Kill the Sunflower — This Week’s Links

1 week ago 19

Clark Burscough | May 29, 2026

One of the recurring series of this week’s links compiled while bouncing along on the rails, as I renounce my formal calling and travel to the midlands not for a comics convention, but instead for a board games expo, wincing at the uncanny facsimile of what is to be expected from the former (e.g. long lines, poor dining options, lack of natural light in a gigantic hall also (somehow) perpetually affected by rampant and oppressive heat, etc., etc.) but viewed through the skewed rules-focused lens of the latter, as poorly-paid creators and independent publishers find themselves at the whims of teetering distribution systems, and giant corporations set about hoovering up and grinding down all the intellectual property they can get their grubby mitts upon, and … wait a minute, who’s this under the hastily applied rubber mask? Oh, come on, it’s Old Man Late-Stage Capitalism! AGAIN.

— こまちみゆた (@comatimiyuta.bsky.social) 2026-05-24T00:42:47.832Z

This week’s news.

• We start this week with me, sadly, having to inform you that they are still trying to make the AI resurrection of Stan Lee a thing, and they want to have it “read” an audiobook of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island? Look, your guess really is as good as mine, at this point, swear down.

• Elsewhere, in collective bargaining news, as Dark Horse is in the process of being spun off by its parent corp, and closing all Things From Another World stores, the workers of Dark Horse announced that they are forming a union, Dark Horse Workers United, and asking interim CEO Jay Komas and Dark Horse leadership for voluntary recognition of said union by June 3, a petition in support of which can be signed here.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, as news was shared of the passing of author and editor Ted White, former editor of Heavy Metal and Amazing Stories, amongst others, who has died at the age of 88.

sketch

— Nicole Rifkin (@nicolerifkin.bsky.social) 2026-05-20T20:24:53.852Z

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Kevin Brown reviews the interesting contrasts of Sydney Halpern, Trygve Faste, and David H. Miller’s Infected for Science — “Dave’s drawings reveal the true feelings of the men who, while certainly willing to give their lives for the good of the research and their country, also were fearful of what could happen to them. The drawings never give the men much agency — the doctors/demons are attacking them, and the men are always suffering. But Miller’s drawings provide a richer view of a complicated moral and ethical situation that most readers won’t have heard about.”

• Brian Nicholson reviews the visual richness of Ben Sears' Young Shadow & The Watchdogs —“Ben Sears is a cartoonist I can see becoming a Mike Mignola-type, essentially; a person whose visuals are so strong and evocative one alternately wishes they would just gesture to plot and pursue atmosphere, or tighten up their character writing to be a little bit funnier and more precise. He’s such a distinct stylist that any kind of variant cover or commission of popular characters is guaranteed to be fun and compelling.”

AIPT

• Deidre Freitas reviews the moral questions of Paul Jenkins, Christian Rosado, et al’s The Sentry #3.

• David Brooke reviews the exciting start of Ryan North, Francesco Mobili, et al’s Doomquest #1.

• Colin Moon reviews the directionless sprawl of Peter B Gillis, Kelley Jones, et al’s Micronauts Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years – The New Voyages.

• Lily Abreu reviews the enchanting suspense of Jamal Campbell et al’s Zatanna #2.

• Piper Whitaker reviews the fantastic continuation of Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, et al’s Absolute Wonder Woman #20.

• Collier Jennings reviews the action-packed escalation of Curt Pires, Franklin Jonas, Patrick Mulholland, et al’s Fireborn #2.

• Alex Schlesinger reviews the rushed pacing of Ethan S. Parker, Griffin Sheridan, Jan Bazaldua, et al’s Marvel Zombies: Red Band – Death Story.

The Beat

• Khalid Johnson reviews the violent end of Zack Kaplan, Fico Ossio, et al’s Kill All Immortals II #5.

• Jared Bird reviews the peculiar fun of R.L. Stine, Francesco Francavilla, et al’s The Life and Death of Lucas Dreamwalker #1.

