Clark Burscough | May 22, 2026
There's a heatwave a-coming in London, which means that it’s time to batten down the hatches and wait things out until the clouds return, sweat dripping off your nose onto the wilting pages of comics that burst into flames in your hands mere seconds later, with eggs frying in an instant on the bonnets of cars, melting tarmac making those machines undrivable anyway, and the humidity pushing you to leave your poorly-insulated domicile and dart between patches of shade, towards the cool embrace of this week’s links, below, before the laptop overheats and becomes just another pile of scrap components.
— Alariko (@alariko.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T14:33:50.600Z
This week’s news.
• Starting this week with some reversals of news items from last week, as Kickstarter apologised for its new rules regarding ‘mature content’, reverting to previous policies, as they had apparently realised that the new, Stripe-appeasing regulations flew in the face of the platform’s “f*ck the establishment spirit,” following an online backlash.
• Elsewhere, Comic-Con International released a statement regarding the inclusion of the Stardust the Super Wizard Anthology, which turns out to contain a page generated using Artificial Intelligence, in the list of nominees for this year’s Eisner Awards, noting that judges would not have voted for its inclusion, had they been aware, and that the anthology’s editor had rescinded its submission for inclusion, subsequent to an online backlash.
• Corporate comics news, as Marvel announced that it would be making some leadership changes at the House of Ideas, with Brad Winderbaum, head of Marvel Television and Animation, moving to also sit at the top of the chain at Marvel Comics, taking over from the departing Marvel veteran Dan Buckley.
• Staying on the corporate beat, as Embracer Group announced the separation of the titular Group into two individual entities, with various IP and media companies spun off into new company Fellowship Entertainment, which will include Dark Horse Comics under its auspices, sans founder Mike Richardson, who left the company in March of this year.
• Comics prizes news as the Montreal Comic Arts Festival announced the winners of the 27th Bédélys Awards, naming Lee Lai’s Cannon as the winner of the Bédélys Québec Award, Erika Soucy and Geneviève Bigué’s La maison cachette as the winner of the Bédélys Youth Québec Award, and Jesse Lonergan’s Drome as the winner of the Bédélys International Award.
• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, as news was shared of the passing of author and scholar Dr. John A. Lent, founder of the International Journal of Comic Art, who has died at the age of 89.
In honour of @conundrumpress.bsky.social's 30th anniversary, we're thrilled to welcome as our second poster artist Toronto's own Chris W. Kim!Pick up Chris' latest graphic novel "Closing Act" online and at #TCAF2026! conundrumpress.com/product/clos...
— Toronto Comic Arts Festival (@torontocomics.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T19:53:39.151Z
This week’s reviews.
TCJ
• Luis Ramirez-Liberato reviews the redistributed meaning of Chris Harnan’s Big Pool — “The title Big Pool, articulates Harnan's approach to page composition and layouts where, much like how every individual molecule of water serves to create a larger body of water, he is acutely aware of how facets of the comics medium like the gutter can act as terra nullius; the space between panels gives readers the capacity to impose their own meaning onto the void.”
• Henry Chamberlain reviews the devilish beauty of Hans Rickheit’s Cochlea & Eustachia, Volume 2 — “Volume 2 offers more of what fans love: generous helpings of surrealism, erotica, body horror, and absurd humor, and nothing so pedestrian as a traditional story arc. Our two main characters are not going to go on a journey of self-discovery and evolve into the best versions of themselves. No, they're more likely to just thoughtlessly rip and tear their way through whatever catches their very nebulous minds.”
AIPT
• George Loftus reviews the big ideas of Chris Condon, Andrew Ehrich, and Charlie Adlard’s Of the Earth #1.
• Collier Jennings reviews the unique chills of Marguerite Bennett, James Tynion IV, Letizia Cadonici, et al’s Odin #1.
• Colin Moon reviews the overburdening lore of Candice Purwin’s The Book of Murmurs.
• David Brooke reviews the bold inventiveness of Simon Spurrier, Matías Bergara, et al’s Mischief of Magpies #1.
• Justin Harrison reviews the winning balance of Zack Rosenberg and Jared Cullum’s Usagi Yojimbo: Kaito '84 #3.
• Kevin Clark reviews the long-form payoff of Priest, Davis Goetten, et al’s Vampirella #2.
• Lily Abreu reviews the heartfelt ending of Tini Howard, Babs Tarr, et al’s Sirens: Love Hurts #4.
• Jonathan Waugh reviews the consistent fun of Mark Waid, Adrian Guttierez, et al’s Batman/Superman: World's Finest #51.
• Rory Wilding reviews the bloody spectacle of Tohru Kuramori’s Centuria, Volume 2, translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash.
ArtsHub
Malavika Nair reviews the measured rhythm of Lee Lai’s Cannon.
The Beat
• Tim Rooney reviews the excellent structuring of Zoe Tunnell, V. Gagnon, et al’s Seven Wives #1.
• Jordan Jennings reviews the stellar visuals of Mike Mignola, Thomas Sniegoski, Craig Rousseau, et al’s Young Hellboy: Thrilling Sky Adventures #1.
