Do Not Collect $200 – This Week’s Links

One more week, one more time to wonder what shape the rippling outcomes of a corporate acquisition will form — attempted returns to business as usual, rapid pushes for growth, strip-mining fire sales, unnamed fourth, fifth, sixth things — but as the lenses pull inexorably into focus the main reveal is … another selection of this week’s links, below.

This week’s news.

• Checking in with the results of the recent auction of Diamond Comic Distributors’ assets, after the company declared bankruptcy, and Alliance Entertainment, a global distribution and wholesaler, announced this week that they were the winning bidders to acquire the company, and will presumably get to work incorporating Diamond’s infrastructure in their established business of “guaranteeing partners vertical coverage and meaningful connections to their ideal customers.” ICv2 has more background information on Alliance and where existing agreements with publishers stand, with The Beat covering recent comments made publicly by Chairman Bruce Ogilvie on the acquisition, including existing knowledge of the comics industry and Diamond’s operations (read: limited) and minimum expected revenue/profit margins.

• Across the pond, publishers, including DC Thomson and Avery Hill, announced the founding of trade association Comic Book UK, which will involve itself in “debates around regulation of generative AI, ensuring that the value of UK comic companies’ intellectual property is maintained within a regime that supports innovation.” The UK government’s recent consultations on copyright reforms in the face of AI platform rollouts, with ruling party Labour’s preferred option being to allow AI companies to scrape copyrighted materials without permission, has (somewhat unsurprisingly) faced strong pushback from artists.

• Comics prizes news, as Broken Frontier shared the winners of this year’s London Cartoon Museum Young Cartoonist Awards, with Jess Judge named this year’s under-30 cartoonist of the year, Artie Hicks is 2024’s under-18 cartoonist of the year, and Rafe Carver takes home the Woodcock prize for the most surreal cartoon.

• In other prize news, public voting for the 2025 edition of the Inkwell Awards, celebrating the art and work of comic book inkers, is now open, running through to the 6th of April, with votes welcomed from industry professionals and fans.

• Elsewhere, Tiffany Babb announced the recipients of this year’s Comics Criticism Mini Grant Awards, as T. Trewhella, Matt Ledger, Helen Chazan, Justin S. Harrison, Brandon Jackson, Lydia Turner, Arpad Okay, and Nat Yonce all received grants in 2025’s round of funding.

• In other funding news, the call for applications to Athenaeum Gives, Athenaeum Comic Art’s funding program that provides microgrants to early career cartoonists, is now open to submissions through to the 11th of April, with one grant of $1,500 available in this year’s funding round.

• In crowdfunding news, a GoFundMe campaign was launched in support of Marvel and DC artist Thomas A. Tenney, which is looking to raise funds in support of medical and living costs due to an exacerbation of Tenney’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Claire Napier reviews the invisible aesthetic of Alec Robbins’ The Collected Crimehot, Volume 1 — “They are goofy in their over-presence and childish, basic communicative properties: these things are drawn with one basic intention: to be horny. Not — vital — to look hot — to be horny. You press your breasts against someone you want to get hard. It’s dark. It’s not about looking like a Gravure card, because nobody can see you: it’s about being horny.”

• Hagai Palevsky reviews the telling details of Sergio Toppi’s The Collected Toppi, Volume 11: War Stories — “I can’t help but compare these stories to Will Eisner or Joe Kubert — two other cartoonists who, in tackling similarly heady, real-world themes in an attempt to transcend their pulp roots, likewise revealed their own similarly-glaring weaknesses.”

 

AIPT

• Colin Moon reviews the hilarious juxtapositions of Josh Pettinger’s Tedward.

• Rory Wilding reviews the compelling allegory of Tom King, Peter Gross, et al’s Animal Pound.

• Kieran O’Brien reviews the compelling spin of Tyler Boss, Adriano Turtuluci, et al’s You’ll Do Bad Things #1.

• Chris Coplan reviews the winning flatulism of Joanne Starer, Brandt&Stein, et al’s Harley Quinn Fartacular: Silent Butt Deadly #1.

• Piper Whitaker reviews the solid continuation of Kelly Thompson, Mattia De Iulis, et al’s Absolute Wonder Woman #6.