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the slow start of Kenny Porter, Danny Earls, et al’s Superman: Father of Tomorrow #1.

• Tim Rooney reviews the brutal conclusion of Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, et al’s The Ultimates #24.

• Samantha Puc reviews the radiant warmth of Niki Smith's Midsummer Sisters.

• Zack Quaintance has reviews of:

The steamy volatility of Olivie Blake and Little Chimura’s Clara & the Devil, Volume 1.
The satisfying finale of James Tynion IV, Michael Walsh, et al’s Exquisite Corpses #13.
The excellent resolution of Daniel Ziegler, Nick Cagnetti, et al’s Spirit of the Shadows #5.
The packed recipe of Connor Goldsmith, Josh Cornillon, et al’s Did You Hear About Mimi Green? #1.

Blogcritics

Jeff Provine reviews the everyday explorations of Seth's Palookaville 25.

Broken Frontier

• Edward Picot reviews the timely horrors of Chris Condon, Jeffrey Alan Love, et al’s News from the Fallout.

• Andy Oliver reviews the articulate construction of Bhavani Bala’s Meep, Logging Off_.

• Gary Usher reviews the droll whimsy of Edward Bolman’s Noble Head Funnies.

• Swati Nair reviews the ambitious momentum of Jacques Tardi's I, René Tardi, Prisoner of War in Stalag IIB, translated by Jenna Allen.

• Lara Boyle reviews the masterful cartooning of Riad Sattouf’s The End of the Arab of the Future: A Youth in the Middle East, Volume 1, translated by Sam Taylor.

Comics Grinder

Henry Chamberlain reviews the expressive lines of Daniel McCloskey’s Cloud Town.

From Cover to Cover

Scott Cederlund reviews the hidden tragedy of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal: Five Gears In Reverse.

The Hindu

Chintan Girish Modi reviews the vibey humour of Falah Faisal and Spud’s Musalman.

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ X-Men United #3, Inglorious X-Force #5, Rogue #5, Moonstar #3, and Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #4.

Library Journal

• Martha Cornog has a starred capsule review of the compelling viscerality of David Lester and Marcus Rediker’s The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad.

• Emilia Packard has a starred capsule review of the resonant intentionality of Sydney Halpern and Trygve Faste’s Infected for Science.

The New York Times

Dwight Garner reviews the meat-and-potatoes approach of Joshua Kendall’s Trudeau & Doonesbury: A Biography – The Cartoonist Who Turned the News Into Art.

Open Letters Review

Steve Donoghue reviews the odd approach of Nora Neus and Federico Pietrobon’s adaptation of Rick Atkinson’s The British Are Coming: The Graphic Edition, Volume 1.

School Library Journal

• Francisca Goldsmith has a starred capsule review of the undeniable fun of Josh Ulrich’s Finnik the Furious.

• Lauren Sullivan has a starred capsule review of the grounded intrigue of Martin Etxeberria, Xabier Etxeberria, Sanvi, et al’s Archipelago, Volume 1, translated by Diana Draper.

Solrad

Nicholas Burman reviews the personal perseverance of The Cartoonist Collective’s I Won’t Pretend Those Missiles Are Stars: Life in Iran During the 12-Day War.

Yatta-tachi

• Brianna Albert reviews the tasteless approach of Maki Marukido’s Omega Megaera, Volume 1, translated by Kevin Steinbach.

• Kai reviews the lacking chemistry of Himemiko’s Monster & Ghost, Volume 1, translated by Massiel Gutierrez.

We're kicking off the 20th in-person TCAF with a PWYC panel event!Feat. TCAF poster artists @battan8.bsky.social, @funeralbeat.bsky.social, Chris W. Kim & Maurice Vellekoop with moderator @librarylandia.bsky.social6-7pm Friday June 5Mattamy Athletic Centrewww.torontocomics.com/event-detail...

