Writing the intro to this week’s links, below, in a lovely open green space, as the sun shines down on me and geese honk at me, which is almost enough to let one briefly forget about everything else in the world that’s going on and the resultant constant deluge of Daily Horrors, almost but not quite enough, so let’s skip the preamble and dive straight on down into some of that unceasing news.
still there
— Glacier Bay Books (@glacierbaybooks.com) 2025-04-11T16:16:21.521Z
This week’s news.
• Starting this week’s selection by picking up the conclusion (for now) of one of last week’s stories, as it was reported that the sale of Diamond Comic Distributors to Alliance Entertainment has now been approved, following a last-minute attempt to shift the sale to also-rans Universal Distribution and Ad Populum, with the specifics of the purchase price and ongoing operation of Diamond’s infrastructure still to be confirmed - there’s more on how we got to here at TCJ today from Brigid Alverson.
• News from the continent now, as the Asociación de críticos y divulgadores de cómic and Confederación Española de Gremios y Asociaciones de Libreros last week called for the resignation of the President of Spain’s Sectorial del Cómic, Alejandro Casasola, stating that the conclusion of a long running court case regarding Casasola’s infringement of pop culture event FicZone’s trademark, and Casasola’s failure to convene last year’s assembly of the Sectorial, where responses would have been given to complaints from Sectorial members following said court ruling, had “tarnished the public image of the group.”
• Comics prize news, as the Herb Block Foundation announced the winner of this year’s Herblock Prize for excellence in editorial cartooning, with Marty Two Bulls, Sr. taking home this year’s prize of $20,000, and Peter Kuper named as this year’s Finalist.
• Elsewhere, the Center for Cartoon Studies announced the winners of this year’s Cartoonist Studio Prize, with Özge Samanci winning the Best Long-Form Comic category for Evil Eyes Sea and Peony Gent winning the Best Short-Form Comic category for Autobiography Has Become a Stone in my Shoe.
Hello, MICE friends! It's the announcement you've been waiting for- MICE 2025's exhibition dates are here! The show will take place at Boston University's Fuller Building on December 6 and 7. Mark your calendars and keep on the lookout for upcoming application dates!
— Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (@massmice.bsky.social) 2025-04-16T15:50:46.434Z
This week’s reviews.
TCJ
• William Schwartz reviews the relative success of Philip Dolin and Molly Bernstein’s Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse — “The formalized biography of Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse understates the grim humor of the tradition that Spiegelman was writing in. At one point there's a discussion of how Robert Crumb pioneered this idea of comics that don't even have punchlines, which isn't exactly wrong, but grim absurdist humor works precisely because it goes beyond punchlines.”
• Tegan O’Neil reviews the solid magic of Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodríguez’s Zatanna: Bring Down the House — “If there’s an argument to be made for the continuance of the floppy pamphlet as a publishing format in the twenty-first century it must begin with the understanding that the magazine format remains an extraordinarily vast canvas for the conscientious cartoonist. We’re so used to the litany of arguments against Direct Market serialization that it can escape our attention that the people who still work in that format clearly have their own opinions on the matter.”
• Tom Shapira reviews the carried weights of Jaime Hernandez’s Life Drawing — “Bernie Krigstein once said something to the effect that in comics, in proper comics, every panel must be a work of art of its own while still contributing to the story. It is a standard at which many fail — panels are often just pieces of a larger whole — one that Krigstein himself failed at over and over again. But here, it is achieved. This was a moment when I stopped trying to understand the plot and began to feel it.”
AIPT
• Chris Coplan reviews the measured mania of Mike Marlow, Zach Howard, Steve Ellis, et al’s Moonshine Bigfoot #1.
• Michael Guerrero reviews the perfect balance of Dan Watters and Francesco Francavilla’s Nightwing #125.
• David Brooke reviews the fun remix of Steve Foxe, Luca Maresca, et al’s Superior Avengers #1.
The Arts STL
Sarah Boslaugh reviews the genius journey of Lomig’s John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude.
The Beat
• Joe Grunenwald reviews the solid heroics of DC’s Summer of Superman Special #1.
