Nurds of November — This Week’s Links

This week’s links, below, is, as Disturbed would have it, currently down with the sickness (ooh wah ah ah ah), so, while coughing oneself awake at 2 a..m on a regular basis, it’s nice to be up and about in the wee hours during a period in which, thanks to the joys of time differences, the vast majority of the terminally online population has been posting their way through what is admittedly a very funny run of election results. Novocaine for the soul, indeed.

“Triceratops at Ueno”(2025)

— 生田目和剛(Nabatame Kazutaka) (@nabatamekazutaka.bsky.social) 2026-11-03T08:47:09.127Z

This week’s news.

• Now that the dust has settled from the failed legal blocking actions against the festival, announcements were made this week about what form the new iterations of annual comics events in Angoulême will take, with the reveal of the newly (and pithily) titled Angoulême Bande Dessinée, which will take place from 28-31 January 2027, under the stewardship of the Morgane Group’s subsidiary, M:BD.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, as ICv2 shared the news of the passing of librarian, writer, and comics advocate Katharine Kan, who has died at the age of 71.

The Comics Courier is a special project for me, and has become, I hope, a way for folks to slow down amidst all the noise and read about comics from new perspectives. The Courier 5 is going to be a really special issue, and it has an absolutely stellar team. Pledge for it now. comicscourier.com

— Tiffany Babb Thought Bubble (@explodingarrow.bsky.social) 2026-11-01T17:01:12.112Z

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Hagai Palevsky reviews the broad strokes of Paradise Systems’ SYSTEM 01: Hot Net Hotel — “Perhaps unsurprisingly, the stories that offer the most detail about their characters and the worlds they inhabit — in the way of central metaphors — are also the most overtly political pieces in the book.”

• Whit Taylor reviews the lush layers of Ulli Lust’s Early Man Was a Woman: Book 1 — Reclaiming Prehistory — “There’s a lot of complex text, which takes time to sit with and absorb- it’s a slow read. In fact, much of this book took me back to being an anthropology major in college, and is a great primer for anyone interested in that field of study.”

 

AIPT

• Alex Schlesinger reviews the shallow start of Joshua Williamson, Carmen Carnero, et al’s Iron Man: A New Nightmare.

• Chris Coplan reviews the familiar framework of Dan Watters, Brian Level, et al’s Mad Science Division #1.

• Kevin Clark reviews the tantalising setup of Homero Rios, Diego Yapur, et al’s Red Sonja/Barbarella #1.

• David Brooke reviews the compelling continuation of Pornsak Pichetshote, Alberto Ponticelli, et al’s Exquisite Corpses: Lone Gunman #1.

• Collier Jennings reviews the charged emotions of Spencer Ackerman, Antonio Fuso, et al’s No One Escapes the Dialectic #1.

• Colin Moon reviews the masterful storytelling of Ross Murray’s Bedford Street.

• Rory Wilding reviews the toothless action of Joe Palmer’s Destination Kill: Deluxe Edition.

 

The Beat

D. Morris reviews the big ideas of Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, et al’s Avengers #1.

 

Book and Film Globe

William Schwartz reviews the dense strangeness of Ben Katchor’s Hotel & Farm.

 

Broken Frontier

• Lydia Turner has reviews of:

• The delightful world of Ellie Durkin’s Seed.
• The imaginative weirdness of John Chalmers and Sandra Marrs’ Wilomina: The Land of Dreams and Nightmares.

• Gary Usher has reviews of:

• The fresh takes of Professor Raco et al’s Everybody’s Happy Nowadays. 
• The talented cartooning of Agata Wawryniuk and Robert Sienicki’s Freshly Grown Gardener #1-3.
• The hilarious interactions of Nick Bryan,Flo Woolley, Len Gogos, Elena Cerisciola, Elena Artese, Jodi Perez, et al’s The Collected Letters of Courier Z Volume 2.

• Andy Oliver has reviews of:

• The meta layers of Donald Calabrese’s Coady.
• The honest reflections of Katriona Chapman’s Katzine: The Catch-Up Issue.
• The pertinent punches of Nikesh Shukla and Camille Aubry’s Mad Villain #2.
• The rich details of Anna Readman’s One Day in the Life of Xero Slingsby.
• The enthusiastic fun of Leeds Comics Collective’s Warriors of Junk Food.
• The slapstick delights of Sheena Dempsey’s Pablo and Splash.
• The expressive characterisations of Gemma Plum’s adaptation of Ivo Van Woerden’s The Great Marc Evers.

 

Comics Grinder

Henry Chamberlain reviews the perfect mix of Shawn McBee, Maciej Jankowski, Nicolas Nieto, Matias De Vincenzo, et al’s Westron #3; and the rollicking weirdness of Jean Pleyers’ The Children of Light.

 

Far Out

Liam Gaughan reviews the bold visuals of Phuong Mai Nguyen’s animated adaptation of AJ Dungo’s In Waves.

 

Financial Times

Lucy Scholes reviews the harrowing testimony of Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco’s Requiem for Gaza.

 

FreakSugar

Jed W. Keith reviews the sharp dialogue of Rob Williams, Nil Vendrell, et al’s Hidden Springs #1.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men #40, Fantastic Four #18, Bishop #5, Tomb of Apocalypse #3, Gambit: Gone #2, and Alien vs. X-Men #2.

 

The News-Gazette

Deb Aronson reviews the satisfying conclusion of Victoria Jamieson’s The Whole Wide World of Mabel Mulligan and the resonant story of Pedro Martin’s Mexikid.

 

RetroFuturista

Dominique Musorrafiti reviews the insightful indictment of Camila Kerwin’s Soft Targets: Guns in America and the Kids Caught in the Crossfire.

