Clark Burscough | January 10, 2025
2025 seems to be off to an expectedly chaotic start, if the various feeds of social media platforms no-longer fact-checked are to be believed, which they likely shouldn’t be. However, the one thing you should generally always believe, as a good rule of thumb, are this week’s links, below.
カニ年
— みなはむ (@minahamu.bsky.social) 2025-01-04T06:06:38.895Z
This week’s news.
• Opening this week’s selection with some steadily eroding freedom of the press news, as cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from The Washington Post after the newspaper’s editorial team rejected a cartoon satirising the financial connections between tech-company billionaires, including owner of the Post Jeff Bezos, and President-elect Donald Trump - Bezos nixed the newspaper’s endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the run-up to last year’s election, and the paper this week announced that it would be laying off 100 staffers.
• Following-up with one of last week’s stories, as news was shared of the release of cartoonist Kibet Bull, one of a number of young Kenyans who were freed from captivity following disappearances over criticism of the country’s government - Kenyan police authorities have denied involvement with the abductions, but a number of people are still missing, with legal actions having been filed against the state for the immediate release of activists and protestors who have been detained.
• Comics-related funding news, as Tiffany Babb announced the launch of this year’s Comics Criticism Mini Grants, providing four awards of $250, with applications open until 28th February; and the Toronto Comics Art Festival shared a partnership with the Ontario Arts Council to provide grants ranging from $1,500-$5,000 for comics writers creating new pieces of work, with an application deadline of January 15th.
Space Ramen / 2017
— Kim Hu, afk @ deadlines hell (@kimhu.bsky.social) 2025-01-08T15:15:11.892Z
This week’s reviews.
TCJ
• Frank M. Young reviews the fine samplings of Jimmy! The Comic Art of James Swinnerton, edited by Peter Maresca and Michael Tisserand - “The talented editorial group at Sunday Press have delivered a tantalizing, long-overdue look at the life and work of this unique American cartoonist. It’s not their fault that there isn’t enough space in this 160-page oversized volume to fit it all in. I hope this is the first of a series of books that explore the many avenues of Swinnerton’s creative efforts. Having this much newly restored to the public eye is a gift.”
• Helen Chazan reviews the lingering questions of Em Frank’s Heavenly Days - “As these conversations unfold, the stiff, dry line of Em Frank’s cartooning comes alive. One begins to notice the versatility, the vivacity of their mark-making, the observation and warmth brought to every gesture, color emerges at last, albeit only one, a deep and unassuming blue gone as soon as it emerges.”
AIPT
• Ryan Sonneville reviews the varied inconsistencies of Marvel Comics’ X-Men: Blood Hunt.
• Colin Moon reviews the punchy focus of Rick Remender, Stuart Immonen, et al’s Captain America: The Saga of Sam Wilson.
• Tyler Brown reviews the fresh opening of Jeremy Adams, John Timms, et al’s Aquaman #1.
• Collier Jennings reviews the hellish delights of Charles Soule, Ryan Browne, et al’s The Lucky Devils #1.
• David Brooke reviews the masterful subversions of EC’s Cruel Kingdom.
The Beat
• Jordan Jennings reviews the strong start of Charles Soule, Ryan Browne, et al’s The Lucky Devils #1.
• Zack Quaintance reviews the sharp visuals of Michel Fiffe’s Death of Copra #1.
• Joe Grunenwald reviews the undersea excitement of Jeremy Adams, John Timms, et al’s Aquaman #1.
• Steve Baxi reviews the existential musings of Ram V, Dan Watters, Laurence Campbell, Sumit Kumar, et al's The One Hand & Six Fingers.
Broken Frontier
Andy Oliver has reviews of:
• The beautiful nihilism of Bhanu Pratap’s Cutting Season.
• The powerful eloquence of Darrin Bell’s The Talk.
• The comprehensive re-offering of Saul Steinberg’s All In Line.
• The wonderful resonance of Tom Oldham’s A Little Book of Comic Shop Price Stickers.
• The diverse fun of Weirdo Comics’ GOOF, edited by Marc Jackson.