• Zack Quaintance reviews the furious start of Pornsak Pichetshote, Rafael Albuquerque, et al’s Absolute Green Arrow #1.
• Samantha Puc reviews the visceral rage of Arizona O’Neill’s Opioids & Organs, and the breathtaking art of Tinguu’s The Cannibals.
Broken Frontier
Lydia Turner reviews the stunning backdrops of Alex Newton’s Artichoke Knight.
California Review of Books
David Starkey reviews the light touch of Susanne Kuhlendahl’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.
Comics Grinder
Henry Chamberlain reviews the zigzagging crescendo of Dino Buzzati’s Poem Strip, translated by Marina Harss.
Deccan Herald
Anjali Chauhan reviews the intimate cartography of Sarnath Banerjee’s Absolute Jafar.
From Cover to Cover
Scott Cederlund reviews the interesting twist of Tate Brombal, Jacob Phillips, et al’s Everything Dead & Dying.
The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw reviews the baffling experience of Arthur Harari, Lucas Harari, and Vincent Poymiro’s The Unknown, adaptating Arthur Harari and Lucas Harari’s The Case of David Zimmerman for the screen.
House to Astonish
Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ Uncanny X-Men #28, Wolverine #20, and Magik & Colossus #4.
Kirkus Reviews
Have starred capsule reviews of:
- The perfect humour of Dan Santat’s Sashimi and the Field Trip of Doom.
- The unforgettable skill of AJ Dungo’s In Waves.
- The entertaining details of Liam Francis Walsh’s Penguin Picnic.
- The beautiful execution of Lily William’s Exposures.
- The emotional immediacy of Emil Wilson’s The Nightingales.
- The witty metafiction of Andrew Donkin and Stephen Gilpin’s adaptation of James Howe’s Bunnicula: Howliday Inn.
Yatta-tachi
Kai has reviews of:
- The refreshing structuring of Kei Ichikawa’s A Long & Short Love Story, translated by Katelyn Smith.
- The lush visuals of Moyori Mori’s Bride of Ignat, Volume 1, translated by Jacqueline Fung.
why doesn't mom like me?🐂 #minotaur
— natbu tupaki 🥯 (@floodkiss.bsky.social) 2026-05-18T17:48:53.309Z
This week’s interviews.
TCJ
• Cail Judy interviews Chris Harnan about World Problem Solution Book and Big Pool, Flash animation inspirations, the momentum of your characters, and not giving away the mystery — “I went to university thinking I was carrying on my school work, which was traditional media. I fell into illustration without knowing how I’d apply it in a real-world context. I was getting good feedback on my work, but I never thought the stuff I was doing on the computer was something viable. It was always a hobby. I had good teachers at university who saw what I was doing, and my hobby started to bleed in more and more. It took me a while to realize this was my main thing.”
• Henry Chamberlain interviews Hans Rickheit about Cochlea & Eustachia, gallery troll existences, winning the Xeric Award, and squirrel adoration — “As I got older, I got more interested in underground comix and surrealist art. A lot of my awkward teenage comics at the time reflected that. Truth is, although my drawing abilities might’ve improved somewhat since then, my subject matter and storytelling habits haven’t changed much.”
AIPT
• Chris Coplan talks to Joey Esposito about Killer Influences, the joys of crime stories, serial killer conundrums, and eschewing gratuitous gore.
• Chris Hassan speaks with Gail Simone about Uncanny X-Men, mutant team inspirations, artistic collaborations, and character focus.
BBC
Matthew Lockwood talks to Marc Laming and Alex de Campi about Dan Dare: First Contact, familial Dan Dare fandom, and respecting the legacy of the classic stories.
The Beat
Javier Peres interviews J.D. Amato and Sophie Morse about The Endless Game, the creative freedom of comic books, New England inspiration, and childhood adventuring.
Boston.com
Peter Chianca speaks with Norm Feuti about A Kid Like Me, Retail, and Gil, (more) New England inspiration, syndication contracts, and cell phone decisions.
Broken Frontier
Andy Oliver talks to Bhavani Balasubramanyam and Deepesh Sangtani about Kutty Press, publishing ethos, water-soluble zines, and the accessibility of the zine format.
Fanbase Press
Barbra Dillon chats with:
- Jules Scheele about adapting Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and the radical ideas of the source material.
- Howie Noel about Clover Press and the Library of American Comics’ collections of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy.
- Mike Deodato Jr. and Joe Pruett about The Book of Deodato Jr. and curating the work appearing therein.
- Joël Dos Reis Viegas about Urbance: The Graphic Novel Saga and inspirations for the project.
Forbes
Josh Weiss interviews James Tynion IV and Bryce Gold about the Brooklyn Expo of Comics and getting back to your roots; and IDW’s Aub Driver, Jake Thomas, Heather Antos, and Davidi Jonas about ongoing plans for the publisher as its 30th birthday approaches.