— Toronto Comic Arts Festival (@torontocomics.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T20:09:12.613Z

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Ian Thomas interviews Gord Hill about The Revised and Expanded Antifa Comic Book, artistry and activism, and links between fascism and colonialism — “Art has always been an important part of Kwakwaka'wakw culture. Almost everything in our daily lives had art on it, family crests such as thunderbirds, bear, wolf, raven, etc. Our houses were painted, totem poles carved, spoons and combs and bowls, all had art applied to them. It was how we retained a visual history of our ancestry.”

AIPT

• David Brooke speaks with Katie Skelly about Heaven and liminal experiences and inspirations, and with Che Grayson about Absolute Catwoman and the identity of this version of Selina Kyle at the core of the book.

• Chris Coplan talks to J.G Jones and Phil Bram about Dust to Dust, collaborative origins, colloquial dialogue accuracy, and Dust Bowl phenomena.

• Chris Hassan interviews Steve Foxe about X-Men ‘97, bridging storylines with the animated show, and the realities of working on a comic linked to an in-production animation.

The Beat

• Deanna Destito talks to Theo Prasidis about The Girl, the Priest, and the Devil, Greek folklore inspirations, and the importance of drawing on your roots.

• Heidi MacDonald speaks with Robert Kirkman, Joe Casey, and Andy Kubert about Terminal, the realities of the contemporary periodicals market, and team book dynamics.

• Adam Karenina Sherif interviews Dave Baker and Nicole Goux about Punk'n Heads, the rocky road to publication, and the importance of just making a thing.

The Columbus Dispatch

Belinda M. Paschal talks to Jenny Robb about the reopening of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum following a recent redesign, and the “Story of Comics” and Chris Ware’s “Life is Complicated” exhibits.

GraphicMemoir

Jonathan Sandler interviews Yevgenia Nayberg about Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters: A Graphic Memoir, and the origins of the project and the path to publication.

The Guardian

• Brian Logan speaks with Kim Noble about In Pursuit of a Wonderful Nothing, unique approaches to publisher relations, and the shrinking opportunities for transgressive live performances.

• David Smith talks to Joshua Kendall about Trudeau & Doonesbury: The Cartoonist Who Turned the News into Art, the lasting influence of Garry Trudeau’s work, and Trudea’s personal and artistic evolutions.

Inverse

Richard Chachowski interviews Alan Moore about I Hear a New World, transitioning between storytelling mediums, and geographical research.

Print

Steven Heller speaks with Mohammad Sabaaneh about Welcome to Hell: From the West Bank to Gaza, the exhausting realities of newspaper cartooning, and restrictions imposed on Palestinian cartoonists.

Prism Comics

Avery Kaplan and Ollie Kaplan chat with Tilly Bridges and Susan Bridges about Just Another Summer, tabletop role-playing games, and improving access for trans creators in media.

Publisher’s Weekly

Rob Salkowitz talks to Gary Groth and Eric Reynolds about fifty years of Fantagraphics, crises across the decades, and the legacy of Kim Thompson.

Soapbox Cincinnati

Kate Harold interviews Jay Kalagayan about St. Malo: First Filipinos in North America, convention tipoffs, and working by the “Three E’s”.

SYFY Wire

Josh Weiss speaks with Alan Moore about I Hear a New World, pulling apart ideas to consider their constituent make-up, and shifting between tenses to maintain the shock of the new.

Waterbury Roundabout

Sarah Andrews talks to Stephen R. Bissette about taking on the role of Vermont’s Cartoonist Laureate, reasons for accepting the role, and personal history with the state of Vermont.

The Minicomic Awards Ceremony will be streamed on our YouTube May 30th 5pm PT/8pm ET! Join us as we celebrate the minicomic nominees and winners together!Watch: www.youtube.com/@cartoonistc...Learn more: mca.cartoonist.coop

— Cartoonists United (@cartoonist.coop) 2026-05-22T01:11:45.874Z

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, Bart Beaty writes in remembrance of author and scholar Dr. John A. Lent, founder of the International Journal of Comic Art, who passed away earlier this month the age of 89 — “John’s accomplishment with IJOCA may be difficult for non-scholars to comprehend because it is challenging even for professional scholars to fully grasp it. In the late 1990s, following the shuttering of the original version of the scholarly journal Inks, John recognized that there were no extant venues for English-language comics scholarship and so he simply bootstrapped a new one into existence.”