• Jordan Jennings reviews the brisk fun of Gerry Duggan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, et al’s Godzilla vs Hulk #1.
• D. Morris reviews the narrative acceleration of Jason Aaron, Juan Ferreyra, et al’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8.
• Tim Rooney reviews the smart grounding of Peter Milligan, Val Rodrigues, et al’s The Pale Knight #1.
• Zack Quaintance reviews the thoughtful confidence of Anders Nilsen’s Tongues, Volume 1.
• François Vigneault reviews the engaging protagonist of Jon Allen’s The Well.
• Sean reviews the brilliant questions of Paul Karasik, Lorenzo Mattotti, and David Mazzucchelli’s adaptation of Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy.
• Clyde Hall reviews the fascinating lure of Anthony Cleveland, Alex Cormack, et al’s Buried Long, Long Ago #1; and the opening bullseye of Patrick Kindlon, Maurizio Rosenzweig, et al’s Gehenna: Naked Aggression #1.
• Jared Bird reviews the timeless appeal of Leonardo Romero’s G.I. Joe – A Real American Hero: Spirit #1; and the worthwhile perspectives of Daniel Warren Johnson, Riley Rossmo, Daniel Warren Johnson, et al’s The Moon Is Following Us, Volume 1.
Broken Frontier
• Edward Picot reviews the absorbing surrealism of Nicholas J Woodhead’s WetNurse #1.
• Lindsay Pereira reviews the understated humour of Paul B. Rainey’s There’s No Time Like the Present.
Four Color Apocalypse
Ryan Carey reviews the artistic growth of Josh Pettinger’s Pleasure Beach #1.
From Cover to Cover
Scott Cederlund reviews the successful tease of DC’s Summer of Superman Special #1.
House to Astonish
Paul O’Brien has capsule reviews of Marvel Comics’ Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #17, Uncanny X-Men #13, Phoenix #10, Storm #7, and Laura Kinney: Wolverine #5.
The Los Angeles Times
Chris Vognar reviews the rich context of Dan Nadel’s Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life.
Publisher’s Weekly
Have a starred capsule review of the revealing insights of Dan Nadel’s Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life.
Solrad
Josh Bayer reviews the masterful storytelling of Christina Lee’s The Method and Object.
Yatta-tachi
AJ Mack reviews the exhausting frustrations of Shunpei Morita and Aldehyde’s You Talk Too Much, So Just Shut It Already, translated by Jordan Taylor.
wrecking crew
— Rev. Dr. Derek M Ballard PhD (@derekmballard.bsky.social) 2025-04-05T01:43:52.681Z
This week’s interviews.
TCJ
Chris Mautner interviews Dan Nadel about Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, entry points with Crumb’s work, the charisma of Crumb, and revelations from researching the book — “Susan Stern, Spain’s widow, said to me, “God, who on Earth is still hung up on being rejected by girls in high school? Like what is the deal?” And I wrote that to Robert and he was like, “I am.” I said, “Well, OK, but that's not the point. The point is you can't go through life with that as your prism, your lens on life. Now, of course, as it turns out, the world is now being run by men who hate women.”
AIPT
• David Brooke talks to Al Ewing about Detective Comics Annual, constructing the issue’s mystery, bringing Bruce Wayne to Yorkshire, and bat-themed tech.
• Corey Mintz interviews Ryan North about Fantastic Four, the relevance of Marvel's First Family in 2025, cutting down the character count, and the fun of particle science.
The Beat
• Deanna Destito speaks with Anthony Del Col and Stefan Tosheff about Romeo Vs Juliet: A Kill Shakespeare Adventure, and the continuing growth of the Kill Shakespeare series.
• Ollie Kaplan talks to Fieldmouse Press's Alex Hoffman about the uncertainty surrounding independent publishers in the current economic and political climate, and the support available to them.
The Bookseller
Maia Snow shares statements from the Comics Cultural Impact Collective’s Hannah Berry and Rhiannon Griffiths about calls for the formation of a UK Comics Fund of £1.5 million.
Broken Frontier
Andy Oliver speaks with Zen K. about Runaway Mayhem, comics origins, the influence of Naoki Urasawa, and creative processes.