Parade
Richard Chachowski talks to Alan Moore about I Hear a New World, examining the ‘dream time’ of places, the infantilising nostalgia of superhero comics, and the returning rise of fascism.
Polygon
Matt Patches speaks with James Tynion IV about Something is Killing the Children, the comics’ conversion to a vertical-scroll format, and the book’s place in the comics spectrum.
Prism Comics
Ollie Kaplan talks to Margeaux Pepoy about Street Sharks, (possibly) having helped change the look of the Bongo Comics line, and personal experiences of coming out as trans.
Publisher’s Weekly
Amanda Ramirez chats with Sherine Hamdy about Landing in Place, the need for diverse representation in media, and the accessibility of comics.
Santa Fe New Mexican
Ania Hull interviews Alison Bechdel about Spent, travels on the continent, French appreciation of comics, queer comics history.
Solrad
Kay Sohini speaks with Tessa Hulls about Feeding Ghosts, the book’s decade-long journey to publication, recent favourite comics, and learning and unlearning visual languages.
Lo Spazio Bianco
Emilio Cirri and Andrea de Lise talk to Gina Nakhle Koller about While the World Watches, activism through comicsmaking, and the importance of awareness regarding ongoing violence in Gaza.
Now up at Skirball Museum in Los Angeles: “Inventing America: The Comic Book Revolution” - capturing the history of US comics of all kinds. If you’re coming to LA for Anime Expo, this may be worth a detourwww.skirball.org/museum/inven...
— Deb Aoki (@debaoki.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T14:47:16.879Z
This week’s features and longreads.
• Here at TCJ, Tiffany Babb reports from the unveiling of Jack Kirby Way, at the corner of Delancey and Essex in New York, giving due honour to The King - “Overall, the event was as it should have been — a celebration of a great man and artist, but the mood wasn’t quite so simplistic. There was a clear undertone, as there often is when comics folks talk about Kirby, that in celebrating his legacy, a wrong is being righted.”
• Also for TCJ, RJ Casey packs up this month’s Arrivals and Departures into the car and journeys forth to Chicago, for this year’s Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, procuring a varied selection of reading materials to be found amongst its exhibitor tables — “The ONLY other time in my life I acted immature was in the audience at a panel in a Wizard World in Ohio. The panelists had slowed down and kindly asked if there were any questions from the audience. As if on cue, someone near the front row audibly farted. My friend Ricky and I had to speed-walk out of that situation.”
• More for TCJ, as Jon Holt and Teppei Fukuda present a fresh translation of episode 9 of Natsume Fusanosuke’s Manga Yarns blog essays, discussing the importance of context for manga history, spurred on by an panel interview in Kodansha’s My Norakuro: 50th Anniversary Norakuro Album — “You see, a lot of these people were originally quite left-wing in their political leanings, but during the war years, most of them became artists who ended up serving in the army and they made propaganda; but then, at the end of the war and with Japan’s defeat, suddenly they switched sides again to join with the populists [on the left]. Even so, apparently these changes didn’t feel like betrayal for them.”
• Over at Rolling Stone, Garry Trudeau writes in appreciation of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, the evolution of Snoopy the beagle into a cultural juggernaut, and personal history with Schulz and Doonesbury.
• For Shelfdust, Alice Dezo writes on the real-life reflections to be found in the tales of the Fobia anthology, curated by Derrick Acosta, and its portrayal of the horrors experienced by women every day.
• As yet another corporate reshuffle takes place behind the doors of the House of Mouse, dueling considerations at just what it may be that is going on at Disney and Marvel come from Forbes’ Rob Salkowitz, and The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald.
• For Scroll.in, following Anand RK’s recent Pulitzer Prize win for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary, along with reporters Natalie Obiko Pearson and Suparna Sharma, Arunava Bannerjee profiles RK, speaking with frequent collaborators Aditya Bidikar and Ram V, and charts the path to the Prize.
• The Mindless Ones absolutely will not stop, and their latest newsletter contains more appreciation for Blue Jeans’ photocomics, consideration of GI Joe and just a smidgen of isolationism/individualism, and Scarlet Spider braggadocio.
• From the world of open-access academia, kicking off with a bumper release, as part of De Gruyter’s Comics Studies: Aesthetics Histories, and Practices series, Adina Zemanek edits volume 2 — Sinophone Comics: Histories, Identities, Medialities, showcasing comics production from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Italy, and the US.
• For Loreto College Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Soumana Biswas writes on the concept of inherited memories/postmemory and intergenerational trauma, through analysis of Art Spiegelman’s Maus.
• For the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, A.J. Paylor explores how Inio Asano’s Solanin visualises the experience of emerging into adulthood in contemporary Japan, examining the body language and panel compositions employed by Asano.
• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as the many misadventures of President Donald Trump, and friends, really do continue apace.
$5,000 bail…
— J Webster Sharp (@jwebstersharp.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T15:57:06.747Z
No more links this week, there are ice cube trays to be filled.
My constant flip-flopping mood
— Lucie Ebrey (@lucieebrey.bsky.social) 2026-05-20T11:09:15.905Z
English (US) · 