Features

Black Hole Sun – This Week’s Links

| April 12, 2024

No eclipse here in Merrie Olde London Towne™, sadly, which is probably for the best, as we’d have been unlikely to see it through the ever present pea soup fog that looms over the city, oppressing the skyline that otherwise would be clear and bright for the chimney sweeps to step in time across, but no, that is a mere flight of fancy, while reality is contained firmly in this week’s links, below. 

This week’s news.

• Starting the week’s selection with an IDW check-in, who last we saw initiating a program of cost-cutting measures, including laying off 39% of its workforce and delisting itself from the New York Stock Exchange, with the company last week enacting further layoffs, including editorial and executive positions, alongside the departure of Scott Dunbier, the company’s former Special Projects Editor, who has left to set up a new (and as yet unnamed) publishing endeavour - ICv2 reported in February that IDW showed a $4.9 million loss for the last fiscal year.

• Elsewhere, also returning to a somewhat recurrent story, creators took to social media platforms once again to allege unfair terms in WEBTOON’s contracts for its Originals program, with the publisher pushing back against what it calls ‘misrepresentations’ of its terms, as the allegations claim that the agreements are predatory, vis-a-vis creator-ownership of IP and rights to print publishing - if one scrolls back a couple of years you can find similar allegations being made regarding the platform’s contracts at the time, as well as its program of publishing fees, which the company responded to with a pledge to increase transparency of its contracts and payment systems - parent corp Naver are tentatively preparing for an initial public offering of the US-based WEBTOON Entertainment later this year, which could raise up to $500 million for the company.

• The American Library Association followed up last month’s report on the record number of book challenges made in 2023 with its rankings of the books most challenged last year, as Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer once again takes the number one spot, with Mike Curato’s Flamer and Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan’s Let’s Talk About It also appearing in the top ten.

• Comics prize news, and shortlists were released for this year’s Doug Wright Awards, winners to be announced on May 11th; and the 2024 Kodansha Manga Award, winners to be announced on May 14th.

• Auction news, and it’s Superman versus Superman this week, as the Kansas City Pedigree copy of Action Comics #1 sold for $6 million, breaking the previous record for an individual comics sale of $5.3 million for a copy of Superman #1 which sold in 2022.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, as news was shared this week of the passing of cartoonist, editor, scholar, historian, and clothing designer Trina Robbins, who has died at the age of 85.

• News was also shared of the passing of multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Don Wright, whose editorial cartoons appeared in the Miami News and The Palm Beach Post, who died last month at the age of 90.

• Finally this week, news was shared of the death of Ricardo Padilla, co-founder and Executive Director of the Latino Comics Expo, and creator of the comic book Border Avenger, who passed away on April 8th.

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

Henry Chamberlain reviews the uncompromising intensity of Leela Corman’s Victory Parade - “I think Corman does an admirable job of marrying comics with painting in an effortless way; a natural occurrence due in part to her genuine and passionate connection to both. In approaching the comics medium as a fine artist, Corman is very open to process and very committed to uncompromising integrity; it’s a “hands-on” approach.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Coplan reviews the alluring construction of Tony Fleecs, Dave Wachter, et al’s Uncanny Valley #1.

• Kevin Clark reviews the apocalyptic zaniness of Cullen Bunn, Patrick Piazzalunga, et al’s Monsters Are My Business (And Business is Bloody) #1.

• Alex McDonald reviews the fantastic start of Tyrone Finch, Sebastián Piriz, et al’s Deadweights #1.

• Andrew Isidoro reviews the bold conclusion of Sophie Campbell, Vincenzo Federici, Fero Pe, Dan Duncan, et al’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #150.

• Collier Jennings reviews the bold expansion of Erica Schultz, Ze Carlos, et al’s Rat City #1.

• Timothy O’Neil reviews the compelling violence of Marvel Comics’ Predator vs. Wolverine.

• Nathan Simmons reviews the uneven continuity of Marvel Comics’ Carnage Epic Collection: The Monster Inside.

 

The Arts STL

Sarah Boslaugh reviews the grim nature of Igort’s How War Begins: Dispatches from the Ukrainian Invasion, translated by Jamie Richards; and the small frames of Salva Rubio and Efa’s Degas and Cassatt: A Solitary Dance.

 

The Beat

• Cy Beltran reviews the Metropolitan focus of Joshua Williamson, Rafa Sandoval, et al’s Action Comics #1064.

• D. Morris reviews the dutch angles of Ryan North, Carlos Gomez, et al’s Fantastic Four #19.

• Zack Quaintance reviews the claustrophobic conclusion of Scott Snyder, Hayden Sherman, et al’s Dark Spaces – Dungeon #5.

• Samantha Puc reviews the snappy pacing of V.P. Anderson and Tatiana Hill’s Blood City Rollers.

