My Dear Friend, Rally — This Week’s Links

Features

Clark Burscough | October 17, 2025

Another New York Comic Con on the books, this year featuring some bleeding edge assurances, as both DC and Marvel laid out their “we won’t be using AI in these parts, nosiree” stance for comics making, but that still won’t stop another company taking the likeness rights for a deceased person and unilaterally resurrecting them in digital form, because, as this week’s links, below, will attest to on the regular — that’s just the world in which we live now, apparently.

And The Soul Lay Cindered by Famine’s Wet Flame // 2025 // watercolor and gouache 🩸

— Sloane (@sloanesloane.bsky.social) 2025-10-09T16:11:37.419Z

This week’s news.

• A distinctly French flavour to this week’s news, as the controversies surrounding the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême and the festival’s organising company 9èArt + continued, with reports circulating this week that 9èArt + is the current favourite to win a new tender bid for running the festival, ahead of the official announcement of the tender’s winner next month. Anouk Ricard, winner of this year’s Grand Prix, announced a decision not to participate in 2026’s edition of the festival, as the National Union of Authors and Composers announced it would be leaving the Association for the Development of Comics in Angoulême, while other author’s organisations and collectives released a statement with a list of demands to improve the safety and inclusion of the festival.

• Elsewhere, following this summer’s news that Les Humanoïdes Associés was entering into receivership and undergoing restructuring, American arm Humanoids, Inc. this week filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and initiated wind down procedures to liquidate the company. Humanoids, Inc. had been embroiled in the Diamond bankruptcy fallout over the summer, but comments on the recent Metal Hurlant Kickstarter project suggest that this crowdfunded publication will continue, albeit with very vague reassurances.

• Closing our French news round-up, as Lise Sobéron, a Normandy-based app-developer, this week shared details of a cease-and-decist received for the app Wondermum from DC, due to alleged similarities of the software’s name to that of Wonder Woman. Sobéron has subsequently set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise legal fees to fight the lawsuit.

• Comics prize news, as the winners of this year’s Harvey Awards were unveiled at last week’s edition of New York Comic Con, with Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees named as Book of the Year, and Sarah Andersen’s Sarah’s Scribbles named as Digital Book of the Year.

• In other prize news, ComicArtFans and the Jack Kirby Museum announced the launch of the Jack and Roz Kirby Awards, which ‘seeks to celebrate the artist’s journey’, and will see the inaugural round of winners announced at February 2026’s Original Art Expo; and Image Comics announced that the Fall 2025 Image Select Retailer Award winner is North Carolina’s ACME Comics, which was selected from fan submissions to the publisher in support of their favourite stores.

• Elsewhere, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists this week launched a fundraiser in support of cartoonist Clay Jones, after Jones suffered a stroke last week which has caused partial paralysis.

• In memoriam, remembering those the world of comics has lost, as news was shared this week of the passing of artist Drew Struzan, who has died at the age of 78.

Your complete guide to SLICE! Swipe through for:🎨 Full schedule of events for Saturday🚗 Parking info🍕 Food & drink😷 COVID safety policiesLooking for an answer you can't find here? Head to our webpage or DM us for more info. See you on Saturday at The Sheldon ;)

— SLICE - St. Louis Independent Comics Expo (@slicexpo.bsky.social) 2025-10-14T21:00:50.467Z

This week’s reviews.

TCJ

• Brian Nicholson reviews the cumulative depression of Deniz Camp, Eric Zawadzki, et al’s Assorted Crisis Events — “It is basic Spirituality 101 to consider us all one, that there is an oversoul refracted through subjectivity so that we are all God experiencing itself as we walk through reality. It is the bits of identity, shorn and shoved up against everyone else’s egos, that’s how the sausage of spacetime gets made. In the multiverse narrative we find such spirituality corrupted by narcissism, capitalism laundering the experience of knowing one another and being known in turn as a brand diversification strategy.”

• Hank Kennedy reviews the historical authenticity of Austin Sauerbrei’s Trouble! At Coal Creek — “As if the miners and their families don’t have enough problems, the state begins supplying the mines with convict labors who, as established, will undercut the pay of any free worker. Shortly thereafter, armed miners send the convicts back to Knoxville via train. The governor arrives, bringing with him convict laborers and three companies of the state militia. The invisible hand of the market has called in the mailed fist of the state.”

AIPT

• Colin Moon reviews the remarkable inventiveness of Carl Barks’ Donald Duck: The Lonely Lighthouse on Cape Quack.

• Collier Jennings reviews the striking visuals of Murewa Ayodele, Roland Boschi, et al’s Rogue Storm #1; and the delightful action of Greg Weisman, Enid Balam, et al’s Fantastic Four x Gargoyles #1.

