WELP this is the first of these I'm writing with a sore throat. Please have more patience with me than you might otherwise. If you can't hear me in the back, raise one eyebrow.
Recently, a friend and mentor of mine who has never had a social media account and spends what little internet time he allots himself to nytimes.com, used the phrase "GFR" in a group text. The rest of the group paused. "Good Fucking Riddance," he explained. I went straight to Google and Twitter but all I could find were medical terms, a half-hearted slang.org entry and a 45k-view Green Day/Dua Lipa audio mashup. I have to admit, I think this digital-last fella coined a hashtag-ready initialism that has and will continue to have many applications.
This week had more heck than Don:
• Dark Horse Comics severed ties with writer Brian Wood after new allegations about sexual misconduct were made against him by journalist Laura Hudson, whose excellent writing I have enjoyed since she co-created the print magazine Comic Foundry. Similar accusations were made against Wood as far back as 2013. You can read the details at The Beat, and I encourage you to take a look at some of Laura's work at her own site.
• Lee Salem, the editor and executive behind many/most/all of your favorite newspaper comics, died on September 2nd. He was remembered at The Daily Cartoonist, who shared several fine Salem stories, and links to more.
• Randall Munroe is currently on tour! Kevin Huizenga is almost on tour! Warren Ellis is going to be on the Castlevania spotlight panel at New York Comic Con?
• Boulet has posted a new comic for the first time in over a year. VIVE BOULET NAHMEAN
• As beloved modern cult classic The Wicked + The Divine ends with its 45 issue, Polygon spent some time with series creators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie about the comic's genesis and evolution. I read one issue, and it was good! I like that McKelvie, for sure.
• That's not the only beloved Brit-born series to bow out this past Wednesday: as Fleen notes in this appreciation, the popular Giant Days has released its final regular issue.
• Shall we take a pre-reviews breather and watch Anders Nilsen draw? Indeed, we shall:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B19ikxIj2I5/
Okay, let's do reviews but spell it with a z at the end. Like this: reviewz.
• The New York freakin' Times on Ebony Flowers' Hot Comb and Teresa Wong's Dear Scarlet
• Publishers frackin' Weekly on Lynda Barry's Making Comics
• Comics flockin' Beat on Cathy G. Johnson's Jeremiah and Max de Radiguès' Simon & Louise
• Multi-flippin'-versity on the blood red hot Something is Killing the Children #1
• Your flappin' Chicken Enemy on Keiler Roberts' Rat Time
• Panel floopadoopin' Patter on David Rubin and Marcos Prior’s Grand Abyss Hotel
• And The Comics FARGIN' Journal on Rosemary Valero-O'Connell's What is Left, Tom Van Deusen's Expelling My Truth, and R.J. Palacio's White Bird: A Wonder Story. And don't forget Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay!
Here's hoping these reviews might expose you to a comic you otherwise would never have encountered. But now, we move on:
• As part of Small Press Expo programming, Jaime Hernandez and Gary Groth will speak to each other at the Library of Congress. Somewhere some asshole weeps about tax dollars.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2B6CbajRFZ/
• Notable comic critics, including TCJ contributors, have announced the formation of Fieldmouse Press, a nonprofit publisher "committed to the comics arts." They got one of those cool URLs where it's not a "dot com" but a "dot press" and that feels like the right way to start a nonprofit.
• Do you read Webtoon? C'monnnnn, admit it, you read Webtoon. Somebody sure does, because it has 55 million monthly visitors. But wait, do you even know what Webtoon is? You better, self-professed comics fan. Publishers Weekly took a look around the phenomenon.
• The NCS has opened the doors to its auction of original Popeye art created by its members. Whether you're clicking the PayPal button or not, there's some fun stuff to see at the Heritage Auctions page.
• Karen Green of Columbia U. posted a few pages from a vintage George Grosz book. Man, could that Grosz unnerve you with just some ink on a page. For more on G.G., take a look at Lance Hansen's bio comic from earlier this year at The Nation.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1zWJEbh52i/
Interviews with humans happened these last seven days:
• The "Speech Bubble" podcast hosted Kagan McLeod.
• GeekDad chatted with Alice Oseman.
• Women Write about Comics spoke to manga translator Jennifer McKeon.
• Comics Beat didn't mention Justin Trudeau to Seth or Alana Traficante, the curator of a huge Canadian indie comic art show. I think they could have when talking to Mike Norton about Battlepug, though.
• Comicosity asked Youssef Daoudi about his day.
• SyFy Wire prodded Scott Snyder about Batman, and then Daily Beast did the same with Tom King, but also threw in a little Mister Miracle for flavor.
• Jason Latour had colorist Matt Wilson on his video interview show The Drawl. About two-thirds of the way through, Wilson actually starts coloring. It's neat to see.
DOES ANYONE HAVE A LOZENGE. You forgot my sore throat, didn't you? Gee, I really thought you cared about Flandy.
• I got a big guffaw out of this clickbaity-titled article about how wildly manga versions of American superheroes can diverge from their western counterparts.
• And I was intrigued by this article on Bleeding Cool called "The Kid Who Became A Comic Book Hero in 1946 — and Hated It." The story follows through on that title, oh yes.
• Mike Lynch Cartoons shared an update from Cartoonists Rights Network International and its ongoing quest to support and protect cartoonists whose rights are being violated across the globe.
• The podcast "Forgotten Women of Genre" uploaded a ton of episodes last week, including profiles of those whose talents impacted our beloved medium, from artists Marie Severin and Jackie Ormes to editor Dorothy Woolfolk.
• On ICv2, Abrams ComicArts editorial director Charlie Kochman gave an overview of the imprint's 2020 Spring slate, including news books by Derf Backderf, Isabel Greenberg and Grant Snider. Dear reader, you might chastise me for linking to what amounts to a press release, but there are some snazzy treats here that I think you would enjoy.
• I think this is my first Newsarama link, if that means anything: eight Mike Mignola paintings will be on display in Pasadena this weekend. He says that's the most that have been shown together in the same space. Click through for a peek at a few of them.
WELP friends, I think that's just about it for today. My throat feels like a George Grosz drawing. But before we part, why not share a recent ep of "Cartoonist Kayfabe," as the boys peruse the Spawn Vault Edition in acknowledgement of Spawn's 300th issue, released this week.
If there's a hell below...