 

Broken Frontier

• Lydia Turner reviews the artistic choices of Laura Pérez’s Totem, translated by Andrea Rosenberg.

• Andy Oliver reviews the visual ethos of Owen D. Pomery’s The Hard Switch.

 

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #133 and Avengers #12.

 

Hypatia

Jacob M. Held reviews the confirmation bias of Carolyn Cocca’s Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel: Militarism and Feminism in Comics and Film.

 

Multiversity Comics

• Chris Cole reviews the grand tone of George O’Connor’s Asgardians: Odin.

• Matthew Blair reviews the enjoyable weirdness of Geoff Johns, Bryan Hitch, et al’s Redcoat #1.

• Alexander Jones reviews the sharp characterisation of Gerry Duggan. Joshua Cassara, et al’s X-Men #33.

• Kate Kosturski reviews the visual tone of Cullen Bunn, Patrick Piazzalunga, et al’s Monsters Are My Business (And Business is Bloody) #1.

• Robbie Pleasant reviews the wise decisions of Ellen Boener, Eduardo Mello, et al's Dungeons & Dragons: The Thief of Many Things #1.

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Have capsule reviews of:

- The incisive brilliance of Solomon J. Brager’s Heavyweight.

- The exceptional achievement of Dave Lapp’s The Field.

- The charming artwork of Powerpaola’s All My Bicycles, translated by Andrea Rosenberg.

- The affecting vulnerability of Noah Van Sciver’s Maple Terrace.

- The skewering surreality of Christi Furnas’ Crazy Like a Fox: Adventures in Schizophrenia.

- The refreshing balance of V.P. Anderson and Tatiana Hill’s Blood City Rollers.

- The captivating visuals of Christopher Lincoln’s The Night Library.

 

The Washington Post

Kay Sohini reviews the formal ingenuity of Leela Corman’s Victory Parade.

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Steven Brower interviews Tim Lane about Mythologies & Apocrypha, personal chronology of illustration and comics-making, working in advertising, and current literary influences - “One of the things that always drew me to comics was that—and I kind of laugh about this now, because you take on so many responsibilities doing comics that nobody really appreciates—you are a director, a screenwriter, an art director, you are essentially everything down to the research that goes into a particular story environment, or the kind of clothing that a character should wear. I think every comic artist you meet is gonna have a different take on that.”

 

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Luciano Vecchio about Resurrection of Magneto, creative processes, feline familiars, and design continuity in superhero comics.

• David Brooke talks to Benjamin Percy about Hellverine, cenobite influences, central themes, and artistic collaborations.

• Chris Coplan interviews Joshua Williamson about Action Comics, lessons learned from telling stories, and the importance of legacy to DC titles.

 

The Beat

• Nick Kazden chats with Juni Ba about The Boy Wonder, the appeal of Damian Wayne, Mask of the Phantasm influences, and making a Juni Ba book featuring Batman characters.

• Zack Quaintance interviews Rob Williams about Judge Dredd: Rend & Tear with Tooth & Claw, matching Dredd with survival horror, and collaborating with RM Guera.

• Avery Kaplan speaks with Nicole Maines about Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story, connections to the character of Dreamer, and the less is more approach to comics-making.

• Diego Higuera talks to Louis Southard about Comics Are Dying: The Comic, celebrating all iterations of the comics form, and the book’s role as a jumping on point.

 

Broken Frontier

Andy Oliver speaks with Rick Altergott about Blessed Be, the origins and evolution of the story, returning to Flowertown, and the perils of drawing sidewalks.

 

Library Journal

Tom Batten interviews Emil Ferris about My Favorite Thing is Monsters, the challenge of focus while working on creative projects, and advice to others on that path.

 

Multiversity Comics

• Mark Tweedale chats with Chris Roberson about Panya: The Mummy’s Curse, exploring the character history at the heart of the story, and narrative misdirects.

• Elias Rosner interviews V.P. Anderson and Tatiana Hill about Blood City Rollers, variations on roller derby, and safe ways to fall while roller skating.

 

PBS

Present a conversation with cartoonist Peter Dunlap-Shohl about adapting methods of cartooning following a diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 43 - Dunlap-Shohl’s appearance in the recent PBS documentary Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s can be watched here.

 

Smash Pages

JK Parkin interviews S.E. Case about Rigsby WI, collecting the webcomic for print, comics-making origin stories, and the acquired taste of Phish.

 

Solrad

Matthew Makman speaks with Joshua Cotter about Nod Away, the origins of the project, and meeting an audience halfway without spoon-feeding your readers.