• Kevin Clark reviews the character contrasts of Christopher Priest and Ergün Gündüz’s Vampirella #1.

• Collier Jennings reviews the bloody violence of Tim Seeley, Rex Ogle, Mitch Gerads, Matteo Lolli, et al’s Peacemaker Presents: The Vigilante/Eagly Double Feature #1.

• Ryan Sonneville reviews the deft balance of Geoffrey Thorne, Marcus To, et al’s X-Force: Fractures.

• Tyler Brown reviews the emotional masterclass of Ryan North, Cory Smith, et al’s Fantastic Four #30.

• David Brooke reviews the enjoyable variety of IDW’s Godzilla vs. America: Los Angeles, and the striking setup of James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh’s Exquisite Corpses #1.

 

The Beat

• Masha Zhdanova reviews the masterful storytelling of Yoshiharu Tsuge’s Oba Electroplating Factory, translated by Ryan Holmberg.

• Zack Quaintance reviews the bold execution of Deniz Camp, Javier Rodriguez, et al’s Absolute Martian Manhunter #1.

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the stale sameness of Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, et al’s Batman #158.

• Khalid Johnson reviews the narrative catharsis of Patrick Horvath’s Free For All #1.

• Tim Rooney reviews the shifting tones of Tyler Boss, Adriano Turtuluci, et al’s You’ll Do Bad Things #1.

• Jared Bird reviews the unique blend of Matthew Rosenberg, Stefano Landini, et al’s We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1; and the explosive conclusion of Luana Vecchio’s Doll Parts: A Lovesick Tale #4, tanslated by Edward Caio.

• Clyde Hall reviews the nuanced plotting of Patrick Zircher et al’s Solomon Kane: The Serpent Ring #1, and the attractive layers of Faith Erin Hicks et al’s Universal Monsters – The Mummy #1.

• Jordan Jennings reviews the attempted cohesion of Marvel Comics’ X-Manhunt: Omega #1; and the resonant start of Chuck Brown, David F. Walker, Sandford Greene, et al’s Bitter Root: The Next Movement #1.

• Zack Quaintance reviews the raucous joy of Robbie Morrison, Henry Flint, et al’s Shakara: The Complete Collection; and the playful punchlines of Jan Strnad, Dennis Fujitake, et al’s The Dalgoda Omnibus.

 

Broken Frontier

• Gary Usher reviews the perfect tone of Joe Harris, Russell Mark Olson, et al’s Past Time #1..

• Andy Oliver reviews the important testimony of Safaa Odah’s Safaa and the Tent: Diary of a Cartoonist from Gaza Oct 2023-Dec 2024, translated by Nada Hodali.

• Lindsay Pereira reviews the vivid contrasts of María Medem’s Land of Mirrors, translated by Aleshia Jensen and Daniela Ortiz; and the powerful drama of Rachel Ang’s I Ate the Whole World to Find You.

 

From Cover to Cover

Scott Cederlund reviews the easy shifts of Jaime Hernandez’s Life Drawing.

 

The Guardian

Rachel Cooke reviews the analogue truths of Becky Barnicoat’s Cry When the Baby Cries, and the unpredictable pleasures of Paul B Rainey’s There’s No Time Like the Present.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #14, X-Force #9, Exceptional X-Men #7, Psylocke #5, Magik #3, Deadpool/Wolverine #3, and Cable: Love & Chrome #3.

 

Solrad

Elias Rosner reviews the dreamlike malleability of Kateřina Čupová’s adaptation of Karel Čapek’s R.U.R., translated by Julie Nováková.

 

Yatta-Tachi

Wendeego reviews the hangout humour of Keigo Shinzo’s Tokyo Alien Bros., Volume 1. 

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Nicholas Burman, with translation from Paloma Opazo, interviews Nazario Luque Vera about Anarcoma, life at 80 years old, the importance of humanism, and the realities of publishing under the Franco regime - “Vehement as I am, gypsy singing and flamenco guitar made me discard any other kind of music. At the same time, my interest in comics made me spend a month at my Dutch friend's house in The Hague and I didn't think of visiting any museum despite having been (and remaining) a fervent admirer of Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Vermeer. I did, however, visit many comic book shops where I bought numerous copies of Crumb, Clay Willson (my favorite) and Shelton.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Coplan talks to Goats Flying Press’ Sebastian Girner about the publisher’s mission, writing foci, and repositioning your career in response to the world changing around you.

