work, bleary eyed from a combination of the complete lack of sun during the bleak midwinter and from subsisting on a diet comprised almost entirely of Stilton for a solid fortnight, however, what better way to retrain your bite than with a flavourful selection of this week’s links, below!

2025

— Heather Mahler 𓆣 (@heathermahlerart.bsky.social) 2025-01-02T01:41:59.850Z

This week’s news.

• Kicking off the year with a primer on what will most likely be a rolling story across 2025, as Wired has put together a handy visualiser for the myriad lawsuits brought against AI companies for alleged copyright infringement, which include amongst the plaintiffs various cartoonists, artists, and writers, for those wanting to follow along at home.

• News from the end of last year out of Kenya, as it was reported that cartoonist Gideon Kibet (aka Kibet Bull) went missing on Dec. 24th, and is believed to have been abducted as part of a group of young Kenyans who were targeted by the state for their political activism and criticism of Kenyan President William Ruto. Kibet went missing after attending an event involving politician Okiya Omtatah, with Omtatah being subsequently arrested for protesting the disappearance of Kenyans by the state before being freed, after a detention bid was dismissed by a court in Nairobi.

• The Boston Comic Arts Foundation announced the inaugural Underground Visionary Award, with Denis Kitchen named as the first recipient of the award at 2024’s Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo - BCAF Executive Director Shelli Paroline said of the prize, “With the Underground Visionary Award, our whole community can let them know: ‘we see you!’” - Kitchen also received an honorary Doctorate in Media, Cinema, and Digital Studies last month from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

• The Cartoonist Cooperative announced the opening of the 2025 Minicomic Awards, with submissions open from Jan. 1 to Feb. 1 for minicomics of 32 pages or less published in 2024.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, as news was shared of the passing of mangaka Macoto Takahashi, creator of Arashi o Koete and Petit La, who died last November due to cancer at the age of 90.

• News was also shared of the passing of cartoonist, painter, and poet Marrily Harpur, whose illustrations appeared in The Guardian, The Times, and the Evening Standard, amongst others, and who has died at the age of 76.

• Finally, news was shared of the passing of pop culture historian and curator Jim Hambrick, founder of Metropolis’ Super Museum, who has died at the age of 70.

Year of the snake

— Valentino Lasso (@valentinolasso.bsky.social) 2025-01-02T03:04:08.785Z

This week’s reviews.

AIPT

• Rory Wilding reviews the clever construction of Ram V, Evan Cagle, et al’s Dawnrunner.

• Christopher Franey reviews the character combination of Ryan Parrott, John Ridley, Mike Perkins, et al’s Justice League: The Atom Project #1.

• Collier Jennings reviews the fresh outlook of David Pepose, Mike Henderson, et al’s Cable: Love and Chrome #1.

• Alex Schlesinger reviews the nuanced construction of J.M. DeMatteis, Michael Sta. Maria, et al’s Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin.

• David Brooke reviews the supernatural thrills of Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Adam Gorham, et al’s Hellhunters #1.

• Kevin Clark reviews the riveting beginning of JG Jones and Phil Bram’s Dust to Dust #1; and the haunting atmosphere of Gus Moreno, Jakub Rebelka, et al’s When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee #1.

 

The Beat

• Steve Baxi reviews the striking mood of Andrzej Klimowski’s Edifice.

• Jordan Jennings reviews the delightful humour of Kyle Starks’ Karate Prom.

• Jared Bird reviews the mind-blowing ideas of Ram V, Evan Cagle, et al's Dawnrunner.

 

Broken Frontier

• Lydia Turner reviews the unique perspective of Angela Odding’s Detached.

• Andy Oliver reviews the engaging mysteries of Peter J. Tomasi, Francis Manapul, et al’s The Rocketfellers #1 and #2.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #3, Psylocke #2, Hellverine #1, and Sentinels #3.

 

Kirkus Reviews

Have starred capsule reviews of:

• The wild originality of Anne Lambelet’s I’m A Dumbo Octopus! - A Graphic Guide to Cephalopods.

• The adorable adventuring of Michael Emberley’s Night Light.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Have capsule reviews of:

- The fabulous fierceness of Kayla E’s Precious Rubbish.

- The glorious action of Shirato Sanpei’s The Legend of Kamui, translated by Richard Rubinger.