 

Solrad

Hagai Palevsky reviews the oppressive concentration of Rea Irvin’s The Smythes.

 

Winnipeg Free Press

Candida Rifkind reviews the metafictional intrigue of Paul B. Rainey’s Murder School.

 

Yatta-tachi

• LB Bryant reviews the fantastic visuals of Kozue Amano’s Colori Colore Creare Volume 1, translated by Andria McKnight.

• Kai reviews the shallow romance of Enhi’s Give Me a Hug, Mr. Frog!, translated by Margaret Ngo.

oh elon :(

— Smooth Dunk (@smoothdunk2.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T14:11:03.203Z

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Dylan Horrocks interviews Ross Murray about Bedford Street, the observational nature of anxiety, the landscapes of New Zealand, and cartooning inspirations — “Of all the different things I do, comics are the most meaningful thing to me. I'll labor over comics in a way that I don't as much over other things. Not that it makes them look any better. Comics are often the scrappiest work I do visually, but I guess I put a little extra care into conveying the core ideas. I'm most self-conscious about my comics, might be another way of putting it.”

 

AIPT

Chris Coplan speaks with Jeremy Robinson about One Zero Zero One Saves the World and the thirty year path to the book’s publication, and with Joe Harris and R.D. Brown about The X-Files and daunting nature of working on such a touchstone property.

 

Autobiographix

Nora Hickey and Amaris Ketcham interview Nathan A. Gray about The Human Remains and processing heavy experiences through making comics, and KC Councilor about Between You and Me: Transitional Comics and the personal intersection between transitioning and making comics.

 

The Beat

Javier Perez talks to Curt Pires about Creature Corps and monster battler inspirations, and to Trevor Fernandes-Lenkiewicz about Heavy and the realities of life as an independent comics creator.

 

Broken Frontier

Andy Oliver speaks with Skai Campbell, AKA Skhoshbell, about Jungul Man-Thology and Hog Hog, comics inspirations, and taking the personal approach when it comes to ecological activism.

 

Fanbase Press

Barba Dillon chats with James Aquilone about Abbott & Costello Meet the Monsters and the timeless nature of the duo’s comedy.

 

FreakSugar

Jed W. Keith interviews Cyrille Pomès about Hellboy in Hell: Nothing But Blood, doorways into the Mignolaverse, and Hellboy drawing practice.

 

Graphic Memoir

Jonathan Sandler speaks with Ari Richter about Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz, the fine arts to comics (and vice versa) pipeline, and the gallows humour of the Richter family.

 

The New York Times

Robert Ito talks to Keum Suk Gendry-Kim about My Friend Kim Jong Un, the hostile reception to the book’s publication in Korea, and the research that went into it.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Meg Lemke chats with Raquelle Jac about Bimbo Agitprop, processing negative thoughts through comics, and finding value in the value less.

Getting there!

— Marley Zarcone (@kittycoffee.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T22:18:02.244Z

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Jon Holt and Teppei Fukuda return with a new translation of an essay by Natsume Fusanosuke, this time out taken from Kawade Shobō’s recent mook (or, ‘magazine book’) on mangaka Kobayashi Makoto — “Therefore, not only does this essay present a history of a legendary figure in manga, but it also contains elements of Natsume’s thought ranging from his early days as a manga scholar (panels, pacing, and “events”) as well as material that interests him greatly now (the publishing industry, artist-editor relationships). He also describes here what exactly makes Kobayashi Makoto’s manga still so interesting.”

• Also for TCJ, Christina Lee draws the line between Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and their depictions of the financial, physical, and societal pain inherent in chasing the capitalist ideal of perfection — “Okazaki borrows the visual language of fashion magazines by frequently portraying Liliko in the middle of photoshoots; her front-stage appearance juxtaposed with her back-stage thoughts, at odds with the image-driven economy she participates in. This dissonance between what we see and read illustrates the medium-specificity of comics: we are a simultaneous critic and participant of Liliko’s media environment, in which female bodies are scrutinized and objectified.”

• Elizabeth Sandifer’s Last War in Albion continues, over at Eruditorum Press, as the charting of the magical war for Comics Brittania’s soul reaches the publication of Grant Morrison et al’s The Invisibles, alien abduction experiences, and all the abstruse chaos which you would expect that to entail.

• Shelfdust’s retrospective of the myriad first issues of Wonder Woman continues, as this edition Adrienne Resha looks back on Greg Potter and George Pérez’s 1987 iteration of an issue 1 for Diana of Themyscira, and the paradoxes to be found therein.

• From the world of open-access academia, in Mississippi Quarterly, Brannon Costello writes on John Ridley and Georges Jeanty’s The American Way and The American Way: Those Above and Those Below, and the extent to which these superhero comics can centre agency of Black characters, and imagine a progressive vision of the South.

• A new Mindless Ones newsletter crests the horizon, as this week Jamie Delano and John Ridgway’s Hellblazer is Suggested for Mature Readers, alongside other spoOoky seasonal fare put under the shaking spotlight of a flickering torch.

• Paul O’Brien’s survey of the villains of Daredevil continues, for House to Astonish, as DG Chichester and Scott McDaniel briefly tap into urban legends of the 90s to bring forth the Surgeon General.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, for The Daily Cartoonist, as trepidation ahead of the midterm elections just gone lead instead to a fair amount of schadenfreude in the immediate aftermath.

garden-variety.org/on-animals/

— Jillian Tamaki (@dirtbagg.bsky.social) 2026-10-29T17:35:10.445Z

No more links this week, or next week, it’s holiday time, so this rhinovirus is going to get sweated out in one of your classic European saunas.

Draw This In Ur Style

— Marie Enger @ pax u (@soengery.bsky.social) 2026-11-04T15:12:02.301Z

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