• Chris Hassan speaks with Jason Loo about Concert of Champions, the joys of Dazzler, villainous mysteries, and Marvel music fans.

• David Brooke talks to Javier Rodríguez about Absolute Martian Manhunter, the visual approach for the book, 3D sculpting, and taking the comics page as a whole.

 

Autobiographix

Amaris Ketcham and Nora Hickey interview David Cowen and Gabriel Wexler about Should We Buy A Gun?, the organic nature of their collaboration on the book, and addressing the issue of gun violence in America.

 

The Beat

• Diego Higuera talks to Keith Arem and Christopher Shy about Frost Road, the horror elements to the story’s apocalypse, and the draw of immersive storytelling.

• Avery Kaplan interviews Arley Nopra about The Baby-sitters Club: Mallory and the Trouble with Twins, working to adapt the source material, and important twin decisions.

• Ollie Kaplan talks to Anders Nilsen about Tongues, intuitive page construction, career culminations, and storytelling influences.

 

Brands Untapped

Billy Langsworthy speaks with Faith Erin Hicks about Universal Monsters: The Mummy, the origins of the project, and building out from movie canon.

 

Cartoonist Cooperative

Ahead of May’s inaugural Nib & Ink Fest the co-op has interviews with festival contributors Maiji/Mary Huang, A F Azar, studioCARTRIDGE, Grovey Pascasio, Asmodeus, Mariah Currey, and El Hufbauer.

 

The Chosun Daily

Jang Yoon and Lee Jae-eun speak with Onrie Kompan about Yi Soon Shin, the real-life history that the comic depicts, the book’s continuing publication, and the fictional elements in the story.

 

Cult MTL

Justine Smith talks to Sook-Yin Lee about adapting Chester Brown’s graphic novel, Paying For It, for the silver screen, and the process of bringing the comic to film.

 

Ithaca Journal

Jacob Mack speaks with Michael Watson about ITHAQA, nightmare inspirations, research at the Wharton Studio Museum, and crowdfunding campaigns and communities.

 

The New Indian Express

Anubhab Roy interviews Appupen about adapting CS Chellappa’s Vaadivaasal with Perumal Murugan, how the book was a dream project, and the growth of Indian comics.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

• Ash Holland talks to Cara Gormally about Everything is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder: Confessions of a Former Badass, the catharsis of telling the book’s story, and comics as a tool for communication.

• Brigid Alverson speaks with Margie Kindt and Matt Kindt about Gilt Frame, keeping murder mysteries in the family, and French furniture research.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Hank Kennedy writes on Albert E. Khan’s Game of Death: Effects of the Cold War on Our Children and the views on American mass media contained therein — “What Kahn did not know, or chose not to know, was how many early comics creators had ties to the Communist Party. These included Dick Briefer, Maurice Del Buorgo, and the aforementioned Kurtzman. This group provided illustrations and the comics Little Lefty and Panky Rankin for party publications like the Daily Worker and the New Masses.”

• Also for TCJ, Tegan O’Neil returns with a fresh Murderers’ Row, this time out singing the praises of Dwayne Turner, and examining the transformations to be found across Turner’s work — “It’s one thing to be able to depict relatively complicated action with an ensemble cast — the most economic version of which can be seen in books like Thundercats or Transformers, books with a younger readership who (at least according to the tenets of editorial at the time) prized legibility above all else. The hard part is figuring out how to convey that same information via consistently interesting and novel compositions.”

• Finally for TCJ, Tom Shapira compares and contrasts a tripartite selection of Hergé’s Tintin in America, interrogating the plastic allure of this early outing of the Belgian boy reporter — “There is no arc to Tintin in America; and while Tintin as a character isn’t often submitted to character development (too nice, too perfect) Herge finds a way around it in latter albums, by focusing these stories either around Captain Haddock (a man of actual flaws) or some newly introduced figure.”

