Today at the Comics Journal, we're jumping into Wednesday with a look at the past. We're pleased to share Dan Mazur's extensive look at the work of Ibrahim Njoya who has been called "the first African comics creator". Based off the research Mazur's assembled, the claim fits.
Looking further back, however, the story of sub-Saharan comics in the first half of the 20th century -- during the colonial era -- seems a sparse and rather dreary affair. Published histories present the same few examples of newspaper strips and magazine panels that almost always reflect the racist, paternalistic attitudes of the colonialist or missionary publications in which they originally appeared. These comics were, for the most part, created by non-Africans, and their graphic style derived entirely from European models. And then there’s Ibrahim Njoya.
Over at Words Without Borders, you'll find a preview of Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's Grass, an upcoming Drawn & Quarterly graphic novel to be released this June.
Over at Sequential.ca, there's a whole new magazine to be found about Canadian comics--reviews, interviews and the like. The first issue being offered up on a pay-what-you-will model. It's been put together by "volunteer writers who are passionate about Canadian comic books and want to see the community grow and connect", and edited by Brendan Montgomery, whose previous work includes the Sequential Blog and the Canadian Independent Comic Book Wiki.
Over at Amazon, you can click on the "see inside" feature to get a little taste of Marc Singer's recently released Breaking The Frames, an academic look at the current state of comics studies. For those of you who crave the red meat of conflict, there's some familiar names to be found.
Over at Bleeding Cool, they've got an excellent example of how the revolting manner in which super-hero artists are treated often doesn't end even when the artist passes away.
Over at Bookriot, Jessica Plummer runs through all the reasons why Guy Gardner is the only Green Lantern worth caring about in a column whose only flaw is that it describes his outfits as "fashion disasters".
Over at Comicosity, Véronique Emma Houxbois goes deep into a Marvel comic I still like, Nextwave, while also remarking upon the often unremarked fact that nobody really talks about Warren Ellis anymore. Especially Warren Ellis. He used to talk about himself all the time!
Over at The Believer, there's a whole crop of new comics content--a comic from Gina Wynbrandt that's about as raw as raw can get, a comic about the impact of #metoo in Sweden from Emei Olivia Burell, "Cayo Cruz" from Alexandra Beguez and an interview with Lauren Weinstein.