• David Brooke reviews the compelling twists of David Marquez, Rafael Laureiro, et al’s Sinister’s Six #1; and the emotional stakes of Gail Simone, Lucas Werneck, et al’s Unbreakable X-Men #1.

American Literary History

Sara Sillin reviews the informative readings of Alex Beringer’s Lost Literacies: Experiments in the Nineteenth-Century US Comic Strip.

The Beat

• Joe Grunenwald reviews the emotional honesty of Ryan North, Mike Norton, et al’s Krypto: Last Dog of Krypton #5.

• Clyde Hall reviews the seasonal explorations of George North, Rachele Aragno, et al’s Yuletide #1.

• Jordan Jennings reviews the entertaining satire of Mark Russell, Felix Ruiz, et al’s Terrorbytes #1.

• Khalid Johnson reviews the quiet start of Stephanie Phillips, Marc Laming, et al’s Endeavour #1.

• Arpad Okay reviews the layered duality of Donya Todd’s The Witch’s Egg.

• Masha Zhdanova reviews the intimate approach of Der-Shing Helmer's The Internal Sea: Mare Internum.

• E.B. Hutchins reviews the sapphic cheesiness of Corin Howell, Warnia Sahadewa, et al's Lilith, Volume 1.

Broken Frontier

Edward Picot reviews the packed complexity of Maureen Burdock’s Sleepless Planet.

Comics Grinder

Henry Chamberlain reviews the nuanced horror of Zack Quaintance, Anna Readman, et al's Macabre Valley #1.

Critical Studies in Media Communication

Philip Smith reviews the impressive research of Daniel Worden’s Petrochemical Fantasies: The Art and Energy of American Comics.

Feminist Modernist Studies

Seamus O’Malley reviews the enriching essays of The Story’s Not Over: Jewish Women and Embodied Selfhood in Graphic Narratives, edited by Victoria Aarons.

Four Color Apocalypse

Ryan Carey reviews the confrontational delights of Andrew Pilkington’s Mole #11, and the creative trajectory of Brian Canini’s Airbag #4.

House to Astonish

Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #39, Amazing X-Men #1, Binary #1, Laura Kinney: Sabretooth #1, World of Revelation #1, Longshots #1, and Spider-Man & Wolverine #6.

Los Angeles Review of Books

Martin Dolan reviews the refreshing shifts of Craig Thompson’s Ginseng Roots.

Solrad

Hagai Palevsky reviews the dizzying construction of Richard Sala’s Night Drive.

Hello, MICE friends! We’re looking for volunteers for MICE 2025, we’ve got a wide variety of roles for anyone to help out with! Check it out at the link below:www.micexpo.org/volunteer

— Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (@massmice.bsky.social) 2025-10-08T21:01:11.272Z

This week’s interviews.

TCJ

Sally Madden interviews Eagle Valiant Brosi about Black Cohosh, dessert and the oeuvre of Robert Pattinson, hippies and cultural appropriation, and cartoonists in the family — "Dude, you don't have to go all the way to West Virginia to find someone who's MAGA, they're in New York. I would say there's an Appalachian perception of us being backwards, yokels, hillbillies, whatever have you. I think people would be shocked if they actually spent time there, at how the people are different from the perception.”

AIPT

• Chris Hassan speaks with Rebecca Podos about What If… Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force?, history with mutants, and keeping conflicting canons compatible.

• Andrew Isidoro talks to Patrick Horvath about Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rites of Spring, time jumps, and 90s memories of the World Wide Web.

• David Brooke interviews Chip Zdarsky about Captain America, contemporary considerations for the character of Steve Rogers, and real world inspirations.

• Chris Coplan chats with Ramón Perales about Down North Where No One Goes and navigating drawing fantasy inspirations from real world cultures, with Joey Esposito and Pandamusk about MADAM and crowdfunding choices for the graphic novel, and with Alex Segura and Sara Century about The Forgotten Five and telling the story on Patreon.

The Beat

Ollie Kaplan interviews Matt Wagner about Dracula Book III and creating for yourself first and foremost, and Patrick McDonnell about The Gift of Everything and feeling connected to all living things.

Broken Frontier

François Vigneault speaks with TCJ’s current Cartoonist Diarist Joana Mosi about The Mongoose and Physical Education and the Portuguese comics scene.

Electric Lit

Alex Dueben interviews Mattie Lubchansky about Simplicity, the relative complexities of the book, the origins of the book’s narrative, and shifting understandings of history.

Fanbase Press

Barbra Dillon talks to Mark Evanier about The Essential Peanuts and celebrating 75 years of Charles M. Schulz’s creations, and to Joshua Viola about True Believers and the perils of fandoms.