• For the Cartoonist Cooperative, CJ Standal writes on the varied approach to licensing taken by Charles Schulz, Jim Davis, and Bill Watterson, and the history of merchandise (or lack thereof) derived from their works.

• More from Hank Kennedy, this time for FAIR, covering the firing of editorial page editor Tony Doris by the Palm Beach Post, after a cartoon by Jeff Danzinger was deemed antisemitic by some readers, and contrasting the ways in which the Gaza conflict has been depicted in editorial cartoons across the political divide.

• Over at The Conversation, Dominic Davies writes on a trio of graphic novels documenting the history of slavery and resistance against slavery, in the form of Nic Watts, and Sakina Karimjee’s adaptation of C.L.R. James’ Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History; David Lester, Paul Buhle, and Marcus Rediker’s Prophet Against Slavery – Benjamin Lay, A Graphic Novel; and David Lester and Marcus Rediker’s Under the Banner of King Death – Pirates of the Atlantic, A Graphic Novel.

• For The Rice Thresher, Lily Harvey reports from the "Comics Sans Frontières: Border Defiance in Graphic Narratives" conference, which welcomed Art Spiegelman and others to Houston earlier this month.

• Brian Hibbs rings in the tricentennial edition of Tilting at Windmills, writing on the history of the column and personal history with comics and comics retail, at a time when the direct market is going through a period of rapid change.

• Over at Shelfdust, Steve Morris continues to blast Spawn de Replay, examining the family ties of Al Simmons, as issue #12 of Spawn brings Todd McFarlane back to the fore along with some interesting subversions of narrative expectations.

• Covers Album returns to Broken Frontier, as Benjamin L. Clark presents a selection of favourite comics covers from one Charles M. Schulz, both from the world of Peanuts and beyond.

• For Print, Steven Heller writes in remembrance of John Peck, aka The Mad Peck, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 83.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as there were varied levels of resistance to the undermining of the judiciary, educational institutions, and national security.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Starting out this week’s multimedia section with a pair of recent meetings from the New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium, as Ben Katchor hosted a talk on the work of artist James ‘Jimmy’ Swinnerton from the team behind new retrospective volume Jimmy!, including Pete Maresca, Michael Tisserand, Paul C. Tumey and Rick Marschall; and Austin English hosted a talk from Carol Lay on Story Minute and recent books My Time Machine and Murderburg and working processes and practices.

• Drawn & Quarterly continued their At Home With series, this edition featuring a presentation from the home of Paul B. Rainey, discussing graphic novels Why Don’t You Love Me? And There’s No Time Like the Present, and the realities of self-publishing strips and books before working with a publisher.

• 2000 AD’s Thrill-Cast kicked off a series of creator tapes interviews, this week sharing the first of a two-part conversation with Simon Bisley, getting a tour around Bisley’s studio, including original artwork and engine part stacks, and thoughts on life and making art.

• Brian Hibbs hosted a new meeting of the Comix Experience Graphic Novel Club, as Briana Loewinsohn spoke about Raised by Ghosts, comic book and comics making origins, personal voices in journals, and teaching high school students and making books suitable for teen readers.

• David Harper welcomed Matt Fraction to this week’s edition of Off Panel, as they discussed career moves and going away from/returning to comic books, collaborating on AdventureMan, looking back on Sex Criminals, and keeping things fun.

• Calvin Reid and Meg Lemke reported for Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come from the floor of this year’s recent MoCCA Arts Festival, as they spoke with Gina Gagliano, Tom Kaczynski, Mattie Lubchansky, John Vazquez Mejias, and Chloé Wary about recent professional goings on.

• A trio of recent public broadcasting interviews, as the BBC’s Mobeen Azhar spoke with Nnedi Okorafor about Black Panther and Shuri and pathways to writing comics, Milwaukee PBS spoke with Cris Siqueira about May You Get What You Want and co-owning the Lion’s Tooth bookstore, and CBC’s Piya Chattopadhyay spoke with Barry Blitt about The New Yorker’s centennial and the challenges inherent to political cartooning in the current climate.

No more links this week, just seven whole days to sit and think idly about how often one has to write the word "auction" as part of a weekly comics coverage round-up linkblog.

The post Do Not Collect $200 – This Week’s Links appeared first on The Comics Journal.