Comic Book Club
Alex Zalben interviews Andrew Wheeler and Rye Hickman about Hey, Mary!, personal research for the story, and relative Papal standards.
Forbes
Rob Salkowitz speaks with Good Trouble's Andrew Aydin about the Appalachia Comics Project, and its aims to bring money into communities hit by Hurricane Helene.
In Common
Laura McCarthy talks to Craig Thompson about Ginseng Roots, the influence of Katsushika Hokusai, anthropomorphised ginseng, and the stressful nature of autobio.
KQED
Luke Tsai interviews Meggie Ramm about Batcat, the inspiration of the Bay Area's food scene, and reinforcing the existence of nonbinary people in the current political climate.
Library Journal
Thomas Batten speaks with Stan Sakai about Space Usagi: White Star Rising, the Bushido philosophy of Usagi, and planning ahead for the next decade of Usagi stories.
The New Yorker
Bruce Handy joins R. Crumb and Dan Nadel for a trip to the Whitney Museum of American Art ahead of September’s opening of the Sixties Surreal exhibition to discuss the art world and Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life.
Polygon
Susana Polo interviews James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh about Exquisite Corpses and the comic’s upcoming spin-off tabletop game; and Mark Waid, Joshua Williamson, and Dan Slott about Superman responsibilities.
Steven Heller speaks with James Loehr about the Frazetta Gallery Series of books, target audiences, and deluxe edition manufacturing costs.
TCAF is proud to champion comics as a vital art form. In this political climate, protecting the arts as a source of revolutionary self-expression has never been more important.But like many nonprofit arts orgs, TCAF is experiencing financial challenges.
— Toronto Comic Arts Festival (@torontocomics.bsky.social) 2025-04-09T20:35:13.749Z
This week’s features and longreads.
• Here at TCJ, RJ Casey greets a fresh slew of Arrivals and Departures, this month having read Chaia Startz’s SZNS #1, Rahel Suesskind’s Nona & Masha: Ingenious Rascals #2, and volume 1 of Joe Walsh’s The Shifting Ground — “Shifting Ground is a comic about the ability to change your mind and reconsider what your brain consumes and Walsh does this seemingly in real time on the page. Ultimately, Walsh posits that an artist, at the end of a project, ideally, should be a different person than the one who drew page one. I enjoyed every second I spent with these small snippets that I can only describe as Whitmanesque sequentials — meandering and exploratory and full of heart and brain in equal measure.”
• Also for TCJ, Steven Brower writes on the life and work of multifaceted artist Lionel Ziprin, following recent mention of Ziprin’s connection to one Robert Zimmerman — “He was a consumer of amphetamines and peyote, both legal at the time. He experienced lifelong hallucinations as the result of being over-anesthetized during a tonsillectomy as a child. As a result, he believed he could converse with the spirit world. He suffered from epilepsy and rheumatic fever as a boy and didn’t speak English until he was 10 years old.”
• Finally for TCJ this week, Chris Anthony Diaz reports from Greg and Fake’s recent Santos Sisters signing at Cape and Cowl — “In Oakland, the joint signing went on for over three hours with all four signing and sketching in everything the fans brought of their work and spoke with all individually at length! Greg and Fake brought their floppy back issue releases of the Santos Sisters as well as original art, t-shirts and giveaway stickers and flyers and were personable and graciously talked to all fan attendees.”
• For The Atlantic, Gal Beckerman profiles R. Crumb, writing on the cultural legacy of Crumb’s work, and the controversial nature of said work, as Dan Nadel’s Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life digs into the artist behind the art.
• For more on Crumb, Austin English shares thoughts on the reading of R. Crumb in the year 2025, over at the Domino Books blog.
• As Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse heads to streaming (more on that below), PBS’ Holly Snaith shares eight key works to bring readers and viewers up to speed.
• Over at GBH, Esteban Bustillos continues a look ahead to next year’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with a feature on the political cartooning (and apparent plagiarism) of Paul Revere.