• Also for TCJ, Abel Reyes writes on the conclusion of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, and the suspension in which the reader is left by its final panels — “To return fully to Icarus is to remember that the myth is about a father who engineers escape and a son who mistakes ascent for freedom. Daedalus is both architect and enabler. Icarus chooses exhilaration over caution. The wax melts. The body falls. The tragedy is an overestimation of what the design can bear.”

• More for TCJ, as Thommy Burns writes in remembrance of EC Comics fan and critic Larry Stark, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 93 — “When EC stopped publishing comics Larry, for the second time in his life, “gave up comics forever” (though his free lifetime subscriptions continued for decades and through several address changes with Mad Magazine), though truth be told, Larry was disenchanted before the EC lines even ended.”

• Finally for TCJ, our illustrious editors share a preview of Katie Skelly’s Heaven, coming to shelves later this summer — “Katie Skelly's first graphic novel since her acclaimed Maids in 2020, Heaven finds out what happens when the artist's quintessential cool girl characters let their guards down and let the world in.”

• For Bloomberg, Jonathan Randles reports on the ongoing Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy saga, as litigation over the ownership and right to sell of millions of comic books, currently warehoused in Mississippi, lumbers towards a ruling, with further discussion on the case to be found at NPR.

• For Responsible Statecraft, Hank Kennedy examines the history of comics as propaganda for and the eternal war machine, and the various ways in which comics have been used to promote American imperialist interests overseas.

• Shelfdust’s Steve Morris contemplates the relative paucity of feats to be found in David Michelinie and Mark Bagley’s Venom: Lethal Protector #1, and considers why the average outing of your run-of-the-mill larger-than-life character needs to be, well, larger-than-life.

• Over at Publisher’s Weekly, Zack Quaintance surveys the editorial trends in the contemporary comics market, as publishers look to keep audiences engaged with a mix of new titles and the continuation of long-running series.

• More from Publisher's Weekly, as Zach Rabiroff reports on the inclusion, and subsequent removal, of the Stardust the Super Wizard Anthology in this year's list of nominees for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, and the Eisner committee's position on images generated using Artificial Intelligence.

• For the MIT Press Reader, Gabriele Neri profiles cartoonist and painter Alan Dunn, a prolific contributor to the New Yorker, and examines how Dunn’s pen frequently chose contemporary architectural trends as its focus.

• From the world of open-access academia, in the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Beatriz Carbajal-Carrera presents a study on the representations of Madrid’s collective identity through humour in M21 Magazine.

• In the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Jennifer Caroccio Maldonado shares an essay on how queer temporalities emerge in Latinx graphic narratives, and how these reshape the somatic experience of trauma reckoning.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, for The Daily Cartoonist, as the United Kingdom continues its history of the rolling back of equality and human rights, and the United States continues its history with the fundamentals of mob extortion and poorly planned military actions.

— Molly Mendoza (@mollymendoza.bsky.social) 2026-05-22T19:44:52.845Z

This week’s audio/visual delights.

Some recent multimedia offerings from around the ARPANET, as Katie Skelly and Sally Madden appreciated the meticulously-detailed Thick Lines of Olivier Schrauwen’s Sunday; David Brothers, Jeff Parker, and Justin Greenwood convened at Oakland Comic Con for a live episode of No Relation discussing the business of making art; Arizona O’Neill appeared on Q with Tom Power to discuss Opioids & Organs and the ethics of organ donation; Robin McConnell continued Inkstuds’ dive into Canadian comics history through a chat with Robert Pasternak during a trip to Winnipeg; and David Harper was joined on Off Panel by Mark Waid to discuss Empire and current work with DC, and Now or Never Comics’ Aaron Trites to talk about retail and current market trends.