The Hindu

Mini Anthikad Chhibber chats with Fabien Toulmé about Reflections of the World and the Villa Swagatam’s writing residency at MAD Salon + Lab.

The Natural Aristocrat

Nir Regev interviews Stella Aykroyd, Luke Pisano, and James Werner about The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake and the new characters the comic introduces.

Coming November 5th! A special brew made just for NWMOCA by our friends at Gigantic Brewery! Label designed by local great @farel.bsky.social!

— Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts (@nwmoca.bsky.social) 2025-10-14T16:41:11.703Z

This week’s features and longreads.

• Here at TCJ, John Kelly writes in remembrance of the multifaceted Michael DelleFemine (aka Mort Todd), editor of Cracked, who died in August at the age of 63 — “DelleFemine was known as a wise guy and troublemaker and during his Cracked years he engaged in and encouraged the art of screwing with the competition, MAD. Some antics included the theft of an oversized MAD styrofoam sign at a comics convention and an incognito visit to the MAD offices for an encounter with publisher Bill Gaines that was captured for a photo in Trasher Magazine.”

• Also for TCJ, Isaac Odai reports on the 2025 edition of Portland’s Comix Thing, which took place in August, presenting photographs from the event — “The mall was filled with people when I arrived Saturday. Through the scent of salted pretzels, people were finding their way between shops, ice skating, a trading card show, and Comix Thing, taking place in an abandoned retail space a few stores down from Floating World. Holding the event in the mall connected the comics show to a larger Portland community. I spoke with a few attendees who had initially only come to the Lloyd Center for either ice skating or the trading card show, but had decided to check out Comix Thing because it was part of the mall.”

• From the TCJ archives, originally printed in 2005’s The Comics Journal Special Edition, Volume 5, comes an excerpt of Bob Levin’s essay on the life and work of cartoonist Vaughn Bode — “The New Frontier had America floating on a rising tide of hope and vigor. But Vaughn lived like someone in a backwater shack. Reading his diaries for these years for clues of how he would burst forth is like staring at a sparrow’s egg and trying to forecast a phoenix.”

• Finally for TCJ this week, Joana Mosi shares a fresh Cartoonist’s Diary, as artistic education, Kingdom Hearts, climate change, and youth fashion are all under consideration.

• For The New York Times, Maya Phillips reports from the de Young Museum’s Art of Manga exhibition, covering the contemporary boom for manga in overseas markets, and the pieces on display at the show.

• From last week’s New York Comic Con, over at ICv2, Milton Griepp presents a white paper on the contemporary market shifts for the comics industry, with sales on the rise at the same time as an (increasingly troubled) dismantling of a former distribution monopoly.

• Providing a creator perspective on the status quo of the comics industry 2024, the Cartoonist Cooperative presents the results of its second annual Comics Worker Survey, which was open for submissions from July-August of last year.

• Over at Shelfdust, Kathryn Hemmann writes on Cécile Brun and Olivier Pichard’s Onibi: Diary of a Yokai Ghost Hunter, considering the journey at the heart of the book in parallel with recent nostalgia-driven cultural trends in retro tech, abandoned houses, and analog horror.

• Print’s Steven Heller previews the upcoming Dispatches From the Literary Underground: Evergreen Review Covers and Essays 1957–1973, writing on the magazine’s history, and sharing some of the reproduced pages and covers to be found in Pat Thomas’ new book.

• This week’s edition of the Mindless Ones’ newsletter/incantation features, amongst other topics, a continued, increasingly less brief, history of British comics, this week out gazing back on Marvel UK’s MELTDOWN.

• From the world of open-access academia, for Cogent Arts and Humanities, Alvanitaa, Indah Fadhillab, and Syihaabul Hudaa write on the representation of sweets in comic strips from the Indonesian children’s magazine Bobo, examining visual and textual elements of the strips to analyse the cultural dynamics at play.

• For the Journal of Cleaner Production, Nora Delvendahl and Nina Langen present the results of a study involving the development of three comics to communicate links between food choices and biodiversity, and examining the effectiveness of such comics to influence reader behaviours.

• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as headlines flitted amongst sports, peace, and ICE.

Convent

— Anya Chalina (@anyachalina.bsky.social) 2025-09-24T15:58:16.714Z

No more links, because the nights are drawing in, and the internet switches off at sunset.

Poster for ZINEDUMP, a new Toronto zine fair! I'm one of the organizers for the event, and we are having our inaugural event on November 9th! We hope to see you there!For updates, please check our website or follow our instagram at zinedump.fyi

— Jenn Woodall (@funeralbeat.bsky.social) 2025-10-16T17:22:11.434Z