• The Mindless Ones fire up a new writing-about-comics endeavour, as the crew’s inaugural weekly newsletter contains thoughts on Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman’s Absolute Wonder Woman and Al Ewing and Valentina Pinti’s Immortal Thor.
• Taking into account the current everything of it all, some writing on where comics might go from here, as E.B. Hutchins writes on fighting book bans and not rolling back DEI in comics, with Ruben Bolling’s Tom the Dancing Bug recently having also succinctly addressed the topic of DEI, and AIPT’s Chris Coplan writes on the realities of the viability of mainstream comics to operate as an industry.
• Over at Shelfdust, Veronique Emma Houxbois breaks the magician’s code and explains how the trick of Zatanna works, in the wider context of how DC’s multiverse itself has worked for various big-name writers of comics, all pulled from the hat of Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, and Sid Greene’s Justice League of America #51.
• Sent into the Links postbag, Four Color Sinners presents thoughts on what should and should not be included in the critical conversation surrounding Stan Lee.
• For Broken Frontier, Tom Murphy reports from last month’s Yo Comics! comics fair, and shares the enthusiasm shown by younger readers at events that cater for them.
• From the world of open-access academia, in Sequential Art Narrative in Education, Yannis Koukoulas presents a paper on the need for accurate terminology when analysing parody comics and recontextualised work.
• Mike Peterson rounds up the week’s editorial beat, over at The Daily Cartoonist, as the fix continues to be fully in.
View from the West coast of San Juan Island.Vancouver Island across the way.
— Paul Chadwick (@paulchadwick.bsky.social) 2025-04-18T03:20:03.477Z
This week’s audio/visual delights.
• Starting this week, as every week, with the return of the most weekly of podcasts, as Comic Books are Burning in Hell returned for a fireside chat between Chris Mautner, Joe McCulloch, Tucker Stone, Matt Seneca (eventually), Tim Hodler (surprisingly), and Dan Nadel on Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, receiving various corrections from Crumb, Crumb’s later body of work, the letters of Dave Sim, and what readers want from a Big Barda comic.
• The big comics documentary release of the year arrived on streaming this week, up on PBS’ website for a month, as Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolin’s Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse hit the web this week.
• Gil Roth also welcomed Dan Nadel to this week’s edition of The Virtual Memories Show, as they spoke about Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, the cultural legacy and importance to comics history of R. Crumb, and lessons learned from publishing and exhibition curation.
• Austin English hosted the latest meeting of the New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium, this week speaking to Chris Cajero Cilla about Feast of Grease, childhood comic shop visits, thoughts on serialisation in 2025, and putting memories on the page.
• Noah Van Sciver was joined by author, historian, and cartoonist Craig Yoe for a Cartoonist Chat this week, as they discussed Captain LOL and the Rubber Chicken, Yoe! Studio and Yoe Books and cartooning favourites, and breaking the rules of comics.
• The doors opened to House to Astonish once more, as Al Kennedy and Paul O’Brien dug into the specifics of the Comic Book UK trade association, upcoming crossovers for Archie Andrews and friends, and reviewed recent offerings from the Big Two.
• Closing out the week with discussion of Alliance’s eventual purchase of Diamond Comic Distributors, as David Harper and Heidi MacDonald rounded up the situation (pre-court ruling in Alliance’s favour) on this week’s Off Panel, and then MacDonald and the rest of the Publisher’s Weekly’s More to Come team covered the court’s confirmation of the sale and possible tariffs fallout.
NOT A HOAX! NOT A DREAM!* *(Well, maybe a dream.)Wanna be an Ignatz winning cartoonist, we’ve gotcha covered!Ignatz submissions are officially open from today, April 1st-May 31st.Only works published between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025 are eligible for the 2025 Ignatz Awards.Good luck! 🤞
— Small Press Expo (@smallpressexpo.bsky.social) 2025-04-01T13:15:56.473Z
No more links, as I have 72 hours to consume as much Easter-affiliated chocolate as humanly possible before the powers-that-be remove them from the shelves for another year.
My cover for ACTION COMICS 1088, out this July!
— Skylar Patridge (@skyepatridge.bsky.social) 2025-04-17T00:43:02.445Z
English (US) · 