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Tom Shapira writes in remembrance of Mark D. Bright, storied artist for Marvel and DC, and co-creator of Quantum and Woody, who passed away last month, aged 68 - “In a career that would span the next 25 years, from 1978 through 2003 before pulling back from the field of comics, Bright always brought a human touch to his work. No matter how crazy the scenarios he would be asked to draw—aliens, great military conflicts with sci-fi weapons, exotic locations, gaudily-designed characters—there would always be a warm verisimilitude to his work.”

• Also for TCJ, Katie Skelly writes in remembrance of cartoonist Ed Piskor, creator of Wizzywig and Hip Hop Family Tree, who passed away on April 1st, aged 41 - “Brain Rot covered a range of Piskor’s personal interests, including professional wrestling, Nintendo video games and EC Comics, which gave him reason to test different narrative voices. The new, more freeform series also saw Piskor explore a style which, ironically, didn’t present like a webcomic: the strips were designed to replicate comic book offset printing, including an abundant use of halftone, texture and digitally “aged” paper backgrounds.”

• Finally for TCJ this week, Joe Sacco’s series of visual columns ‘The War On Gaza’ continues, with previous instalments also available to read here.

• The Cartoonist Cooperative presents the results of its 2023 comics worker survey, with data gleaned from the responses of over 100 individuals working in mainstream publishing and self publishing regarding their working conditions.

• Elsewhere, Brian Hibbs returned with a fresh edition of Tilting at Windmills, providing extensive analysis of 2023's Bookscan numbers, as sagging sales from comic book publishers, including those of the Big Two, contrasted with strong backlist numbers for graphic novels targeted by book challenges, and blockbuster numbers were seen again from the industry-unto-itself mega-publishing behemoth of Scholastic.

• For Shelfdust, Tony Wei Ling writes on Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi’s The Good Asian #10, comparisons of the story to Wayne Wang’s 1982 film Chan Is Missing, and the textual frictions of the series’ through the lens of its finale.

• Contributors to Women Write About Comics present more choices for comics they loved from 2023, including thoughts on Gina Wynbrandt’s You’re the Center of Attention; Deena Mohamed’s Shubeik Lubeik; Olivia Stephens’ Darlin’ And Her Other Names, Part 1: Marta; HA’s The Chromatic Fantasy; Julia Wertz’s Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story; Ollie Hicks and Emma Oosterhous’ Grand Slam Romance; Ryan Estrada, Amy Rose, and Jeongmin Lee’s Occulted; and Benji Nate’s Girl Juice.

• Also for Women Write About Comics, Annie Mok writes on the posthumously published Geneviève Castrée: Complete Works 1981-2016, and the heartbreaking beauty to be found therein.

• From the world of open-access academia, in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Mónica González Ybarra and Elenia Marroquin present a study on the use of comics creation by Latinx preservice teachers to document teaching and learning practices of biculturalism, cultural preservation, spirituality, remedios, and the importance of education.

• In the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Anna-Sophie Jürgensa, Anastasiya Fiadotavab and Crystal-Leigh Clitheroe write on the humour and aesthetics of Harley Quinn in the context of humour and clown theories, and the ways in which fan discourse have helped shape the character.

• Paul O’Brien continues a census of the criminals of Daredevil, for House to Astonish, as there is a passing of the torch, both between series writers, as well as Starr Saxon and subsequent alter alias Machinesmith.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as the approaching presidential election even managed to overshadow the recent solar eclipse.

This week’s audio/visual delights.

• Ben Katchor hosted the latest meeting of the New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium, as academic Nina Rowe gave a presentation on illuminated World Chronicles from c1400 CE, which tell the story of eccentricities exhibited by Roman Emperor Nero when seeking medical advice from doctors of the time, as well as the wider history of Nero and such illustrated mediaeval manuscripts.

• The Asahi Shimbun presents a short film on the work of mangaka Junji Ito, speaking with Ito about working practices when making Tomie, the allure of horror manga, early manga works, and social phobias around speaking in front of audiences outside of the manga studio.

• Fresh from leaving IDW, Scott Dunbier hosts the Lake Como Comic Art Festival’s new limited series podcast Comic Book Pros, this week speaking with Juanjo Guarnido and Tula Lotay about the art of comics making and creative inspirations.

• Meg Lemke hosted the latest edition of Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come, speaking with Street Noise Books’ founder and director Liz Frances about the small press’ publishing focus, and moving from the corporate publishing world to that of indie presses.

• David Harper welcomed Murewa Ayodele and Dotun Akande to this week’s episode of Off Panel, as they discussed Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods, comics reading, making, and influences, and their long-standing creative partnership.

• A trip up in the Word Balloon as John Siuntres spoke with Mark Waid about Roy Thomas’ controversial claim towards credited co-creatorship on the character of Wolverine, and what the job of an editor actually entails with regards to characters created under your stewardship.

No more links today, back next time with more, unless the solar eclipse truly was a portent of the end of the world, in which case there will be bigger things to think about.