- The bold poignancy of Lawrence Lindell’s We All Got Something.

- The affecting vision of Michael Kennedy’s Milk White Steed.

- The charming silliness of Karen Vermeulen’s Good Luck to Us All: A Graphic Memoir of Sorts.

- The thought-provoking empathy of Hugh D’Andrade’s The Murder Next Door: A Graphic Memoir.

- The flawed stiffness of Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s They Shot the Piano Player, translated by Mediasur.

 

Solrad

• Hagai Palevsky reviews the compelling fragmentation of CF’s Distant Ruptures.

• Tom Shapira reviews the known failings of Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu, translated by Zack Davisson.

This time last year I got sick of not being able to draw comics. So I made a plan… I came up with a “gentle comics habit.” If you are a person who is trying to gently kickstart your comics drawing in the new year, I wrote a blog post for you. https://ift.tt/RHMWzp5...

— Sophie Yanow (@sophieyanow.bsky.social) 2024-12-30T21:22:19.358Z

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Lonnie Garcia and Yugo Limbo interview one another about Putty Pygmalion and Be Kind, My Neighbor, experimental animation, and photography setups - “I think that incorporating, you know, collage and photography and stuff is also a great way for people who might not be like the best at drawing backgrounds or certain things to get their foot in the door and do stuff because like, hey, maybe their drawings aren't like the best, but like we said, the crust makes it better.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Jordan D. White about Astonishing Spider-Man and the work of an editor at the House of Ideas, and with Chris Condon about Ultimate Wolverine and X-Men origins.

• David Brooke talks to Evan Cagle about Dawnrunner and colour schemes and design rulesets, Rick Remender about The Seasons and living in the smaller moments.

• Chris Coplan chats with Ed Brisson about SilverHawks and diving deep into established canon, and with Roman Dirge about Lenore and having a readership eager for new stories.

 

The Beat

Jared Bird interviews Sophie Campbell about the 20th anniversary of Wet Moon, the pains of looking back on old work, and the joys of flawed characters.

 

The Nation

Peter Kuper speaks with Jules Feiffer about political cartooning for over 60 years, shaking the cage for a living, and failure being part of the process.

 

NPR

Rachel Treisman talks to Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain’s Jennifer Jenkins about US copyright law and the recent arrival of Popeye and Tintin in the public domain.

 

Women Write About Comics

Lisa Fernandes speaks with Goldie Chan about Betty and Veronica: Fairy Tales, fowl wordplay, and the differences between Betty and Veronica.

 

WPR

Doug Gordon interviews Adrian Tomine about Q&A, the decision to answer reader questions, creative tools, and the surprising nature of adapting work for different mediums.

vibe for the week

— PAPERBEATSSCISSORS! (@paperbeatsscissors.com) 2024-12-30T16:34:39.186Z

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Hagai Palevsky presents thoughts on reading sourced from last year’s edition of Yorkshire’s Thought Bubble Festival, comprising Jon Chandler’s Dogbo, Lily Vie’s Dogbody, and C A Strike’s Customer Service Eternity - “But, triumphant and physically burdened, I returned from England — the country so joyful that on Christmas of 2003 the #1 song on the charts was Gary Jules' godawful cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World" — with several pounds of books purchased at this year's Thought Bubble Festival.  I now intend to tell you about three of them. I hope that's okay with you.”

• Also for TCJ, Frank M. Young writes on the difficulties inherent in charting the contributions to the medium of comics creators working in the previous century, and the re-discovery of late-career work by John Stanley - “Had this been any other medium than comic books, John Stanley’s return to his roots—his and Tripp’s “Get Back” moment—would have been celebrated, publicized in advance and anticipated by ardent fans. But since no one was credited on these comics, now published by Gold Key, Western Publications’ imprint since 1962, no one knew.”

• From last month at TCJ, closing out last year’s slate, 35 contributors to the site, including co-editors Sally Madden and Chris Mautner, shared their favourite comics of the year just gone, for you to nod in enthusiastic agreement with and/or shake your head in vehement disagreement with - “While we understand and sympathize with the fact that things might not have always been going the way you would have preferred in 2024, many new comic books formed a torrential downpour of stories upon us all. We had some amazing anthologies, wonderful reprints and translations, many of which you openly loved.”