The European Journal of Humour Research
Richard Scully reviews the inspiring study of Stefan Slater and David Macfadyen’s The Political Cartoons of Derso and Kelen: Years of Hope and Despair
Four Color Apocalypse
Ryan Carey reviews the impactful honesty of Micah Liesenfeld's A-T Walker #1 & 2.
From Cover to Cover
Scott Cederlund reviews the human connections of Oscar Zarate's Thomas Girtin: The Forgotten Painter.
House to Astonish
Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #5, X-Factor #6, X-Force #7, Deadpool/Wolverine #1, and Cable: Love and Chrome #1.
Publisher’s Weekly
Have capsule reviews of:
• The playful satire of Andy Hartzell’s Monday.
• The enjoyable ramblings of Kay Sohini’s This Beautiful, Ridiculous City.
• The fast-paced dystopia of Jay Martin’s Yellow.
• The striking visuals of Zeina Abirached’s adaptation of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.
• The crackling portrait of Jay Neugeboren and Eli Neugeboren’s Whatever Happened to Frankie King.
• The adept insights of Tereza Čechová and Štepánka Jislová’s Bald, translated by Tereza Čechová and Martha Kuhlman.
• The glowing charisma of Michele Botton and Dorilys Giacchetto’s Audrey Hepburn, translated by Nanette McGuiness.
Solrad
Tony Wei Ling reviews the breakneck turns of Yasmeen Abedifard’s When to Pick a Pomegranate.
go viral
— Tom McH (@tommchenry.bsky.social) 2025-01-07T15:42:07.547Z
This week’s interviews.
TCJ
• David Moses interviews Michel Fiffe about the end of Copra, the decision to wrap the series, the formal evolution of Copra, and the invisible foundation of the 9-panel grid - “I never had a character bible, still don’t. I mentally keep track of everyone’s attitudes and tastes and insecurities. I dream of making a massive character bible for fun one day, though. But yeah, it’s been an organic process. Sometimes an angle presents itself and I’m free to dig deeper, sometimes I have to look for the angle. I don’t want to serve anything that’s undercooked, and I’m hyper-aware of that danger.”
• Matthew Thurber interviews Stan Mack about Real Life Funnies, the logistics of sketching people, childhood heroes, and the realities of New York in the 70s - “I had two things going for me that don't exist anymore. One was, there was advertising illustration work available, for everybody who did anything like what I did… kind of sort of comic graphic illustration. And the other was, I had a gig for 20 years. I didn't have to struggle the way this current generation has had to. On the other hand– you know how to be an entrepreneur, but you have to know how to market yourself.”
AIPT
David Brooke chats with Jeff Parker about Zootopia and differences between animal properties, Jeremy Adams about Aquaman and keeping the punch-count high, Jordan D. White about All-New Venom and possible symbiote identities, and Ryan North about One World Under Doom and stopping the metal face villain from cheating.
The Beat
• D. Morris speaks with Bryan Talbot about The Legend of Luther Arkwright, the history of graphic novels in the UK, and science fiction’s reflection of the time in which it is created.
• Christian Angeles interviews Scott Snyder about Absolute Batman, the collaborative process on the book, and what to expect from the series this year.
The Connexion
Victoria Gibson talks to Posy Simmonds about the ‘Posy Simmonds. Herself.’ exhibition at this year’s Angoulême International Comics Festival.
Entertainment Weekly
Christian Holub interviews Alan Moore about The Great When, conceiving realities, similarities to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and scripting for comics.
— john JASON saeteroy (@johnjasonsaeteroy.bsky.social) 2025-01-01T08:10:06.741Z
This week’s features and longreads.
• Here at TCJ, from the archives, in remembrance of author, editor, and critic Barry N. Malzberg, who passed away last month at the age of 85, originally printed in 1983’s The Comics Journal #82, is Carter Scholz’s feature on Malzberg’s work - “Malzberg in his stories, and Malzberg in the paradigmatic shape of his career, reminds us that we are happier with evasions, with mechanical interventions, than we are facing things directly.”
• Also from the archives, originally published on the Humanoids website in 2015, and republished here at TCJ, Aug Stone writes on the work of Yves Challand, and the critical homages to be found therein - “Chaland told P.L.G.P.P.U.R. in 1982, "Ultimately, my work is my autobiography." Although he passed away in a tragic car accident on July 18, 1990, that work is still here, very much alive, for us to appreciate.”