• For further round ups of the best comics published in 2024, look no further than The Beat’s selection of favourite webtoons and manga (alongside their annual creator survey), CBR’s top 100 comics of the year, From Cover to Cover’s picks for 2024’s best reading, The Hollywood Reporter’s selection of the best comics of the year, and The Mary Sue’s choices for best graphic novels of 2024.

• For Literary Hub, Liana Finck writes in remembrance of the life and work of Saul Steinberg, discussing the deep vocabulary to be found in Steinberg’s illustrations, and the evolving complexity they contained.

• Some coverage of the manga market from the end of 2024, as The Yomiuri Shimbun covers the ongoing battle against manga piracy in Japan to protect the nation’s cultural exports, and The Korea Herald has a piece on how manga and anime have moved into the mainstream in South Korea.

• For The New York Times, Brian Raftery charts the 80s peak of syndicated cartooning, speaking with creators Berkeley Breathed, Jeff Kinney, Garry Trudeau, Cathy Guisewite, and former editor Jake Morrissey and former Andrews McMeel CEO Tom Thornton about the heyday of the printed comic strip.

• Over at Shelfdust, Steve Morrisey leaps Spawn de Replay once more, this edition looking back on Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane’s Spawn #9, the latter’s decision to bring in writing pinch-hitters in the early days of the series, and the legal issues pertaining to the character of Angela.

• For Polygon, Graeme McMillan provides proof for the existence of Father Christmas, albeit in the DC and Marvel universes, as the dimension-hopping abilities of one Père Noël are confirmed.

• From the world of open-access academia, Jozef Pecina presents EC Comics: The Pioneers of Shock and Social Commentary, a textbook that explores EC’s role in the evolution of comic books as a medium and examines the genres and themes that the publisher helped popularise.

• For Revista Letras Raras, Ana Lúcia Maria de Souza Neves, AmasileCoelho Lisboa da Costa Sousa, and Bruno Santos Melo present a comparative analysis of João Guimarães Rosa The Third Bank of the River and Maria Helena Rouanet and Thaís dos Anjos’ graphic novel adaptation of the text.

• From the Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung, Gabriella LaRose presents a paper on stativity in comics and manga, proposing an alternative interpretation of pictorial narratives in those mediums, and the need for dynamic interpretations of narrative images including movement lines.

• Paul O’Brien’s registry of the villains of Daredevil continues, for House to Astonish, as recent entries surveyed the changing form of the Death-Stalker, and Crushers through the ages.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the holiday season’s editorial beat, as preparations were made for the arrival of the new presidential administration, and remembrances were shared following the passing of former-President Jimmy Carter, while D.D. Degg presented a multi-part round-up of the best editorial cartoons from 2024 as selected by the artists themselves (or their editors).

GA SHA DO KU RO

— Natasha Tara Petrović @ MAGfest (@1000deaddraculas.bsky.social) 2025-01-01T15:48:28.669Z

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• The Mangasplaining team returned at the end of last year, as David Brothers hosted an episode taking a look at Kodansha’s new volumes of Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba’s Ashita no Joe, with translation by Asa Yoneda, with discussion of the history of the manga, the cultural relevance of the series in Japan, and the enjoyable details to be found in the book.

• Brian Hibbs bade farewell to 2024 by welcoming Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans to the Comix Experience Graphic Novel Club, as they spoke about We Called Them Giants, the logistics of the single volume format, collaborations between writers and artists, and previous work together on Die.

• Calvin Reid, Heidi MacDonald, Kate Fitzsimons, and Meg Lemke reconvened for Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come’s look back at the year just gone, discussing the winners of the site’s graphic novel critics poll, and the big news stories of the year, which will likely also be the big news stories of this year.

• David Harper was joined by Wyatt Kennedy for the final Off Panel of 2024, as they spoke about Nights and Bolero, creator-owned workloads and managing stress, seasonal publications models, and projects on the horizon.

• John Siuntres rang out the old year with Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, as they all took Word Balloon through to the festive break, discussing how you write the Man of Steel, DC’s style guide, and thoughts on superhero comics from both sides of the aisle.

Abscise

— Nadhir (@nadhirnor.bsky.social) 2024-12-27T13:21:08.415Z

No more links this week, but it’s barely the start of the year, so steel yourself for the next 50-odd weeks to follow…

— beetle moses (@beetlemoses.bsky.social) 2024-12-31T21:31:01.632Z

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