• Looking ever back and looking ever ahead, as The Beat’s Heidi MacDonald surveys the bounce-back of the periodicals market (in certain quarters) in 2024, and Rob Salkowitz forecasts what may be to come for the comics industry in 2025 for ICv2.
• Also assessing one of those big drivers of last year’s periodicals sales, for Polygon, Susana Polo tracks the first quarter of DC’s Absolute line, as reboots for the Distinguished Competition’s core trinity set the stage for what the publisher has planned for this year.
• Robin McConnell shares some holiday reading over at the Inkstuds substack, as pages were turned for Pierre R. McNeil’s T-Bird Chronicles; Rick Veitch’s The Maximortal, Craig Stormon’s The (Devil’s) Workshop; Fred Diana, George Todorovski, and Chris Turner’s Synthetic Assassin #1; Vanguard Graphics’ Project Hero; John Petersen and Monty Regan’s The Rockmeez; Brian Blomerth’s Lilly Wave; Matt Howarth’s My Name is Lesion; and Bryan Talbot’s The Legend of Luther Arkwright.
• For Shelfdust, Kelly Kanayama returns with a new edition of Kings of the Castle, this time out checking in with Britain’s answer to the Punisher, Nigel Higgins (aka Outlaw), and the Baudrillardian complexities of manifesting fictional realities while maintaining cohesion with the contemporaneous reality of the reader (or not, as the case may be).
• Judge Dredd and Rok of the Red scribe, John Wagner, this week launched a serialisation of memoir A Life In Comics, via johnwagner.co.uk, which opens with life in Dundee on the chief sub-editor beat leading to a fortuitous meeting with one Pat Mills.
• Over at The Beat, results were shared from the annual creator survey for the comics industry picks for Person of the Year, as Daniel Warren Johnson, Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki, and Silver Sprocket's Avi Ehrlich all received accolades.
• More round-ups of the year just gone, released from behind the Four Color Apocalypse Patreon paywall, as Ryan Carey presents thoughts on last year’s top 10 original graphic novels, ongoing series, single issues, contemporary and vintage collected editions, and some special mentions.
• From the world of open-access academia, in the Journal of East Asian Cultures, Zsófia Keller presents a study analysing Tezuka Osamu’s Shumari and Noda Satoru’s Golden Kamuy, and the way those series explore the history and culture of Ainu communities.
• In humanities, C. Scott Maravilla writes on the Marvel Godzilla comics of the 1970s, and how these stories culturally appropriate Gojira by divorcing the kaiju from its cultural context, but also led readers to the original cinematic source material.
• For Translation Matters, Alexandra Costa Ferreira presents an article comparing Portuguese and Brazilian translation of onomatopoeia in manga, and identifies the strategies employed in the face of the limited use of onomatopoeia in European and Brazilian Portuguese.
• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as the new year brings with it old issues and familiar faces pulling familiar tricks.
♥️
— shan🎷🐛 (@shanhoran.bsky.social) 2025-01-09T02:43:58.545Z
This week’s audio/visual delights.
A quick round-up of recent happenings, while the usual suspects are returning from winter breaks, as Off Panel’s David Harper spoke with Patrick Brower of Chicago’s Challengers Comics about the current retail outlook, Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come team looked at the year ahead for comics with AI and distribution shake-ups dominating headlines, and there were interviews out of France with Riad Sattouf about new graphic novel I, Fadi, the Stolen Brother and for the BBC with Riss (aka Laurent Sourisseau) about the tenth anniversary of the shootings at the Charlie Hebdo offices.
...I'm fine...🙂
— Bree Paulsen 🦋✨ (@breebird33.bsky.social) 2025-01-08T00:32:35.693Z
No more links this week, as I have furniture to build, furniture manufacturers to curse, and the storage of a lifetime’s comic book collection to consider.
Hulk. Pilot parallel pen, stamps and rollers.
— Jesse Lonergan (@jesselonergan.bsky.social) 2025-01-07T23:13:14.781Z
English (US) · 